Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
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Gage Lucas
Professor Pierson
The paper will be covering many aspects of the Adventure Time fanfiction community.
Before discussing this fascinating community, a few key terms used throughout the paper must
be understood. To clarify, Adventure time is an animated cartoon that has aired on Cartoon
Network for the past eight years. Throughout these eight years, a diverse audience of viewers
ranging from young children to adults in their late twenties has developed. Among this audience
are creative, writing savvy, reading enthusiasts who have turned to fanfiction to combine their
literary talents with this beloved show as well as connect with fellow Adventure Time fans.
characters that are written by fans and often posted on the internet. This definition, although
accurate of the works of fiction created by the community, does not define the community itself.
The true definition of the Adventure Time fanfiction community is the collective group of
Adventure Time fans that read, write, edit, post, and discuss fanfiction centered around the
Like other communities and discourses throughout the world, the AT fanfiction
community partakes in various literate activities. The primary literate activity of this community
is writing various styles of fanfiction centered around the Adventure time universe. Coupled with
These two activities were the primary causes for the creation of the AT fanfiction community,
but over time, more activities were developed within the community. One such addition was
reading lore, theories, and show-related texts. As the community grew beyond a disconnected
group and more into a community, editing the grammar/revising the content of others work
became common. Along with this, properly reading feedback, suggestions, and effectively
incorporating it into writing is a very important literate activity. Lastly, the sharing of story ideas,
discussing episode opinions, and just talking to fellow Adventure Time fans through social sites
like Reddit and 4Chan has developed into the most social literate activity among the AT
fanfiction community. Even though these practices serve a primary purpose, many of them can
also serve as ways to identify the literacy sponsors within the community.
Due to the nature of this community, the obvious primary literacy sponsor within this
Discourse is the team behind the creation of Adventure Time. They serve as the primary literacy
sponsor because through the cartoon, they teach nearly all the information known about the
series originates from the cartoon itself. They also enable as well as regulate all official
information on the show through their control of when the cartoon airs on television. These
creators have two ultimate motives behind being a literary sponsor. The first one is showing the
cartoon they spend so many hours producing to an audience, giving them recognition for their
work and spreading joy to millions of people. The second, more tangible motive, is the profit that
they earn by creating and showing their cartoon to as many people as they can.
A more fanfiction specific literacy sponsor to the AT fanfiction community are the
These sites serve as a Literacy sponsor in a similar manner to the bookstore Dora Lopez used on
page 78 of Writing About Writing by facilitating the development of literacy. In fact, they
facilitate access to over 12,000 Adventure Time fanfictions as of September 18, 2017. The initial
motivation of these two sites was to facilitate the publication and sharing of all fanfictions.
However, after a few years, making money through website traffic also became a motivation.
Members are learning a myriad of lessons as a result of this site. This includes how to publish a
fanfiction to the internet, where the correct location to publish an Adventure Time fanfiction, and
where to find other Adventure Time Fanfictions to read. Both of these sites also allow members
of the AT fanfiction community to send and receive revisions and edits to fanfictions.
The third main literacy sponsor within this community are the active, frequently read
author/revisers within the AT fanfiction community. Unfortunately, their exact identities cannot
be found due to the anonymous nature of writing fanfiction online. The usernames of the most
influential authors/revisers are: ArcaFeretory, Ruby Sword, Ooobserver, and The Anonymous
Editor (myself). Even though these people and many others do not always directly teach others
how to write, read, or understand Adventure Time fanfiction, they do still act as literacy
sponsors. They do this by modeling: how to write fanfiction, how to use and alter information
provided by the cartoon, respectfully edit and revise fellow community members work, and how
to create unique stories. These users, like the creators of Adventure Time, can also regulate what
they teach. This is done by restricting access to specific content for higher ranking members as
well as only revising specific fanfictions. This hierarchal access being very similar to Deborah
Brandts views on socioeconomic status determining access to better literacy sponsors (Writing
about writing, 77). For these high-ranking community members, the general motivation for being
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a literacy sponsor is to help build the AT fanfiction community and make it stronger. With this,
the popularity and status given to them by the community is also a motivator for their actions.
The Adventure Time fanfiction community is very interesting, even though it is only a
secondary, non-dominant Discourse. Some of these interesting components of the Discourse are
the shared values/beliefs that connect its members. The first of such values is the enjoyment of
writing fictional stories. Much like a fantasy football community being brought together by a
shared enjoyment of football. Along with this, the enjoyment of Adventure Time is shared by all
members. These values are responsible for the community members desire for writing and
reading Adventure Time fanfiction; however being a social community requires more than a
common interest. It requires a universally held belief amongst the Discourse. For the AT
fanfiction community, this unifying belief is that writings should be shared with others. Along
with this, the belief that a strong, cooperative group is necessary for a piece of writing to truly be
great developed in the community as a result of the previously mentioned belief. These
interesting values and beliefs are representative of the individuals of the community, but the
actions that these values and belief produce are even more so.
