Creative writing 1 - Marvel EDU

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IELTS Practice Listening: Note/Summary Completion Diagram ID: #57409 Medium Creative writing 1

Instructions ›

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

Complete the flow chart below.

Transcript:

You will hear a student giving a short presentation about a research project on expertise in creative writing. Now listen carefully and answer the questions. For my short presentation today, I'm going to summarize the work I've done so far on my research project to explore expertise in creative writing. Essentially, I'll share with you the process I underwent to gather my interim findings. First of all, I should give a little relevant background information about myself. Before I started my current degree course in cognitive psychology, I studied English literature. And, as you can imagine, this meant I spent a great deal of time thinking about the notion of creativity and what makes people develop into successful writers. However, the idea for this research project came from a very specific source. I became fascinated with the idea of what makes an expert creative writer when I read a well-known 20th century writer's autobiography. I won't say which one at this stage, because I think that might prejudice your interpretation. Anyway, this got me thinking about the different routes to expertise. Specifically, I wondered why some people become experts at things, whilst others fail to do so, in spite of the fact that they may be equally gifted and work equally hard. I started to read about how other researchers had explored similar questions in other fields. I began to see a pattern that those studies which involved research in a lab were too controlled for my purposes, and I decided to avoid reading them. I was quite surprised to find that the clearest guidance for my topic came from investigations into what I call practical skills, such as hairdressing or waiting tables. Most of these studies tended to use a similar set of procedures, which I eventually adopted for my own project. I'll now explain what these procedures were. I decided to compare what inexperienced writers do with what experienced writers do. In order to investigate this, I looked for four people whom I regarded as real novices in this field, which proved easy, perhaps unsurprisingly. It proved much harder to locate people with suitably extensive experience who were willing to take part in my study. I asked the first four to do a set writing task and, as they wrote, to talk into a tape recorder, a technique known as think aloud. This was in order to get experimental data. Whilst they were doing this, a research assistant recorded them using video. I thought it might be helpful for me in my transcriptions later on. I then asked 4 experienced writers to do exactly the same task. After this, I made a comparison between the two sets of data, and this helped me to produce a framework for analysis. In particular, I identified 5 major stages which all creative writers seem to go through when generating this genre of text. I think it was fairly effective, but still needs some work. So I intend to tighten this up later for use with subsequent data sets. I then wanted to see whether experienced writers were actually producing the better pieces of writing. So I asked an editor. an expert in reviewing creative writing, to decide which were the best pieces of writing. This person put the eight pieces of work in order of quality, in rank order, and using his evaluations, I was then able to work out which sequence of the five stages seemed to lead to the best quality writing. Now, my findings are by no means conclusive at this point. I still have a long way to go. But if any of you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them and go.

4 blanks

AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.

Question Focus: Background studies - identifying what the speaker studied before the current degree

Correct Answer: english literature

Why this is correct: This box in the flow chart refers to the speaker's academic background. You hear the speaker clearly say studied English literature, which is exactly what needs to be written in the diagram.

Passage Reference: Before I started my current degree course in cognitive psychology, I studied English literature.

Common Mistake: Some students write literature or English only. That is incomplete and does not match the exact phrase. This is a partial truth trap.

Paraphrasing: Transcript: 'studied English literature' = Diagram: 'background studies'

Tips: When a diagram shows background or education, listen carefully for subjects or degrees the speaker mentions.

Key Vocabulary:

studied = learned formally
degree = university course

Question Focus: Source of the research idea

Correct Answer: autobiography

Passage Reference: I became fascinated with the idea of what makes an expert creative writer when I read a well-known 20th century writer's autobiography.

Why this is correct: This stage shows where the research idea came from. The speaker explains that the idea started when he read a writer's autobiography.

Common Mistake: Students sometimes write biography, but the speaker clearly says autobiography. Writing the wrong but related word is a paraphrase trap.

Paraphrasing: Transcript: 'when I read a well-known 20th century writer's autobiography' = Diagram: 'idea came from reading'

Tips: Be careful with similar words like biography and autobiography. One small difference can change the meaning.

Key Vocabulary:

autobiography = life story written by the person
fascinated = very interested

Question Focus: Type of research the speaker decided to avoid

Correct Answer: lab

Passage Reference: I began to see a pattern that those studies which involved research in a lab were too controlled for my purposes

Why this is correct: In this part of the flow chart, the diagram shows what kind of research he rejected. You hear that research in a lab was avoided because it was too controlled.

Common Mistake: Some students write controlled research or experiments, but these are not the exact words used. This is a synonym match trap - you must copy the transcript word.

Paraphrasing: Transcript: 'research in a lab were too controlled' = Diagram: 'research avoided'

Tips: When the speaker says they avoid or reject something, that information is often tested in diagrams.

Key Vocabulary:

lab = laboratory
controlled = tightly managed

Question Focus: Type of studies that provided useful guidance

Correct Answer: practical skills

Passage Reference: I was quite surprised to find that the clearest guidance for my topic came from investigations into what I call practical skills, such as hairdressing or waiting tables.

Why this is correct: This final box refers to the kind of studies that helped his research design. The speaker says the clearest guidance came from studies of practical skills.

Common Mistake: Students sometimes write skills only or give examples like hairdressing. Those do not match the general category. This is a partial truth trap.

Paraphrasing: Transcript: 'investigations into what I call practical skills' = Diagram: 'useful guidance from'

Tips: If the speaker gives examples, listen for the category name before or after them.

Key Vocabulary:

practical = hands-on
guidance = help or direction

General Tips:

Flow charts follow the order of the recording, so use the previous box to predict what comes next.
For diagram completion, the diagram itself is the question. Always think about what type of information that box needs.
Do not use your own words. Copy the exact word or phrase you hear from the speaker.
Watch the word limit carefully. Writing more than two words makes the answer wrong, even if the idea is correct.
Listen for signpost phrases like 'before I started', 'the idea came from', or 'I decided to avoid'. These often signal answers.

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