Does fandom have positive influence?

[saifai]

I'm entirely fascinated by the whole concept of working in teams.  I just came back from a meeting with my learning team for school, and came back with some insights.  We all discussed the papers we just got back and compared our results. 

As it turns out, I scored about 15 percent higher than they did.  Why?  Well I followed the examples given in class for one.  For another thing though, I think learning for myself and from others in the fandom about writing a story has helped me.  I wrote this paper in very much the same style that I do for my stories and it had a positive result on my results.

I don't know if it's specifically fandom, or that I have more experience in writing than they do.  As a result though, my research methods have contributed a great amount.  I tend to make notes and outlines of what I read, at least when researching, so that I can have a better visual from which to understand the material.  I'm a visual learner, so it's just easiest for me.  I brought them my notes, and it turned out to be the model we're going to use for our final paper and presentation.  They were impressed.  I didn't know what to say, I just shrugged and said it's just how I do things.

For the final project then, I'll write the paper and pull together the examples.  They'll put together the powerpoint presentation and visual models to go with it.  They were concerned that they weren't doing enough.  I simply said, "I see this as a great payoff for me.  I don't want to have anything to do with the presentation or standing in front of that group of our peers.  So, I'll write the paper if y'all will present it to the class."  They shrugged and thought that was agreeable.

As I was driving home though, I began to see comparisons to how I've dealt with my research and writing assignments now as compared to how I did it ten years ago through my first stint in college.  Experience over the past ten years has helped I'm sure, but I really do think that my involvement with fandom has contributed.  I set out to learn more about writing stories.  It's not that I'm a great writer or anything, but just the process of exploring different ways of going about it and learning from others has helped me to improve the way I do things when it comes to non-fictional writing and research.

Does that make any sense? Or am I just blowing smoke here?

Comments

[ex-kyrieane267.livejournal.com]

Complete, perfect sense. I'm having a problem in my comp class right now because I feel that my writing methods are being deconstructed. I haven't done any kind of free writing or drafting in almost a year, I do it all in my head now. I make very loose outlines, mostly a word here with an arrow that goes to that word there, and I know exactly what I was thinking when I did it. In comp, I have to write everything down, and it's slowing me down immensely.

Right now we have peer review groups...tell me how well I'm doing with that concept, yeah? Anyway, we have to go over the drafts of two other students, and give feedback and suggestions. Hello, I don't beta for a reason! I do grammar and punctuation and the occasional word.

Ah, I've gone off topic, haven't I?

*smooch*

Good job, with that 15 points higher! You are a fantastic writer, and it's always nice to do something well for points!

[saifai.livejournal.com]

I see ya' there. Just a slight bit of difference between the way I do things and the rest of my classmates. Just so glad we don't have peer proofing. I'd go nuts.

And thanks for the compliment. *blushes*

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely right. Writing of any sort helps you become a better writer, even if it's writing that's not traditionally considered "academic," whatever that really means. The sorts of things that you describe doing for fics--outlining, note-taking, research--these are skills necessary to an academic writer. I definitely think that writing fanfiction is improving my writing overall. It's forced me to think more about description and sensory language which are often missing from academic papers. A really great academic paper doesn't just deliver information; it also contains evocative language.

Kudos to you for doing so well.

[saifai.livejournal.com]

A really great academic paper doesn't just deliver information; it also contains evocative language.

I think that's the difference. Adding that extra something that helps it flow better, much like you would in a traditional story format.

:)