3. Enhancing Creative Writing through Poetry: An action research project-T Sathya & Dr R Saravana Selvan

ENHANCING CREATIVE WRITING THROUGH POETRY – AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

T. Sathya & Dr. R. Saravana Selvan, Department of

English & Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.

E-mail: sathyathangavel.89@gmail.com & raja_saravanan@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT

In this competitive world, creativity plays a vital role in proving one’s unique quality. Creativity means originality of thoughts and ideas that emerge naturally and spontaneously. The style of creative writing focuses on writing from emotions and thoughts rather than just giving information. One who has creative skills can win the minds and hearts of anyone in this competitive world. No skills can be taught in isolation; activities develop creative writing along with other skills such as creative thinking, decision making and vocabulary. This paper aims to show through an action research project how poetry helps to enhance the creative writing of the learners in an effective way, as poetry is a form of art, in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities.

Introduction

Creativity is an art, which is essential to express uniqueness to compete in this competitive world. Creativity means originality of thoughts and ideas that emerge naturally and spontaneously. It lends a hand to the minds to attain a better and brighter career. Creativity can be channelized into two courses of action (See Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Manifestations of Creativity

Creative writing is writing that goes outside the bounds of normal writing and comprises a wide array of writing types. Everything from poetic works to works of nonfiction can be found in the creative writing genre. The style of creative writing focuses on writing from emotions and thoughts rather than just giving information. Any writing that expresses emotions or expresses free thinking falls into the category of creative writing. Poetry is one of the forms of creative writing.

Action Research

An action research was undertaken by the researchers with the aim of improving the creative writing of I M.A. English Literature students of Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. The sample of the study comprised 40 students. The sample included both boys and girls. The research followed the action research cycle shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Action Research Cycle

Objectives

The action research had the following objectives:

1. To enhance the creative writing of the learners through poetry

2. To assess their creative writing

3. To find out the effectiveness of poetry in enhancing the creative writing

Poetry

Poetry is a form of art, in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities. It is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language so as to evoke an emotional response by exciting pleasure through beautiful, imaginative and elevated thoughts. There are numerous poets in English literature as well as in American Literature, who have proved and expressed their unique creativity in an innovative manner. Poetry can be used as a tool to enhance creative writing of the learners.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is a well known American poet, who mostly lived an introverted and reclusive life and poetry paved a way to express her creativity and made her an extrovert in writing. She had published nearly eight hundred poems. Her poems were inimitable, which contained unconventional capitalization and punctuation.

The speaker of the poem ‘Because I Could Not Stop for Death’ is a girl whose marriage proposal has been confirmed. Her fiancé (the boy fixed for marriage) is death. Death, in the form of a gentleman suitor, stops to pick up the speaker and take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage. They move along at a pretty relaxed pace and the speaker seems completely at ease with the gentleman. As they pass through the town, she sees children at play, fields of grain, and the setting sun. The grave reminds the speaker of her own marriage with death. The grave is a “Swelling of the Ground” under which there must be room for the body to rest. The surface looked like a roof to the house of the dead. There they paused for a while. In the final stanza, the speaker's ride with Death that took place centuries ago is found. But it seems like just the previous day when she first got the feeling that horse heads pointed toward "Eternity” and signalled the passage from life to death and to an eternal life.

Methodology

Activity-Based Language Teaching is one of the best and successful methods to develop the language skills of the learners. Activity is a practical approach to comprehend and evaluate the level of the learners. Entry test was conducted to assess the learners’ level in creative writing. Activities were designed by the researchers to discern their comprehension level as well as creative writing. Exit test was conducted to assess their level of creative writing at the end of the study. The following activities were implemented inside the classroom to enhance the creative writing skill of the learners (See Table 1 below).

Table 1 – Details of Activities Used

DATA ANALYSIS

The collected data was analyzed using “Katie Sauvain’s Tool to Assess Creative Writing”. The assessment was based on four criteria, namely Message, Organization, Originality, Clarity and Conventions on a four-point scale.

Results

Figure 4 – Students’ Performance Level in Entry and Exit Tests

Findings

The findings of the action research are as follows:

1. The learners found it easy and interesting to improve their creative writing through activities.

2. Poetry acted as a platform to enhance their creative writing.

3. The performance level of the learners in the exit test was higher than their performance level in the entry test.

Summary

Thus, poetry plays a vital role in teaching language skills to the learners. Poetry can be used as an effective technique to improve the creative writing of the learners. One who has creative skills can win the minds and hearts of anyone in this competitive world. No skills can be taught in isolation; the activities develop the creative writing along with other skills such as creative thinking, decision making and vocabulary. Activity is just a game to the learners, so it lends an element of fun in acquiring the language skills.

References

Marshall, Sybil. (1974). Creative writing. Macmillan Education Ltd.

Morley, David. (2008). The Cambridge introduction to creative writing. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.