The Psychological Structure of Creative Writing

Creative writing is defined as an open-end prose or poetic construction, that is intended to entertain rather than to impart information. Two aspects of writing are distinguished: the process of writing, and the quality of the product. Composition is conceptualized in information-processing terms, and the components of writing are used as a basis for the main concern of the present paper, product evaluation. The SOLO Taxonomy is proposed by the authors to evaluate the quality of learning, in terms of the structural complexity of the product. Five levels of writing structure are referred to: incoherent, linear, conventional, integrated, and metaphoric. Samples of creative writing of high school students are selected to illustrate each level. This analysis has implications for both the psychology and the teaching of writing.