Practicing creative writing had an incredible impact on a group of seventh-grade students’ writing abilities and dispositions. Creative writing could do the same for you. 

What is the secret to helping kids improve their writing skills? How can teachers help students become more interested in writing? Motivating students to write at high levels can be hard, and even professional writers can feel stuck or uninterested at times. One way to unlock success in and passion for writing may be to do creative writing exercises. 

THE RESEARCH 

In the 2015 study “Effects of Creative Writing Activities on Students’ Achievement in Writing, Writing Dispositions and Attitude to English,” Sukran Tok and Anil Kandemir tested the power of creative writing. They began by giving thirty-one seventh-grade students a preliminary writing activity in which each student wrote briefly about the life of someone they knew well. Tok and Kandemir scored the students’ writing based on its content, organization, language use, and mechanics. The students also completed a Likert scale questionnaire to measure their attitudes and dispositions toward writing.

Tok and Kandemir then had the students complete four creative writing exercises. After completing all the exercises, the students repeated the first writing activity. Tok and Kandemir scored the writing, and the students completed the questionnaire again. The researchers found that the students’ second writing scores were significantly higher than their first. The students’ scores on the writing disposition questionnaire had also significantly improved. The average scores for both the writing score and the writing disposition test were ten points higher. 

Although the study only lasted four weeks, the creative writing activities seemed to have a profound effect on increasing the students’ skills and attitudes toward writing. Tok and Kandemir explained, “Based on these results, it can be suggested that creative writing activities can be used in 7th grade English course[s] to increase students’ achievement in writing skill and [lead] them to write more.”

“Based on these results, it can be suggested that creative writing activities can be used in 7th grade English course[s] to increase students’ achievement in writing skill and lead them to write more.”

—Sukran Tok and Anil Kandemir (2015)

THE IMPLICATIONS

These results are especially meaningful for educators who are interested in helping students improve their writing skills and increase their interest in writing. Although the sample size of the research is limited in scope to thirty-one students and the experimental design could have benefited from a control group, the results suggest that creative writing exercises could benefit writers who want to increase their passion for writing. 

To learn more about the power of creative writing, read the full article: 

Tok, Sukran, and Anil Kandemir. 2015. “Effects of Creative Writing Activities on Students’ Achievement in Writing, Writing Dispositions and Attitude to English.” Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences 174: 1635–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.815.

—Emma Freestone, Editing Research

FEATURE IMAGE BY JESWIN THOMAS

Find more research

Read Elizabeth Gallacher’s Editing Research article to learn more about creative writing: “Diving into Creative Writing Technicalities.”

Read David McVey’s (2008) article to learn more about how creative writing relates to all types of writing: “Why All Writing Is Creative Writing.” Innovations in Education and Teaching International 45 (3). https://doi.org/10.1080/14703290802176204.