EH 260: Fall Proposal Final Draft

(1) Introduction to site: I plan to research fan fiction and affinity spaces. More specifically, I wish to study how fan fiction writing allows for students to gain more skill and technique in their writing through fan fiction as a new literacy. I also wish to study how fan fiction affinity spaces also further the writer’s skill and technique by having other writers to help them and collaborate on projects. I plan to determine which students are writers of fan fiction and which are traditional writers by having a group of students take a poll of which style they prefer. I think this is an important topic to study because despite its growing popularity, fanfiction is not considered as a serious type of writing or to have an actual purpose. I feel this study would help to determine that fan fiction is not a waste of time, it helps to advance skills in writing.

(2) Explore Assumptions or Commonly Held Assumptions about Topic: Fanfiction writing is commonly seen as illegitimate writing and a waste of time. This negative view of fan fiction stems from how the writers often compile facts and story lines from multiple different artifacts of pop culture and compile them into one story. The negative views of fanfiction limits other’s perspective on fanfiction. Fanfiction is not taught or discussed in schools because it is not seen as serious or useful; however, while these writers do use components of from others’ work, their stories are completely new and original. Writers of fan fiction blend several ideas from different sources together to create something completely new. Writers of fan fiction are gaining skills, technique, and experience beyond what they learn in the classroom. They write complex and new stories from multiple bits of other stories, and they often collaborate and build upon other fan fiction stories in their community. The fan fiction affinity space is a place where writers can group together to help and learn from each other.

(3) Explanation of How I See Research: Despite how skilled writers of fan fiction are and despite how fanfictions is often considered as a new literacy, students are still not learning about fanfiction writing or their techniques in school. Many writers of fanfiction have more skill and proficiency in their writing than those who do not write fanfiction. I want to further explore how much fanfiction actually affects the skills of students’ writing. Why are techniques of writers of fanfiction not studied in school? How much of a difference is there between writers of fanfiction and traditional writers? How do fanfiction affinity spaces affect students’ writing? Why is fanfiction, as a new literacy, not taken seriously?

(4) Primary-data Research Plan I plan to study 10 students total. I plan to study four high school students and four college students and their writing. Particularly, I plan to study two traditional writers at the high school level and to two traditional writers at the college level. I also plan to study two fanfiction writers at the high school level and two fanfiction writers at the college level. I also plan to study one student that writes in both styles at the highschool level and one student that writes in both styles at the college level. I plan to study these students’ writing for 3 months. After the study is complete, I plan to take my results and compare and contrast the skills portrayed and which style of writing is more tailored to the students’ learning of writing efficiently and correctly. The process of evaluating the growth of the students as writers, will involve me studying pieces of their writing from before the study begins and pieces of their writing after the study has ended. I also plan to study the students’ participation and communication in fanfiction affinity spaces, such as on Wattpad. I plan to study how the students’ learn and grow as writers through the help of others in fan fiction affinity spaces through the study of their writing.

(5) Types of existing research to use for insight One supporter of fanfiction as a new literacy is Angela Thomas. Thomas in her chapter, “Blurring and Breaking through the Boundaries of Narrative, Literacy, and Identity in Adolescent Fan Fiction,” praises the skill of fanfiction writers, as well as providing context on the debate on how fanfiction improves the skill of writers by quoting other’s work and by providing her own study of students’ writing. Thomas quotes Rebecca Black who argues that fan fiction “enables native and non-native speaking fans from all over the globe to meet online to share, critique, and build upon each other’s fictions” (Thomas 137). Thomas also quotes Henry Jenkins who says that “not everything that kids learn from pop culture is bad for them: some of the best writing instruction takes place outside the classroom. (Jenkins 2004, no page.)” (Thomas 138). Thomas also mentions the students that she studied “far exceed traditional literacy, and, indeed, go beyond the talk of ‘skill’. Tiana and Jandalf negotiate the affordances of the internet and exploit them to their fullest extent, to collaboratively construct rich narrative worlds and deeply satisfying friendship.” (Thomas 163). Overall, Thomas begs the question

“Who decides what knowledge is legitimate and authentic, which literacies

are privileged and which are stigmatizes, and which literary practices are

valued while others are trivialized? In my work as an English educator

and researcher of pop culture I have become acutely aware of what young

people are capable of in their own ‘affinity spaces’ (Gee, 200) when they share

a common passion and have opportunities to collaborate, play, and explore,

new worlds of possibilities.” (Thomas 162-163).

Another supporter of fanfiction as a new literacy is Rebecca W. Black. In her writing, “Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination,” Black claims that fanfiction as a new literacy

can be useful in promoting learning. According to Black, fanfiction writing includes sophisticated forms of literacy that can be used to help promote in-class learning. Black also describes the positive effects of affinity spaces on students and their writing when she says,

“By writing with partners and in groups, these youth engaged in collective

practices of imagination in which they composed with an awareness of the

ideas, perspectives and previous contributions of the other community

members. Moreover, in terms of literacy, they were able to engage in

purposeful, composition-related interactions, develop metacognitive strategies

for monitoring their language use, and gain insight into the social nature of

writing (Black, 2008),” (Black 421).

