Improvisational dramatic role-play activities are used in classrooms to encourage children to explore the feelings of the characters in a story. Roleplay exercises can give a story personal significance to each child, and an insight and understanding of the characters which is reflected in stories written afterwards. The thesis describes the development of a virtual environment designed for similar dramatic role-play exercises. The thesis then investigates its effectiveness as a preparation activity for writing stories. It examines the effects the virtual role-play environment has on the characterisation in children’s imaginative writing. It also investigates the social interactions which children engage in and the moral decisions they make during the role-play; and the motivational effects of the virtual roleplay environment. The virtual role-play environment is based on a commercial computer game. Two children and one role-play leader interact with each other in a perceptually realistic virtual world. Each role-player controls an avatar in order to move around this graphical world, and improvise by sending and receiving typed messages. The high quality graphics, sounds and music contribute to the users’ feelings of perceptual presence while the communication between role-players promotes feelings of social presence. The role-players’ emotional engagement with the other characters and the conflict within the adventure encourages them to experience self presence. The virtual role-play environment was evaluated in a field study with sixty children aged between ten and twelve years. The characterisation in stories written after using the virtual role-play environment was compared to the characterisation in stories written under normal classroom circumstances. The stories were compared using a new, fine-grained analysis scheme for assessing children’s writing. The main result is that the stories written after the virtual role-play contained more dialogue and more indications of relationships between the characters than normal classroom stories. Analysis of the typed communication exchanged between the role-players during the game shows that the role-players formed relationships with the other characters. They also made judgements about the characters’ personalities and to a lesser extent expressed emotional involvement during the game. They made moral decisions and could back up their decisions with reasons. Expert evaluation supports the view that the virtual role-play environment is particularly beneficial to children with low literacy standards. Finally, it also benefits children with low literacy motivation and little interest in school work.

在臺灣國中英語課程的寫作部份，一向只有片段的填空、改寫句子或翻譯等，加強文法及句型結構的練習，而忽略能讓學生自我表達的創意寫作。對英語能力相當有限的國中生而言，若能提供有效、有趣的寫作指導，他們也能應用語言能力並發揮創意，寫出有趣的文章。 本研究在探討由看圖說故事進而寫故事，對國中生寫作能力的影響。本研究以台北市某國中兩班三年級，六十位學生為研究對象，先施以一次先前研究，作為主要研究的設計及實施之參考，再以三個故事為主題進行六篇記敘文的寫作。其中三篇只給作文題目及引導句，稱為題目引導式寫作；另三篇則提供題目加圖片，稱為圖片引導式寫作。整個研究內容另包括三次問卷及一系列的訪談。問卷一及問卷三在了解受測學生在研究前、研究後的寫作態度及動機的轉變；問卷二及訪談旨在了解學生對於圖片做為輔助教材的觀感。 本研究的主要發現如下：（1）圖片有助於學生寫故事的組織及架構，（2）圖片提供語料及文意，有助於學生發展故事內容及長度，（3）圖片刺激學生想像力，增加學生故事的創意，（4）學生在經過圖片式的寫作引導之後，對英文作文表現出比較積極的學習態度及動機。 / For junior high students in Taiwan, writing activities have been restricted to grammar-oriented exercises. Creative writing that engages students in using the target language communicatively has been neglected. Students at this level of proficiency, if provided with effective and stimulating writing instruction, are also able to compose fascinating stories. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of pictures on junior high students’ narrative writing. Subjects in this study are sixty ninth-graders from two classes in a junior high school in Taipei city. Instruments consist of a pilot study, three student surveys, six narrative writing assignments and a series of one-to-one interviews. Findings are summarized as follows: First, picture aids facilitate students’ organizational skills for story writing. Second, pictorial presentation provides students with linguistic resources that help to enrich their story content. Third, pictorial images stimulate students’ imagination and add creativity to their stories. Furthermore, writing improvements through pictorial instruction also lead to the students’ positive attitude toward writing and stronger motivation as well.

