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Article published In: Scientific Study of Literature
Vol. 10:1 (2020) ► pp.98–134

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Science fiction prototyping’s features and impact on college students’ perceptions of writing

An applied literariness study

 | University of Wisconsin-Stout
Published online: 9 December 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.20002.nic
Abstract
The present study develops an applied literariness study by exploring both the features, and the impact, of science fiction prototyping (SFP) on college students’ perceptions of disciplinary, or field-specific, writing. College students (N = 83), who were English (n = 35) or STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) majors (n = 48), composed micro-science fiction prototyping (µSFP), a genre that blends creative and science writing. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015) analysis demonstrated that, aside from a more positive average emotional tone, µSFP written fell psycho-linguistically between personal and science writing. English and STEM majors’ µSFP stories were similar in terms of analytical levels, clout, authenticity, emotional tone, and use of words. Mann-Whitney U tests indicated that, while English majors evaluated creative writing as significantly more relevant to their future career goals pre-intervention than did STEM majors (p = .04, r = .23), this difference vanished post-intervention. Additionally, while STEM majors evaluated science writing as significantly more worth their time to study (p = .042, r = .22) and relevant to their major (p = .01, r = .28) pre-intervention than did English majors, these differences disappeared post-intervention. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests indicated that, while English majors’ ownership and evaluation of science and creative writing did not change, STEM majors’ evaluations of creative writing as relevant to their majors and future careers were significantly higher post-intervention (p = .015, r = .35)
Article outline
  • Applied literariness and science fiction
  • Science fiction prototyping
  • Persistence and meaningful writing
  • English and STEM majors
  • Research questions
  • Methods
    • Research design
  • Participants
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis
  • Results
    • Research question 1: Textual and psycholinguistic features of SFP
    • Research question 2: English and STEM majors’ writing ownership
    • Research question 3: English and STEM majors’ writing evaluation
    • Research question 4: Pre- and Post-SFP writing evaluation
      • English majors
      • STEM majors
    • Research question 5: Pre- and Post-SFP writing ownership
      • English majors
      • STEM majors
    • Summary of results
  • Discussion
    • Limitations
  • Conclusion
    • Future research
  • References
References (94)
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