Rationale for Write Your Own Adventure

Background Research

My Idea

Bibliography

Since the arrival of the personal computer, the way that we write has been changing. The first big change, of course, was the word processor. With this ingenious piece of programming, a student was given the freedom to write an essay in any order he sees fit; he can revise, change words, move words/sentences/paragraphs in the flick of a mouse, save the digital document indefinitely, and not have to worry about retyping everything every time he makes a change. (I must mention, here, that while working at Xlibris—the print-on-demand self-publishing company, not the library information system provider—I did speak with at least one aspiring author who did not understand this. This very nice older man did not save his document, but rather typed it, printed it out, and then closed the program, erasing the file completely, and requiring that any subsequent drafts be completely retyped.) This technological innovation made constant, continual, and immediate revision convenient and popular. Revision could theoretically (though usually not exclusively) be accomplished without pen and paper or confusing editorial notations. Leslie C. Perelman, director of writing across the curriculum and an associate dean of undergraduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes that because of the malleable nature of text in a digital environment, "the composing process has become very elastic" (Leibowitz, 1999). He explains that without the inevitable mess created by crossing out, rewriting, and inserting handwritten text, the author is free to "start a sentence and then go back and move things around" (ibid.).

Numerous studies conducted in the early nineties found that when using a computer to write, students would generally write more, write for longer stretches of time, and revise what they wrote more extensively, thus reducing the occurrence technical errors (Goldberg, Russell, & Cook, 2003, p.4). They further determined that reluctant readers and writers seemed especially motivated to write on computers, and would compose on the computer more often, for more time, and with more copious results than they would with pen and paper. (p. 17) There continues to be debate over whether word processing helps students to write better, although Goldberg, Russell, and Cook do claim that a meta-analysis of 15 sufficiently trustworthy studies confirmed that "students write higher-quality passages on the computer than with paper and pencil" (p.15).

Then, just as personal computers were becoming standard in the average household, along came Microsoft Word with its built-in spellchecker, grammar checker, and thesaurus. The use of varied vocabulary resulted, often incorrectly, from the overuse of the thesaurus; and despite the innumerable errors that the spellchecker and grammar checker do not and cannot catch, the incidences of technical errors made by those who use both these built-in features and provide human revision have dwindled considerably.

The onslaught of the internet, however, has provided a whole slew of new considerations in the development of students' writing skills. The style of online communication—where, arguably, students today are the most prolific—is markedly different from the style of both literary and academic writing and communication. To be rhetorically effective, emails, web pages, and interpersonal chat must tend towards the brief, concise, and even terse. In electronic communications, speed is a primary issue; "concern for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation is more than an unnecessary encumbrance to interaction; it is obtrusive and pedantic. Creative spellings, acronyms, and abbreviations are welcomed, and conventional markers of sentence boundaries are usually superfluous" (Trupe, 2002).

Some educators and intellectuals worry that the casual nature of the online writing environment make it difficult for students to adjust to the formal style required in academic writing. Opinions posted in chats, because of the assumptions implied by the context of surrounding posts, "lack the evidence, the supporting detail, and the contextualizing information required" in even the most rudimentary academic essay (Trupe, 2002). Mardziah Abdullah explains that postings, emails, and other online communications are constructed using an "additive style," similar in structure to the speech of a small child: "And this happened. And then that. And so then this." This online communication style unfortunately "translates into poor structure" when attempted in a more formal composition" (Abdullah, 2003).

A major reason for collaborative writing is the way it alleviates "the dysfunctional anxiety of the individual solitary student when confronted with a blank piece of paper" (Sutherland, 1999, p. 157). Yet, the act of collaboration itself can also cause anxiety. Even adults, who are much more secure than children with their abilities as writers, are reluctant to share with their peers. Gabrielle Cliff Hodges relates how her students, who are all studying to be English teachers, react to the prospect of collaborating on a creative composition in class. These teachers-in-training sometimes find it embarrassing to share their three sentences with the rest of the group; they consider it a "painful experience" and worry about "exposing [their] shortcomings" (Hodges, 2002, p. 6). This fear, this reluctance to share, can be effectively reduced and even eliminated by the anonymity of the internet.

But more important than the internet's ability to foster anonymity, sharing compositions on the web provides the opportunity to share one's work with students and readers around the world. One of the strongest arguments for the internet as a positive influence on writing skill is the amount of motivation that it engenders in young writers. When students complete a written assignment for class, Diane Davis (professor of rhetoric at the University of Iowa) explains, they understand that "…when it comes down to it, the real audience is the teacher—and the teacher is not a very interesting audience" (Liebowitz, 1999). With the means to communicate with an infinitely large audience, student writers tend to work harder, connecting the process of writing with a clearly-defined purpose of writing for an audience (Sutherland, 1999, p. 156).

Since the storytelling "revival" of the past few decades, literary activities have increasingly been seen as social, rather than solitary, activities. Internet postings, for example, encourage reader response and evaluation, allowing writers to share their work with each other, commenting and editing at will. Consequently, with the understanding that reader response is influential (Sunderland, 1999, p. 155), readers often take an active role in the organizational construction of the websites they visit (Trupe, 2002). With the possibility of receiving responses from around the world, students "pay more attention to how they can best express their ideas, and they worry about how poorly written prose may look to their readers" (Liebowitz, 1999). This opportunity to share thoughts online, either synchronously or asynchronously, is also an excellent motivator of and outlet for ESL students, who may not be comfortable speaking the language, but feel more comfortable when afforded even a slight delay with which to proofread and revise their thoughts (Kupelian, 2001).

