What's the highest level of education you've had? (this doesn't really matter...and I don't think I'm going to use it...it's more curiosity...)

I'm in my second semester of grad school.

Did you do any *formal* (and by that I mean did you have assignments in school at any level) that required you to imitate a writer?

Not yet, but I'm being threatened with it later this semester in my non-fiction writing class.

but I'm being threatened with it later this semester in my non-fiction writing class.

It's not as bad as it sounds. I thought I would hate it, but I actually found it kind of fun.

I think so. In creative writing. Ray Carver, iirc. (I shouldn't call him that, like we kick it, or something. We'd have to be in a hellmouth...Carver's dead.) I've had many writing classes. A couple of teachers have told me that imitation is a necessary stage for writers starting out, vw. But only one ever really asked me to.

BS in Economics here, with assorted writing classes here and there. Never had an assignment to imitate a writer.

I go to fanfic, both as a reader and a writer, to get something I'm not getting from canon for whatever reason. Sometimes that's just a more leisurely, detailed exploration of interpersonal relationships than an action-oriented TV format typically allows. Sometimes it's a futurefic or an AU, for the sheer joy of the what-if. And sometimes, yes, I just want my woobie to get a happy ending and settle down with the girl.

My favorite fanfics are usually sweeping AU-epics, though they often don't really start as AU's--they just take so long to write that they're thoroughly Jossed by later canon before the author has time to finish them.

And the one fanfic of any length I've written was a Lois & Clark futurefic almost wholly devoted to the middle of the three daughters I invented for them, the only one born without superpowers. Though I have been known to refer to my current original fiction projects as "Jane Austen fanfic."

Just looked at the strangest fricking xover I've ever seen...Buffy/Giving Tree. Huh? I was thinking it was G/W but it looks like Giles and a willow.(and I'm so not the right person to be puzzled by this. And yet...)

BA that was halfway to a dual BA/BS, no assignments to imitate style.

My degree is a typical majorless Liberal Arts degree, and my non-science stuff dealt mainly with history and folklore, with most of that time spent on Slavic history and folklore, some on Latin American and Celtic.

There was a good deal of random film stuff scattered throughout.

I worked on, but not for credit, a James Bond parody, and a series of satirical shorts on the state of television (acting, makeup, props, and costume).

Just looked at the strangest fricking xover I've ever seen...Buffy/Giving Tree. Huh? I was thinking it was G/W but it looks like Giles and a willow.

If that's Mad Poetess's new one, it rocks hard.

BS in Communications, several writing assignments, plus an advanced composition class. Never asked to imitate a writer or a style. Our teachers were more concerned with getting coherence and thought out of us. I suspect Dr. Park, my advanced comp prof, would have sighed wearily if he thought a student was imitating someone else's style rather that using their own words. I've never even heard of instructing someone to imitate someone else.

Well, the closest thing I did to imitative work was to create a screenplay from a chosen short story. I did a Wodehouse story, but that was more trying to translate to a visual medium rather than creating words.

BA in English, here, with a few courses in Creative Writing. I don't think I've ever been assigned to imitate someone's style as such, but I did write one fic with the goal of producing something that Terry Pratchett might have written if he were writing for that series. Oddly enough, even though there are some parts of the story that scream Pratchett (the footnotes in particular), I do feel that in the end, the style was pretty much my own.

I go to fanfic, both as a reader and a writer, to get something I'm not getting from canon for whatever reason. Sometimes that's just a more leisurely, detailed exploration of interpersonal relationships than an action-oriented TV format typically allows. Sometimes it's a futurefic or an AU, for the sheer joy of the what-if.

Susan speaks for me. In addition, another big motive for me when it comes to writing fic is that of wanting to fill in the blanks of canon, in terms of backstory, and so on. I'm also addicted to writing (and reading) crossovers. I love to look for organic but not-obvious connections between different series, and see what kinds of stories those connections might suggest.