Through a qualitative research design, this study explored how eight talented young creative writers related to their craft. The construct-relationship with writing‖ emerged as the study's overarching theme. This theme includes students' influences, goals, values, identity, and emotions as these relate to writing. The findings indicated that identity development and the expression of an authentic self were central to students' relationships with writing. Multiple positive contextual influences led students to view writing as a means to understand and express themselves. Students valued academic writing, but felt that creative writing was more congruent with their emotions, goals, and values. Overall, students' relationships with writing can be described as positive, personal, and context-dependent. Creative writers are described as having depression, mania, and resilience in a literature review focusing on creative writers' psychological makeup (Kohanyi, 2005); they are also described as risk takers, resilient, stubborn, persistent, good at self promotion (Piirto, 1992 in Olszewski-Kubilius & Whalen, 2000) and solitary as children (Gallo, 1994). A literature review of the research about creative writers found that internal variables such as personality, motivation, and intelligence were more salient than environmental variables (Kaufman, 2002). Environmental factors have also been offered to explain writing talent. Sixtyseven percent of fiction and poetry writers described their childhood homes as unhappy, compared to 44% of eminent people (Goertzel, Goertzel, &Goertzel, 1978). In the study of eminent personalities, 70% of literary figures did not like school or do well in school (Goertzel, Goertzel & Goertzel, 1978), for reasons described earlier in the rationale section. However, in a more recent study, Piirto (2002) examined the lives of 80 male and 80 female contemporary American writers through biographical and correspondence data and found that many of the writers evidenced high academic achievement, especially in the area of writing. The difference in the two studies may stem from the fact that Piirto's study examines a different sample of writers, by focusing only on contemporary American authors. Piirto (2002) also identified other environmental factors; writers had access to mentors, lived in New York City, attended prestigious colleges and majored in English Literature. Male writers had often served in the military, while women writers had a higher than average prevalence of divorce. Simonton's (1986) research suggests that writers tend to be from cities, have small, non-religious families with non-supportive fathers and generally unhappy home environments. Many experienced severe trauma such as the loss of a parent, alcoholic parents, or serious illness, either their own or their parents' (Olszewski-Kubilius & Whalen, 2000). College, however, was a different story, with writers developing friendships with other writers and attending readings with writer friends (Piirto, 1998). Models. While factors su...

Youth with writing talent display distinguishing characteristics and those characteristics can be supported and enhanced using Web 2.0 tools. Online writing communities can help students with writing talent connect with other avid writers and can offer motivational challenges such as contests and publication opportunities. Resources are available for writers of varying ages and interests; features include moderated discussions and commenting, online and hard-copy publication options, peer models, multimedia integration, as well as collaboration.

No abstract

This comparative study identified the differences between gifted children's offline and online peer feedback within a summer talented writer's workshop. Researchers analyzed ten students' writings for degrees of critical thinking evident in their feedback. Online feedback included students' writings in social writing sites Storybird.com and KidBlog. Offline feedback was submitted on a teacher designed rubric, and then incorporated into a revised manuscript using Microsoft Word. Critical thinking was defined as the three upper tiers of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis, and evaluation, and synthesis. Each comment in students' online and offline feedback was coded according to one of the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. In addition, interpretative summaries were written describing how students used feedback within each category. Results indicated that critical thinking (specifically analysis and evaluation) was more evident in the responses that were structured opposed to those that were in the social media contexts. There was also evidence of an increased amount of informal dialogue in the online feedback opposed to the structured feedback. Online writing technologies are seen to be most successful when teachers' expectations for critical thinking and students' desire for informal positive feedback are combined; this success depends on the presence of a skilled teacher and supportive peers, rather than on the presence of a specific technology tool.

This collective case study represents 10 gifted children’s relationships with writing. The construct “relationship with writing” includes children’s influences, goals, values, identity, and emotions connected to writing. Overall, these students’ relationships with writing can be described as creative, responsible, and mimetic. Students benefit from intensive home enrichment. They have identities as “good students,” and these identities are compatible with efficient work habits, intrinsic motivation, and mastery goals. Practical implications include the need for diverse and complex writing models that will help young writers begin the transition from mini-c creativity to more advanced writing, as well as the need to provide more challenging revision tasks.