Revised Draft

The Effects of Music on College Students Writing Process

Should college students listen to music while writing?

It started at the Starbucks on campus.  I sat at an open table with my headphones on, listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” while I wrote a creative piece.  Then, it hit me—how was the Boss’s song influencing my writing?  Well, not so much Bruce, but music in general.   

Just think about it, nowadays most of us can’t even function without listening to music.  I know I can’t.  Whether I am doing homework or writing, I’m listening to music.  When homework seems unbearable, I play pop music to help alleviate the stress and push me through.  When I’m writing, I listen to slow music to get me in the mood, to give me ideas, and to help me think faster.  Music helps me—but, does it have the same effect on others?  In other words, does listening to music help or hinder the writing process of college students?  

    Although there have been studies showing music’s negative effects on the college student’s writing process, there has yet to be a study on students listening to their own musical choice while writing.  How would the student’s choice of music effect their writing process?  Would it positively or negatively influence it?  As college students strive to excel in their studies, we need to fully understand how music—familiar and unfamiliar—effects the writing process. 

Literature Review

In 2001, the article “The effects of background music on word processed writing” by Sarah E. Ransdell and Leonard Gilroy was published in Computers in Human Behavior.  The purpose of their study was to determine, “whether background music disrupts [college students] ability to word process fluently and effectively” (141).  

Prior to the experiment, the researchers administered a questionnaire to the 45 volunteer students.  The questionnaire revealed that, “67% [of the participants] had been trained to sing or play a musical instrument, [and] 51% sometimes listened to music while word processing” (143). Afterwards, the participants were tested.  The procedure used for gathering data goes as follows:

All subjects participated in both the silent and music conditions.  Participants wrote two 10-min essays using a simple word processor, first in a silent control condition, and second with one of the following, instrumental music, vocal music, or both.  The silent control will henceforth be compared to simply the “music” condition since none were reliably different from one another on any dependent measure.  Participants wore headphones in both conditions and were not required to respond or make any judgments; participants were told to concentrate on writing.  They were told to write as if writing for a professor in class...The two 10-min essays were written on the following topics: the best possible college class, best possible college instructor, best possible 

boyfriend/girlfriend, and best possible vacation (145). 

     It should also be noted that the participants were unfamiliar with the music they were subjected to.  

  In order to determine if music affects word processing, Ransdell and Gilroy looked at the student’s writing fluency, average sentence length, and the percentage of long pauses, and writing quality(144).  Writing fluency, sentence length, and percentage of long pauses were measured using FauxWord—a computer program.  On the other hand, writing quality was judged by student peers and was based on organization, technical quality, word choice and arrangement, content, purpose, audience, and tone (144).  

After collecting all the data, Ransdall and Gilroy found that, “the music condition significantly slowed word processed fluency with mean words generated per minute at 18.8 in the silent control condition and 17.8 in the music condition” (145).  As for effectiveness or quality, “it was not significantly reduced by the music condition” (146).  However, the study also showed that, “[w]riters who had high writing span, or who had some musical training wrote essays of higher quality...” (146).  In their conclusion, Ransdall and Gilroy write, “One’s writing fluency is likely to be disrupted by both vocal and instrumental music.  And quality will be especially poor if one also has relatively poor memory skill and limited musical training” (147).

Although, this article associates student’s poor writing with background music, it doesn’t take into account the student’s own musical choice.  If the students in Ransdall and Gilroy’s experiment were given the choice to pick their favorite musician or genre of music, how would the study differ?  

This subject is important to discuss since many students listen to unfamiliar music and ambient noise while writing.  My goal in doing this research is to determine if listening to familiar music helps students think creatively and write fluently during their writing process.  

Method 

Whereas Ransdall and Gilroy analyzed the essays of 45 college students, I chose to conduct an interview, which I later transcribed for textual analysis.  I chose this method to get a personal account on the research topic.  For my research, I interviewed S at a Barnes and Noble.  S is a college senior and honor student.  She is majoring in English with emphasis in professional writing.  She has never played a musical instrument; however, she did sing in a choir when she was younger.  Nonetheless, her days in choir are very much in her past.  S has been writing since second grade and started writing frequently in her diary at 11.  It wasn’t until college that S started listening to music while writing.  S normally writes with a pad and pencil at her desk while listening to music over her laptop.  The music is not random; hence, she has a playlist dedicated for when she writes.  Her playlist consists of 16 songs, most of them by John Mayer. 