This thesis applies concepts from Vladimir Propp’s model of the narrative structure of fairy tales (Propp’s morphology) to a story authoring tool for children. A computer story authoring application based on Propp’s morphology is developed and evaluated through empirical studies with children. Propp’s morphology is a promising model of narrative for a children’s story authoring tool, with the potential to give children a powerful mental model with which to construct stories. Recent research has argued for the use of computer-based interactive narrative authoring tools (which enable the construction of interactive narrative computer games in which the player can affect or change the plot) to support children’s narrative development, and a number of interactive narrative systems use Propp’s morphology as their underlying model of narrative. These interactive narrative tools have many potential learning benefits and a powerful motivational effect for children, who enjoy using them to create narrative games. The potential of an interactive narrative system based on Propp’s morphology to support children’s construction of narratives seems great, combining Propp’s rich narrative model with the motivational benefits of interactive narrative. Before the application of Propp’s morphology in an interactive narrative game creation tool to support children’s writing could be pursued, it was necessary to study children’s story writing with Propp’s morphology. How can Propp’s morphology be represented in a story authoring tool for children? Can children apply Propp’s abstract narrative concepts to the task of creating their own original stories? How does using Propp’s morphology affect the stories written by children? Using the Propp-based authoring tool that is presented in this thesis children were able to grasp Propp’s abstract concepts and apply them to their own story writing. The use of a story authoring tool based on Propp’s morphology improved some aspects of the narrative structure of the stories written by children, and children reported that they enjoyed using the tool and felt it was helpful to their story writing. This thesis lays the foundation and identifies the methods for further study of children’s appropriation of narrative structure by constructing stories using a story authoring tool based on Propp’s morphology.

本研究旨在分析臺灣英語系大學生在英語故事寫作方面的表現。研究對象為二十位某大學英語系三年級學生，藉由分析這些學生寫作的故事所呈現出的敘事結構，期望能發現學生寫作故事的模式，寫作上的長處與弱點，在寫作方面遇到的困難，以及文化背景是否影響其寫作表現。 研究結果顯示，學生寫作的故事呈現不同的敘事結構，而這些敘事結構反映出他們對於英語故事的基本元素已有初步的了解，但仍需要老師進一步在文體區隔、內容、以及校訂等方面給予指導，以增強其故事寫作技巧。此外，學生的作品中表現了許多文化特徵，這些特徵也同樣可在泰國、越南、不丹等學生的故事作品中發現，因此，本研究或許可作為亞洲文化間具有高度相似性的證明。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the story-writing performance of college English majors in Taiwan in terms of narrative structure. A total of twenty stories composed by twenty junior English majors of one national university were analyzed based on the conventional English story structure. The collected stories were part of the students’ normal school work rather than specially designed tasks. Through a narrative structure analysis of the collected data, different structural patterns were discovered, including (1) Description, (2) Abbreviated Story, (3) Complete Story, (4) Lengthened Story, and (5) Complex Story. The structural uses not only reflect the learners’ writing styles but also represent their strengths and weaknesses in writing. Overall, the results show that although these students have possessed the basic knowledge of the structural conventions, they still need instruction in terms of content, editing, genre-distinction, or formal devices to enhance their story-writing skills. In addition, cultural characteristics were discovered in the writings. The preferences observed coincide with the characteristics of narrative writings of Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and Thai cultures in many ways. Therefore, the findings of this study may also serve as evidence for the great similarities that existed among Asian cultures.

This master thesis discusses three different parts of adventure game development. The first part is about the usage of existing development environments; which one we selected and how we selected it. The second part discusses the development of the game using the selected development environment from the first part. The third and last part discusses the benefits from using skilled story writers when developing an adventure game. In this work the story writers were students from the English Department at Blekinge Institute of Technology.

A story is an established method of communicating fact, fiction, parable, and myth from cultural generation to generation. Is it possible to actively engage accounting students with content when the student becomes the storywriter? Can story writing by the student be an effective teaching tool, and should accounting professors consider its use in their classrooms? This archival research seeks to review the literature regarding the value of story writing as a pedagogical tool across academic disciplines in higher education, synthesize the findings of existing research and describe the uses, benefits and difficulties with using story writing in various accountancy classes across the curriculum.

