The Study
The purpose of this study by Dr. Laura Apol (formerly Obbink), assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, was to examine the "writerly" text as a source of activity. The study begins by looking at some of the major tenets of reader-response theory then goes on to show Gary Paulsen's The Winter Room functions as an active/writerly text by requiring that the reader actively respond to the text and construct his or her own meaning.

The Findings
Reader-response theory holds that the text is a series of cues to the reader, who then constructs his or her own meaning. That meaning does not lie exclusively in the author or the text, but also (or perhaps primarily) in the reader. Reader-oriented theory empowers readers by turning them into active producers rather than passive consumers of meanings in texts. As readers create individual interpretations, multiple readings and understandings of the text become possible and expected.  Texts that leave "gaps" for the reader to fill or that require readers to produce answers to questions that the text implicitly or explicitly raises are described as "writerly", "interrogative" or "open". Not many texts for children are of this type.  Children's literature frequently limits the child-reader's interaction with the text, and because children's books are most frequently evaluated on the traditional elements of character, setting, plot, symbol, most writers and publishers have responded by providing tightly woven, carefully constructed stories that can be viewed as closed texts.

What It Means to You
As school people seek to discover increasing opportunities to actively engage students in classroom learning, they may want to explore ways to increase these student's interaction with the books they read. In texts where the author exercises a degree of control through a tightly woven narrative leading to a single conclusion, there are limited opportunities for young readers to draw their own conclusions or create multiple interpretations.   This is not to imply that traditional texts are inferior to open or writerly texts that demand more from their readers. Most texts have some potential for interaction, and teachers can stimulate active meaning making on the part of the readers if they look for gaps in the narrative that lend themselves to different readings. To better understand the difference between open and close texts, instructors may want to compare two books by Gary Paulsen: Hatchet, which is the more traditional or closed text, and The Winter Room, which tends to be more open.

More Information
For more information, consult Obbink,L.A., The Book Needs You: Gary Paulsen's The Winter Room as a Writerly Text, The New Advocate, Volume 5, Number 3, Summer 1992,pp. 175-185.

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