After the interview I transcribed the data.  I labeled S’s speech in five distinct ways: 1)CAPITAL LETTERS=stress on words, which is higher in pitch from her normal voice.

2) Italicized Words=fast talk, which is faster in speech than her normal talk. 

3) Underlined Words=low voice tone, which is lower in pitch and smoother than her normal talk.

4) Regular words=normal talk.

5) [laughing]=S laughed.

When doing this textual analysis, I analyzed the content along with these 5 distinctions in speech to answer my aforementioned research question.  In some instances during the transcription I labeled the dialogue with two indicators.

The Presentation and Analysis of the Data

This data will focus on the following: Listening to music while studying and writing; music’s influence on the writing process (i.e. brainstorming, drafting, and/or revision); and how listening to music while writing positively affects a writing environment.

Definitions

Familiar music is music known and liked by the subject.  It is music that the subject listens to regularly.  This music can be found on the subject’s iPod, MacBook, or any other listening device.  

Unfamiliar music is music unknown by the subject.  It is music that the subject does not listen to.  

Upbeat music is most commonly known as techno/house music. This type of music is often associated with dance clubs; hence, it is known for its fast tempo.  During the analysis S says, “I don’t really like...like loud and like...upbeat when I write, going out that’s a different story.”  When S says this she is referring to club music.

A Writing Environment is a state in which writing occurs.  A positive writing environment fosters creativity and fluency or effortless flow while writing.  A negative writing environment will cause the opposite effect—stifled creativity and fluency while engaged in writing.   

Listening to music while studying and writing: 

Most college students often listen to music while committing themselves to a variety of activities.  S is no different from her college peers.  S listens to music while working-out, driving, getting ready for school, and writing.  When asked why she listens to music while exercising, S says, “Well, I don’t listen to the same music while I’m working out. BUT when I listen to music when I’m not working out, it just MAKES ME FEEL GOOD [laughing].”  Instead of answering the question, S makes it known that she doesn’t listen to the same music outside from exercising.  She then makes it imperative to focus on the positive feelings music has on her away from physical activity.  The fact that S’s voice pitches and speeds up on “MAKES ME FEEL GOOD” confirms a pleasant emotion.  The laughing at the end of S’s answer indicates comfort.  In S’s case, the music that she listens to has a specific function, which evokes specific emotions.  The music she listens to outside from exercising gives her positive emotions.  And the music she exercises to isn’t enjoyable, since she never defines it as a good feeling.  

     When S is asked to discuss her music listening habits when she engages in homework and studying, her language turns negative.  Regarding the completion of homework while listening to music, S says, “YEAH, but I can’t listen to like upbeat music when I’m doing homework. Cuz then I just start like...I can’t concentrate.”  The beginning of this statement (i.e. YEAH, but...) indicates conflict between music and homework.  S admits that she listens to music while doing homework, but not upbeat music because it affects her concentration.  S can’t concentrate while listening to upbeat music because she links this type of music with dance clubs.  Nonetheless, when S is asked about music helping her study, she says, “Uhm, I don’t STUDY when, I don’t listen to music when I study. But I listen to music when I like write things or when I’m doing something else.”  S not only says that she doesn’t listen to music while studying, but her answer to the question implies that it doesn’t help her.  Because S concludes the answer with listening to music while writing and “doing something else,” her language suggests that music does indeed help.  

This part of the interview suggests that some students listen to specific music for each activity they participate in.  The reason students do this is because music can help motivate them as well as evoke emotions.  If students listen to their own playlist or musician while writing, it would cause the same effect.

Music’s influence on the writing process (i.e. brainstorming, drafting, and/or revision)

Later in the interview, S discusses her habits of listening to music during the writing process.  When S is asked how music effects her brainstorming and drafting, she says, “Uhm, I GUESS its different because when I’m brainstorming or coming up with ideas its like just random songs that like make me THINK. And I guess when I already have an idea and I’m writing, I’ll like listen to something like more like JOHN MAYER.  Something that I’m used to.”  In this quote S explains that she listens to random songs during brainstorming. Nevertheless, during drafting S listens to John Mayer—an artist she is familiar with and comfortable writing to.  Her language in this quote implies thought into the question; hence, it begins with “Uhm, I GUESS.”  S emphasizes “THINK” to define how random songs create ideas while she brainstorms.  Similarly, John Mayer is accentuated to define who she listens to while drafting.  In both of these stages, S uses music to influence her writing, which is quite different from when she revises. 

