Espino 1

Myranda Espino

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1301-122

8th November 2022

Rhetorical Analysis of “Open-Ended Tasks Promotes Creativity in Minecraft”

In one's early childhood playing video games is a typical aspect of a person's life, yet

video games can often have a negative reputation. Minecraft is a widely popular video game with

"200M copies sold and 131M active monthly users (Watts, 2021)" [Fan 105] that people of all

ages can play, and the ability to access the game through multiple consoles makes it accessible to

anyone willing to play. Minecraft is a well-known as being a game with limitless possibilities;

according to Fan, "Minecraft is typically classified as a "sandbox" game, which means that

players have a very high level of agency and freedom to pursue their own goals and

explore/engage in creative activities in whatever ways they choose (Brand & Kinash, 2013)"

[Fan 105]. The article "Open-Ended Tasks Promote Creativity in Minecraft," written by Yue Fan

H. Chad Lane and David Delialiolu, claims that "participants who engaged in the open-ended

task receive significantly higher CAT scores than those in the well-defined task group, and (2)

among variables such as the level of skill/experience, interest in Minecraft, and materials

(blocks) used in Minecraft, only game interest level has a significant influence on the CAT

score" [Fan 105]. Moreover, they successfully inform the audience of the viability of their

research; therefore, their usage of logos and ethos is vital in appealing to every aspect of the

audience's psyche.

Fan prioritizes logos to further his argument of how the game is a great way to emphasize

creativity within children; for instance, Fan uses assessments and surveys to promote his idea.
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For example, Fan compares how participants who took part in the open-ended task fared much

better on the CAT test than those who participated in the group that completed a task with clear

parameters: "Further, participants were given 15 minutes in their free play (second task), which

was the product assessed in the CAT (dependent measure of creative expression)" [Fan 109]. Fan

administered a survey to gather basic information to capture the Minecraft playing characteristics

of the participants: with this knowledge; they discovered "Among those participants, 74% of

participants were male and 26% were female." [Fan 109]. The main question they asked during

this survey was gathering the skill level needed with this game; they discovered "the

skill/experience level with video games generally as well as specific Minecraft experience, and

(2) the interest level and motivation to play Minecraft. Unsurprisingly, skill/experience level had

a high correlation to interest level (r = .70), meaning simply that people who liked the game

played it more often." [Fan 109].

The primary function of Fan's utilization of ethos throughout the article is to substantiate

their use of Logos. They back up their original claim that whether the participants' interest,

skill/experience, and the quantity of various construction block varieties employed will influence

the participants' creativity scores with research and assessments. Fan utilizes both The

Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) to objectively

assess the participant's level of creativity, which reinforces the claim made in the article: "The

Alternative Uses Test (AUT) (Guilford, 1967) and Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT)

(Amabile, 1982) are two of the most common choices for judging levels of creativity. The AUT

assessment seeks to capture divergent thinking and has repeatedly been shown to correlate with

additional measures of creativity (Hocevar & Bachelor, 1989). The CAT assessment seeks to

measure creativity as expressed through a product or artifact and is considered one of the best
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measurements of creativity in terms of reliability, discriminant validity, and nomological

validity. Multiple experts are needed to rate the creativity of a collection of products by

comparing them with one another individually and without outside guidance (Amabile, 1982)"

[Fan 111]. Furthermore, after comparing both CAT and AUT assessments with one another: Fan

concluded "when comparing the CAT and AUT assessment together to see if variables other than

task condition had influence on participants' creativity, neither skill/experience level nor number

of different blocks used had significant influence. However, a high level of interest in Minecraft

is associated with higher AUT and CAT scores, perhaps suggesting that more creative people are

naturally drawn to Minecraft to begin with" [Fan 112]. The assessments led Fan to a conclusion

that corroborates with his argument that the usage of open-ended tasks in Minecraft fosters

creativity: "The significantly higher CAT scores for the open-ended task supports the idea that

open-ended tasks promote creativity in Minecraft more so than well-defined tasks do" [Fan 113].

In the article "Open-Ended Tasks Promote Creativity in Minecraft, "Yue Fan concludes

that "open-ended task supports the idea that open-ended tasks promote creativity in Minecraft

more so than well-defined tasks do." Furthermore, they can persuade the audience of their

research's authenticity; as a result, their use of logos and ethos is essential in touching all of the

audience's senses.
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Works Cited

Fan, Yue, et al. “Open-Ended Tasks Promote Creativity in Minecraft.” Educational Technology

& Society, vol. 25, no. #, pp. 105-116. EBSCOhost,

https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=83b5ceb1-72fa-

4f17-b77d-67635d5266d1%40redis. Accessed 8 Nov. 2022.