By learning the values and beliefs of the Discourse, a proper look at its unique actions
and behaviors is possible. The first of these actions is the public posting of Adventure Time
fanfiction to the internet. It is very uncommon to post an unpublished piece of writing online for
any individual, but for an entire Discourse to participate in this action is almost unheard of.
However, as one of the communitys literate activities, not only do some members of the
Discourse participate, all do. Along with this, once a piece of writing is posted, a small group of
people will assist the author to make their story better. This is done by one of more people
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revising the work, editing its grammar usage, and making further suggestions to the author. This
paper is not suggesting that having a paper peer edited is unique. However, the process of an
anonymous stranger or strangers taking time out of their day to read a piece of fanfiction, revise
it, edit it, and make additional story suggestions to someone for the sake of helping a fellow
After becoming acquainted with the values, beliefs, and unique actions/behaviors of the
community, the attitudes of the Discourse are revealed. The positive attitude toward community
is unquestioned by the Discourse. This can be seen by breaking down the unique actions of the
Discourse. The action of freely sharing stories with all fellow group members coupled with the
willingness group members to give their time, abilities, and friendship to others a prime
representation of this attitude in action. The attitude of mutual respect is also held very high. This
is shown by the nature of the critiques given to fellow writers. Whenever a story is revised or
critiqued, neither the author nor the reviser is cruel, insulting, or disrespectful. They also often
show appreciation towards these revisions and critiques. These attitudes are very positive and
relatively easy-going, but this contrasts very heavily with the Discourses approach toward
literacy.
Even with the Discourses overall caring and supportive attitude, its approach toward
literacy is rigid and highly dependent on the use of particular words. This rigid approach toward
being fluent in this secondary Discourse is necessary due to the high volume of writing and
community-specific communication. This is seen within the common literate activities of the
Discourse, including: writing fanfiction, reading fanfiction, editing/revising others work, and
talking to other members about story ideas, theories, and episode opinions on online forums. The
AT fanfiction community also has a unique set of particular words within its Discourse, making
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a rigid approach toward literacy even more necessary. Examples of these words are: WC, rating,
To an outsider, these would have either no meaning or an incorrect meaning due to their lack of
exposure to the community, which is why the approach toward literacy is so harsh. If it is seen
by members of the Discourse that someone does not understand these words or have not met
literacy standards, the person will be viewed as a pretender or someone who doesnt belong.
Much in the way that James Gee didnt belong in his neighborhood bar when asking May I have
Due to the nature of the Adventure Time fanfiction community, fanfiction writing is the
primary literate activity done by its members. By breaking down the four constituents of one of
these works of fiction, defined by Keith Grant-Davie on page 492 of Writing About Writing, a
truer understanding of not only the writings themselves but also of the community from which
they originate will be possible. This discourse is about writing and sharing new stories of the
characters/universe of Adventure time. On a far more fundamental level, it is about giving fans
an opportunity to express a love of fiction writing and Adventure Time with people of common
interest. This discourse is needed to find people who enjoy Adventure Time, creative writing,
and most importantly a combination of both, which can be very difficult. Ultimately, the purpose
of the discourse is to connect creative, fiction story writing, Adventure Time fans and enable
them to transform into rhetors and share their passion with others.
In order for these works of fanfiction to exist, there must be rhetors to facilitate their
creation. The original rhetor for AT fanfiction is the author or authors of the fanfiction.
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Additionally, the numerous editors and revisers that assist the author also hold the role of rhetor.
This rhetorical team is collectively responsible for the final version of the fanfiction. Similar to
The intended audience of AT fanfiction is fellow fanfiction writers and casual fans of
Adventure time. The actual audience will usually include people who are not fans of Adventure
Time, but of fanfiction of all genre as well as casual readers who stumble upon the fanfiction.
Interestingly, the audience also participates in the literate activity of reading AT fanfiction and
completes the discourses purpose stated earlier in the paper as well as acting as a constraint.
As any other piece of writing does, AT fanfiction is constrained directly and indirectly
by several factors. This includes the amount of time its rhetors can devote to it, their focus when
working on it, as well as the amount of interest in that particular story theyre working on.
Additionally, the community can place constraints on the writing. This could be things like what
type of AT fanfiction they want to read and what topics they want to read about at the moment.
