Creative monsters

My quest for wanting to get students to think creatively about writing was a difficult one. Much of the scholarship on creativity and writing was only connected to creative writing--rather than writing creatively. The article I found was from the Writing Lab Newsletter, written by a former tutor from MU. She acknowledges the ideas students hold toward writing, that formal, technical language is the only way to write, and that they hate it. She addresses this concern by pushing for inventive, sensational language over technical (5). In addition to the usage of creative language, she suggests that students include a personal narratuve, write a few lines of poetry or connect the topic to pop culture when writing (6).

I cannot, in good conscience, ask my composition class to write poetry on rhetoric. Nor will I ever ask them to use sensational language in a paper and expect my assignments to be taken seriously. I hope to run with the idea that students will become engaged in their writing through creativity (5). Stimulation in the writing process leads to more focused, concise writing, which is the eventual goal for the course.

I'm not sure if Howard's methods are the way to do so. I was drawn to the article because I am currently a writing tutor, but I would like to see what the views of a teacher are on the writing creative subject, rather than a tutor's perspective. So how exactly to I get students to unleash their creative beasts without a rebellion?

Howard, Jennifer. "Unleashing the Beast: Creativity in Academic Writing." Writing Lab Newsletter 31.5 (2007): 5-7. http://www.writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v31/31.5.pdf.