One of the foremost authorities on children's writing Donald Graves believes that all "children want to write. If we let them". He also believes that children should be able to choose their own topics. In a number of studies the impact that topic choice has on a child's writing has be found to be substantial. One study by Gradohl & Schumacher (1998) looked at the relationship between content knowledge and topic choice in writing. The study asked the question "what is a good writing task?" The answer: "one that permits students to draw on their ideas and interpretations. By allowing students frequently to choose their own topics we enable them to use a richer knoweldge base that may increase the likelihood of their producting more sophisticated writing". In a study that explored what implicit boundries on topic choice exist within a classroom, Tom Newkirk found that there was a level of concern that surrounded topics within the realm of "non-realistic" fiction. Topics that were modelled after popular show, cartoons, films were felt to be inappropriate for school literacy. Newkirk thoughout the study suggest that teachers need to see the positive contribution that a child's affiliation to this type of media has on writing development. He also found that although teachers allow students to choose their own topics, they don't always honour that topic choice. When asking a student to write a narrative, teachers tend to dissuade their students from writing about something non-realistic and instead asks for writing that emphasizes personal experiences. Dyson, whom Newkirk cites argues that literacy must include all forms and types. Excluding popular culture potentially discriminates or divides students into classes. Traditional school literature has little relevance to a large number of students, while mass media touches almost every student in our schools. She notes that if schols ignore the cultural materials that children find meaninful and that includes video games, T.V., or 'pop culture', then schools risk creating further societal divsions in a child's orientation to others, to other cultural art forms and to school itself.
Newkirk's study which included 77 students from grade 3-5 and based in New Hampshire focused on students writing non-realistic fiction found four major themes to be evident:
- Ease of intervention - imaginary stories let students write about whatever they want even if it has not happened. There is no set timeframe, students feel freer and able to escape reality.
- Playful pleasure - Echoed in Jeffrey Wilhelm's research, playful pleasure occurs when a student writes fiction and experiences a type of mental transportation into another world.
- Power and competence - Includes the "possibility of claiming a form of poer denied to them in their real lives". Students and not the adults have control of the space.
- Action, conflict and violence - is a concern that most teachers have when boys are allowed to choose their own topics. Newkirk's study found that most of the writing was much less violent than expected. It also had no implication on the student's behaviour.