Its also important to consider what topics are allowed to be written/posted on the websites
primarily used for AT fanfiction, like Fanfiction.net and Wattpad. This could mean an age block
on profanity or forbidding the topic of abuse within a story entirely. Any and all of these
After being a member of the Adventure Time fanfiction community for about six years, I
see several components of this community within myself. Even so, the trait that I see most in
myself from this community is collaborative writing. Throughout middle school and almost all of
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high school, the process of writing is very solitary. Save for the occasional writing workshop
or peer review day, the entirety of an essay, book report, and creative writing story would be
only worked on by one person. By becoming a member of the AT fanfiction community, I could
write and publish a short story with another person and have half a dozen people edit it for us.
Then after this, an older writer could send me a report on what I could do to revise the story
while my co-author was discussing new plot ideas in a forum on reddit. By the time a story was
re-published, ten other people could have helped improve one piece of writing and my writing
skills. Not only did this teach me how to write collaboratively, it also taught me how to properly
I also believe that being in this community has shaped my literacy, reading, and writing
abilities in a positive way. Due to how rigid this communities approach towards literacy was, my
literacy within this Discourse became fluent. A secondary benefit to this was that it now allows
me to develop meta-knowledge that helps me improve my literacy and overall rhetoric in other
Discourses, similar to James Gees example of how studying a second language can help
improve your first language (287, Writing About Writing). Along with this, being a member of
this community changed how actively I would read. Before I was a member of the AT fanfiction
community, I would almost strictly read books for completion. I wouldnt take notes, think about
what was being stated, or the meaning behind the words. This changed once I began partaking in
weekly talks with other Adventure Time fans about specific fanfictions. We talked about specific
stories, reading for content, including actively thinking about the story and taking notes on
important events, shaping my active reading skills into what they are today. My final observation
of how being in this group changed my literary abilities is the length of my writing. During
English class, the recurring criticism of Not long enough and Need more content would
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write longer papers, present more content, and expand on my ideas and thoughts more
transferred over to my academic writing. By looking back on all these personal developments as
a rhetor, it is preposterous to not give credit to the AT fanfiction community for shaping my
My Writing Process
My planning process for writing, especially for my academic writing, tends to stay the
same for all the papers that I write. Once I receive or decide the topic of a paper, I look over any
information I have on the topic and write it down in my notebook. This helps me remember the
information Ill be using within the essay, report, etc. that Im writing. By studying these notes
and learning exactly what Im writing before I start my paper, I can keep the core details of my
paper in my head, allowing me to write faster and more efficiently than if I were constantly
looking in a book or at class notes while writing. After this, I write a very basic outline of what
information I am going to include in the first draft of my paper, what the topic of each section is
going to be, and in what order it will these topics appear. Thus, concluding the planning stage of
writing.
After my planning process, I can type out my first draft. Usually this takes place at night.
I do my writing so late because for most of my life, I played sports that kept me out of the house
until seven oclock. Nighttime also allows me to write in a low light environment. Then, I get rid
of any distractions I can, especially objects that produces white noise. This includes turning off
the radio, television, asking siblings to leave me alone, and even turning off a ceiling fan if its
too loud. Once this preparation is complete, I try to type as much of my paper as I can in one
sitting. Usually this ends up being between one and a half to two pages before I have to stop
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typing for a short amount of time. Working in extended sessions allows me to form a more
natural writing flow in my paper that I cant maintain if I take too many breaks during my
writing. I also write from beginning to end. Its far more difficult to try and assemble
disconnected paragraphs into a paper than just writing the paper from introduction to conclusion.
Once I conclude my paper, I go through a lengthy revising process. First, I use Microsoft
words review setting to find any glaring spelling and grammar mistakes. Then I will look over
my paper purely to identify and correct any missed grammatical errors. I then take a long break
before reading my paper all the way through to see if it has a natural flow and reaches a coherent
point. If the paper feels disjointed or unnatural, I sit back down and change what I need to for it
to flow properly. Once I reach a point that makes me satisfied with my work, I ask either a
classmate or a friend to read it and make any suggestions or point out any errors. After all these
References
Brandt, D. (2017). Writing about writing: Sponsors of literacy, 68-81. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.
Gee, J. (2017). Writing about writing: Literacy, discourse, and linguistics, 274-289. Boston, MA:
Bedford/St. Martins.
Grant-Davie, K. (2017). Writing about writing: Rhetorical situations and their constituents, 484-500.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.
Merriam-Webster online, Retrieved September 18, 2017, from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/fan%20fiction.