Websites tend to be interactive, and skilled web-writers understand the internet's potential as a "new rhetorical space that provides options for using non-linear, alternative structures, making it necessary for them to anticipate how audiences might physically navigate through their hypertext compositions" (Abdullah, 2003, paraphrased from Mason, J. S. From Gutenberg's galaxy to Cyberspace: The transforming power of electronic hypertext. Toronto: CITD Press, 2002). Library and literacy literature both often refer to the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a series that, although not literary masterpieces by any means, young people may enjoy and should be encouraged to read (because, then, "at least they're reading something"). Even I (who currently read predominantly dead authors) fondly reminisce about those formulaic, "frivolous" books. While contemplating aimlessly one day, it occurred to me that the format of Choose Your Own Adventure books is not unlike the internet's hypertext environment. Then I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to read and write a Choose Your Own Adventure book online?!"

One of the points that was brought up in class (LSC 533, Digital Resources for Children and Young Adults) was that the computer and computer-based activities are so popular because they are, supposedly, one of the only things which a child can control. This is demonstrated beautifully in the websites that support and publish stories, articles, and artwork by kids for other kids to view. CyberKids ( http://www.cyberkids.com) publishes stories, poems, articles, and reviews, for kids between 7 and 12, and even sends new products to registered reviewers. At Kidsnews.com (http://www.kidnews.com) young people can publish poetry, stories, articles, opinion. TeenInk ( http://teenink.com) publishes work by young adults, and, unlike most of the other sites, even has a selection and editing process; however, TeenInk assumes ownership of everything that they decide to publish even though, like all of the sites I saw, it does not compensate contributors. These sites allow kids to read, write, respond, and communicate with other young writers; they can control their environment, and, as Sunderland says, there responses are influential (1999, p. 155).

Other sites allow for collaboration. At http://dommy.com/az2nzau/docs/qoln_paper.pdf, where a tutorial helps the user write an original hero myth online, they explain, "The art of telling stories is interactive, common to every world culture, and long pre-dates the concept of interactive computer applications. A story told is not only shaped by the skills of the teller but also by the participation of the listeners." The Internet Project concept is one of the largest contributors to collaboration; classes from opposite sides of the globe share stories, histories, ideas, and problems. Classes and students from all over the world can pool their resources to create projects much larger than they could produce on their own. Kids Space (http://www.kids-space.org/index.html) allows children ages 16 and under to share stories and pictures, and combine stories and artwork to create picture books. At KidPub (http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub the "listeners" can add a paragraph or two to a "neverending story." It seems to me that the internet offers kids excellent resources for all kinds of creative and collaborative expression, but has very little to offer in the potentially superbly collaborative expression found in the Choose Your Own Adventure book format.

To be fair, there are several sites on the web that do at least pretend to mimic the format of the books. Highlights offers "Goofus and Gallant: Story Adventure" (http://www.highlightskids.com/guestarea/h3gStorySoup/GoofusandGallant/h1gng26.htm), where the reader can take the advice of either Goofus or Gallant at various points in the story. PBS supports a Create Your Own Adventure page ("http://www.pbs.org/kratts/crazy/madlibs/), although the only creating that takes place is in the form of MadLibs, which, of course, is something else entirely. The idea has also been converted into a form of internet game, found at http://www.myadventuregame.com, among others. Users can play and create the games, but they allow for very little literary creativity, with a choice every sentence or two, and a goal of choosing the "correct" path. Furthermore, this site, though certainly creative in its design, is not geared toward younger readers and writers. The Addventurers ( http://www.addventure.com/) expands on the idea, and allows readers to add to stories that are in progress, but, again the intended audience is older, and literary style is not emphasized.

The most admirable attempt that I found, by far, was by Niki LeBoeuf-Little, and can be found at http://www.littlebull.com/Story/rules.php. Although I intend to approach my site from a more literary standpoint, there are a lot of features on hers that I would love to be able to include, such as the membership and discussion opportunities, had I the time to run such a site. Her format, however, allows for the more involved, writing-intensive chapter-structure that I intend to use, although she maintains the second person style of the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, while my site will encourage users to experiment with conventional literary styles, simply enhanced by the available technology.

The website is starting out small, with only three stories at three different levels: Chapter Book, Young Adult Book, and Novel. As the site expands, I will extend the table of contents and the story levels and even genres as necessary. My hope is that this site will help creative young people express themselves, think critically about how stories are put together, and be able to contribute to works of some length without having to worry about writer's block. I am really excited about this idea, and I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to contribute. (Although the site is intended for children, any help I can get with the writing at this early date would be most appreciated!)

Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati. The Impact of Electronic Communication on Writing. ERIC Digest. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse, 2003.

Goldberg, A., Russell, M., & Cook, A. "The Effect of Computers on Student Writing: A meta-Analysis of Studies from 1992-2002." The Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment 2, no. 2 (2003). Available online at http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/pdf/v2n1%5fjtla.pdf.

Hodges, Gabrielle Cliff. "Learning Through Collaborative Writing." Reading 36, no. 1 (2002), 4-10.

Kupelian, M. "The Use of E-mail in the L2 Classroom: An Overview." Second Language Learning & Teaching, 2001. Available online at: http://www.usq.edu.au/opacs/sllt/1-1/Kupelian01.htm

Leibowitz, Wendy R.. "Technology Transforms Writing and the Teaching of Writing." Chronicle of Higher Education 46, no. 14 (1999): A67-A68.

Sutherland, Jennifer A. and Keith J. Topping. "Collaborative Writing in eight-year-olds: comparing cross-ability fixed role and same-ability reciprocal role pairing." Journal of Research in Reading 22, no. 2 (1999), p. 154-179. Available online on Ebscohost.com

Trupe, Alice J. "Academic Literacy in a Wired World: Redefining Genres for College Writing Courses," 2002. Available online at http://www.bridgewater.edu/~atrupe/AcadLit/WiredWorld.htm