Measuring the Creative Writing Skills of EFL University Students

Abstract

Creative writing is the expression of ideas and thoughts in a manner that is unique to the author. The aims of the study are: determine the level of fourth-year students' creative writing abilities in the Department of English, Colleges of Education, and determine whether "there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of students from the College of Education for Women and the College of Education for Humanities". The hypothesis of this study are: there are no "statistically significant differences in the average creative writing grades of university students studying English as a foreign language", and there is a statistically "significant association between the average grades of fourth-year students in the Department of English at the College of Education for Humanities and the College of Education for Women" in terms of their creative writing abilities. The sample of the study is the students of the fourth stage in the Department of English. The research’s tool is a diagnostic test to measure students’ creative writing. The researcher concludes that creative writing involves adding one's own "style" to writing and beyond the usual bounds of academic or other technical types of literature. Creative writing is an expression of one's unique views, the emotions it evokes, and the heightened sensitivity one develops from exposure to human events. Creative writing involves creativity rather than copying, and originality rather than repetition. It depends on the availability of each individual's specific capabilities, prior experiences, and language skills.