Other contributors to the study of fan fiction affinity spaces are Jen Scott Curwood, Alecia Marie Magnifico, and Jayne C Lammers in their writing, “Writing in the Wild: Writers’ Motivation in Fan-Based Affinity Space.” In this work, it is said that “Fan-based affinity spaces motivate young adults to write because they offer multiple modes of representation, diverse pathways to participations, and an authentic audience.” (Lammers, “Writing in the Wild: Writers' Motivation”). This writing also says that “These out-of-school spaces can offer youth new purposes, modes, and tools for their written work.” (Lammers, “Writing in the Wild: Writers' Motivation”). Also providing supporting evidence to fan fiction writing and fan fiction affinity spaces is Kevin Roozen’s “‘Fan Fic-ing’ English Studies: A Case Study Exploring the Interplay of Vernacular Literacies and Disciplinary Engagement,” where he discusses a study of a student’s “literate engagements with English Studies and fanfiction and related fanart over her two years in an MA program.” (Roozen 136). Roozen mentions how,

“Russell called for research that addressed, empirically, theoretically,

and methodologically, ‘how doing school, doing work, and doing the other

(political, familial, recreational, etc.) things in our lives are made of come

together through the meditation of writing’ as well as ‘the ways people change

as writers ... as they move within and among various social practices.

(p. 505).” (Roozen 137).

Also, in Roozen’s study of a student, he mentions that,

“Her computer and access to the internet provided Kate with a way to read

others’ fanfic and make her own available to others. As a result, her fan

fiction expanded exponentially over the next few years as she wrote and

posted stories for an increasing number of fandoms.” (Roozen 144).

Finally, there is Henry Jenkins’s “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century,” where he discusses participatory culture, affinity spaces, and new literacies. Jenkins says,

“We must integrate these new knowledge cultures into our schools, not

only through group work but also through long-distance collaborations

across different learning communities. Students should discover what it is like

to contribute their own expertise to a process that involves many intelligences,

a process they encounter readily in their participation in fan discussion lists

or blogging. Indeed, this disparate collaboration may be the most radical

element of new literacies: they enable collaboration and knowledge-sharing

with large-scale communities that may never personally interact. Schools

are currently still training autonomous problem solvers, whereas as students

enter the workplace, they are increasingly being asked to work in teams,

drawing on different sets of expertise, and collaborating to solve

problems.” (Jenkins 21).

Jenkins also mentions that he and other researchers, such as Rebecca Black, argue that,

“the new digital cultures provide support systems to help youth improve their

core competencies as readers and writers. They may provide opportunities,

for example, through blogs or live journals, for young people to receive

feedback on their writing and to gain experience in communication with a

larger public, experiences that might once have been restricted to

student journalists. Even traditional literacies must change to reflect the

media change taking place. Youth must expand their required competencies,

not push aside old skills to make room for the new.” (Jenkins 19).

(6) Why Consideration of Topic Matters My study could possibly change the way that students are taught to write in school. If the results of my study show that fanfiction and fanfiction affinity spaces do indeed advance a student’s writing skills and techniques, students may then begin to be taught to write differently. The results of my study could change the way we go about teaching students to write, and could effectively make them better writers and help them to better understand the writing process as a whole. This study could help to discover why it has been found by others that fanfiction as a new literacy is not just a waste of time, it helps students to become better writers. This study also helps to emphasize the importance of fanfiction as a new literacy.

Works Cited

Black, Rebecca W. “Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination.” Research in the Teaching of English,​ vol. 43, no. 4, 2009, pp. 397–425. ​

JSTOR,​ www.jstor.org/stable/27784341.

Jenkins, Henry, and Ravi Purushotma. ​Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:

Media Education for the 21st Century​. MIT Press, 2009.

Lammers, Jayne C., et al. “Writing in the Wild: Writers' Motivation in Fan-.” International Literacy Association (ILA)​, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,

2 May 2013, ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/JAAL.192.

Lankshear, Colin, et al. “Sampling ‘the New’ in New .” ​ A New Literacies Sampler,​ by Michele Knobel, vol. 29, P. Lang, 2007, pp. 1–24.

Roozen, Kevin. ​“Fan Fic-Ing” English Studies: A Case Study Exploring the Interplay of

Vernacular Literacies and Disciplinary Engagement​. Nov. 2009.

Thomas, Angela. “Blurring and Breaking through the Boundaries of Narrative, Literacy,

and Identity in Adolescent Fan Fiction.” ​A New Literacies Sampler​,

by Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, vol. 29, P. Lang, 2007, pp. 136–166