When S talks about revision, she says, “And THEN, uhm, and then, actually when I REVISE, I like read out loud a lot to myself. So, I don’t think I listen to music when I do that. Cuz I think I read the same over and over and over again, like out loud.  And people might think, I’m—”  Unlike brainstorming and drafting, S can’t listen to music when she revises.  The emphasis on “THEN” and “REVISE” indicates she is retelling her experience when she revises.  S increases the speed in her answer when she says, “I don’t think I listen to music when I do that.”  The increase in S’s language may imply that she is confident and uncomfortable with the answer; confident because she is able to form the answer without indicating thought; uncomfortable because she rushes through her answer.  Perhaps her uncomfortable feeling is associated with listening to music while revising.  At the end of S’s statement, she explains why she doesn’t listen to music: “Cuz I think I read the same over and over and over again, like out loud.  And people might think, I’m—”  Again, S is gathering her thoughts in this statement.  She then exaggerates her revisionary stage when she says, “I read the same thing over and over and over again.”  During revision S reads her writing multiple times.  This repetition indicates that revision is a dedicated process which, in S’s case, involves intense reading comprehension.  

This segment of the interview demonstrates music’s influence on the college student’s writing process.  As seen in this portion of the interview, listening to music while brainstorming and drafting can positively effect the student’s writing process.  Familiar randomized songs played during brainstorming can help students conjure up ideas prior to drafting.  Ideas are important because they setup the paper’s topic.  During drafting, students listening to familiar music can improve fluency during writing.  Again, this is important because it allows the student’s writing to flow without being stifled.  Conversely, listening to music while revising may be counterproductive; thus, revision involves the manipulation of ideas and reading comprehension, which can be interrupted when students listen to music.  

Listening to music while writing positively effects a writing environment

During the interview, S describes a specific instance when she wrote while listening to music.  S’s story begins with her traveling into New York City for work.  She says, “Mmhmm. And I was on the train. And then i was, cuz I was in a BAD mood.  I was writing about how going into the city SUCKED.  And it was like a little short story. And it was kinda FUNNY.  I liked it.”  S is retelling the story as if she was there.  S says that she was in a bad mood during this time.  Her emphasis on “BAD” and “SUCKED” implies a negative tone, which would satisfy her negative mood at that time.  Nonetheless, S’s tone turns positive when she discusses the short story she wrote while listening to music on the train.  “And it was kinda FUNNY.  I liked it.”  The emphasis on “FUNNY” defines her thoughts on her story.  And the tone in which she says, “I liked it” confirms her positive feelings towards her written story.  Both of these indicators combined with the content imply a positive tone.  In essence, S used music to alter her mood.

Later S is asked if music effected her writing and how so. She says, “Well, YEAH.  I like, well it helps me like zone—zone out from everyone else, I guess.  And, uhm, I think ACTUALLY, wow this is making me THINK, actually I think its better if I don’t listen to the same songs over and over again.  Cuz like each song kind like, cuz each song makes you THINK like a different kind a way.”  When S says, “Well, YEAH” this emphasis implies agreement, in that, music did helped her.  She later says that listening to music allowed her to “zone-out” from everyone else.  Judging from the context, “zoning-out” is a state of mind in which S is able to write without the physical and emotional stressors associated with her environment. 

As witnessed in this part of the interview, music can alter a students mood as well as create a positive writing environment despite a negative atmosphere.  By listening to music while writing, college students can “zone-out” from physical and emotional stressors, and focus their efforts on writing.  

Conclusion

Music, unfamiliar and familiar, effects the writing process.  Whereas, the research conducted by Ransdell and Gilroy proved that listening to unfamiliar music during writing disrupts fluency and quality, listening to familiar music while writing can benefit the writer in a few ways.  

First, listening to familiar music while writing can evoke emotions.  This is important because it creates a positive writing environment.  And a positive writing environment creates productivity.  Second, listening to familiar music that’s shuffled during the process of brainstorming helps create ideas.  As a writer, ideas are imperative before beginning a draft.  As students draft their papers, listening to familiar music can increase writing fluency.  On the other hand, students listening to music while revising may disrupt this stage; hence, as mentioned earlier, revision involves reading comprehension and manipulation of ideas.  Third, listening to familiar music while writing can establish a comfortable writing environment.  A comfortable writing environment fosters creativity and fluency in writing. 

   

Works Cited

  Ransdell, Sarah E., Leonard Gilroy. “The effects of background music on word processed writing.” Computers in Human Behavior 17 (2001): 141-148. Elsevier Science Ltd. Web. 2 Apr. 2013. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563200000431>