The intent of this thesis is to create a novel-length narrative based around a premise conceived in a workshop setting. The novel, while containing elements of fantasy, will be character-driven and feature psychological character development as its primary goal. Lawrence Caligny, a young cook newly instated at a castle, is coerced by his mother, an infamous witch named Mallory, to concoct a sleeping potion for the country’s crown prince, beckoning comparison to the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. As Lawrence prepares for his opportunity, he unwittingly befriends the prince and his sister and stumbles across an assassination plot. Being thoroughly inept at witchcraft himself, Lawrence fails to put the prince to sleep when he gets the chance, knocking out the entirety of the castle inhabitants and staff instead. The story concludes with the revival of those in the castle and Lawrence being fired from his (ignominious) position in the kitchens, but otherwise pardoned in acknowledgement of his help in stopping the assassination.

The aim of the study at hand is to generate knowledge about what pupils aged nine to ten years old need to discern in order to develop the ability to write stories with a well-developed, exciting and coherent plot, and how teaching can make it possible for the pupils to develop this ability. The theoretical framework has been Variation Theory. It is a theory of learning that focuses on how discernment of aspects affects the way we perceive our world and how variation can be used to promote learning. A basic assumption is that we learn by seeing differences, not by seeing sameness. Learning Study was used to answer the research questions. It is an interventionist approach, where the focus is on an object of learning, in this case the ability to write stories with a well-developed, exciting and coherent plot. In the research process the aim was to find out which aspects were critical for the pupils to discern in order to develop the ability, and how these could be made visible in the teaching. Together with a group of teachers, lessons were planned, implemented, evaluated and refined in an iterative process. Interview data, pupils’ texts written before and after the lessons and video recordings from the lessons were the basis of the analysis. It was found that in order for these learners to handle the object of learning, they needed to discern eight critical aspects that can be related to two different areas: (a) discerning the perspective of a reader and (b) seeing that a plot consists of several problems and solutions. The aspects were made discernible by using contrast as a pedagogical tool. The result of the study contributes to previous research by identifying and specifying what the pupils need to discern, what it means in a classroom setting and how it can be taught in a powerful way.

This is a thesis that details the process of writing a short 30 page novel, and then converting the subsequent story into a graphic format via illustrations and into a comic book layout. The story itself deals in reworking our learned assumptions of good and evil, specifically in the supernatural and human possibility for both. The comic book format is an exploration of my reader’s different responses to the written and the graphic.

The Story Art and Tech merges storytelling and technology together to elucidate the animated filmmaking process for readers who are interested in animation. The author's path to animation director is traced from beginning to end starting with writing ideas and moving on to forming storyboards and animatics to completing animations for the screen. Two 3D short animated films and three storyboards with animatics are presented. A storyboard primarily shows the audience the thought process of storytelling; it previsualizes a script or an idea. It is then narrated into moving images called animatics; a preliminary version of a film. Animatics are important references for animators to animate shots and characters. Eventually the rest of the animation pipeline makes it into a final product: an animated film. As an artist who writes stories and animates them with 3D technology, presenting how a storyboard is made into an animated film is the most immediate way to inform the audience of this process with entertaining stories. In this paper, an extended discussion of the author's creative thought and development processes are presented with two distinct parts: storytelling and technology. / Master of Fine Arts / The Story Art and Tech shows how storyboards are made into movies. The author utilizes storytelling and media technology together such as 3D animation and game-engine rendering. It is the author's intention to make entertaining animated movies for the audience as a prospective animation director. When a director comes up with a movie script or an idea, the quickest way to visualize it is to sketch it out on a storyboard. This profession is called a 'story artist.' Story artists simplify characters and backgrounds on the boards to catch a glimpse of the final movie. To make the storyboards more detailed, story artists make them into 'animatics', which show more animated images and characters. Animatics are then taken by the 'animators' to animate everything in the final phase which is eventually produced as an animated film. In entirety, concept arts, storyboards, and animatics are presented together to show the audience the 'behind the scenes' of animated films. This helps them understand the thought process of the author and how she moved from story idea to completed animation. In this paper, the journey of a filmmaker in the animation field is extensively discussed.