Focus Group Discussion Guide The group is composed of eight (8) participants and two (2) researchers.

Participants for the FGD will be purposively selected by the researchers, who are all friends. The focus of the study is about the usage, gratifications and purpose of Wattpad.com to college students, and what are the benefits and effects of an online reading and writing portal to the comprehensive skills of the students. TIME LINE: 1. Introduction of the researchers. 2. Introduction of the respondents. a. Complete name, course, year and age 3. Introduction of the topic and the purpose of FGD. a. What is Wattpad.com? b. What is the research all about? c. What is FGD and how it works? 4. Establish rapport and assurance with the participants. a. Ask if the participants are comfortable or not. b. Ask something about school c. Ask something about their friendship d. Find common interest 5. Question and answer portion. NOTES: a. Make sure everyone will participate. b. If we cant get the answers that we needed, try leading questions. c. Make sure to listen well. d. Take down notes. e. Show enthusiasm while listening. f. Dont forget to clarify if the answers were not clear.

GUIDE QUESTIONS: Usage: 1. When did you started to use Wattpad.com? (year) a. How did you know about it? b. How many years or months have you been using Wattpad.com?

c. Are you continuously active on Wattpad.com? d. Wattpad.com is not just an application for reading and a portal for writing, but also another form of social media that can be used to communicate with others. How do you find it productive when it comes to finding new friends and having fans? 2. The main purpose of Wattpad.com is ONLINE READING. How many of you use the media to write and publish stories? a. When did you start to use Wattpad.com for writing stories? b. What are your reasons why did you started to write stories? c. How many years or months have you been contributing to Wattpad.com? d. How do you write stories? Is it per chapter or you finish the story first before publishing it? e. What language are you using when you write? English or Filipino? f. How long will you write a story? How many stories did you already written?

g. Do you have a specific genre when you write? h. What are the benefits of writing to you? (psychological and social) i. There were a lot of critiques out there, professionals, amateurs, or just fans. So how do you cope up with their critiques? j. What are the common critiques? About the grammar, the flow of the story, etc.

k. Wattpad.com has this comment space, and there were other fans who are suggesting about the flow of your story, so how do you address this comments and suggestions? l. For writing for that long, do you have find yourself having improvements when it comes to your writing? Please give some examples. m. How do you address the pressure of gaining popularity? n. Do you use wattpad.com for your career as an amateur writer? 3. For reading; why did you choose to read in Wattpad.com? a. Where do you commonly use wattpad.com? (gadgets) b. When do you commonly use it? (break, night, morning, lunch) c. How many hours do you spend using wattpad.com? d. How many stories have you read? e. What do you prefer, Filipino or English stories? f. Can you give us example of titles of your favourite stories? (if possible, with authors)

g. What are the common genres that you read?

h. Can you describe to us your feelings whenever you read? i. j. Does it have an effect to you? (psychological and social) When it comes to studies?

k. How about the quality of the stories? Almost all of the stories were written by amateur writers and also maybe students like you or younger than you. How do you find their writing? Is it good, or just okay? 4. Besides from reading or writing, what do you do in wattpad.com? (Critiquing, looking for a literary piece for a specific school subject, etc.) a. If youre critiquing, how do you critique? (both the author and the story) 5. Do you use wattpad.com to voice out your opinions and perspectives?

General Perception to the Website and Application 6. How is the overall look of the website? a. Color combination. b. The design of the website. c. The different features of Wattpad.com (i.e. comment box, writing space including tools for editing, and other social media purposes) 7. What do you think with the security features of the website? 8. What about the application? a. The application can be downloaded for free, but how about the stories? b. Can you use the application even without internet? c. How about the speed of the application? d. The fonts and the colors are fine? e. Can you write stories when you use the application in your cell phone or tablet? Or is it just on the website? 9. What can you say about the awards and contests that the Wattpad.com hosts? 10. What about the connection of Wattpad.com to other social media networking sites like Facebook and Twitter? 11. There are sections in the website like crowd sourcing. One example is the Fan Funding. It is where fans can contribute to publish a hard bound book version of a specific story in Wattpad.com. This allows the readers to give funds to their favourite authors. So do you use these different sections? What are your views about it?

Effects of using Wattpad.com: 12. Does wattpad.com helps you to enhance your reading comprehension? a. Can you give us a detailed explanation? 13. Does it also help you when it comes to your writing skills? a. Grammar b. Flow of the story 14. Does wattpad.com helped you to appreciate literary arts? 15. Does it help you with your creativity skills? a. How and where do you apply it, besides from writing stories? (script writing, film making, etc.) 16. Does reading in wattpad.com helps you with your communication skills? 17. Does wattpad.com helps you to improve your social skills? a. How many friends or fans did you already gained? b. Does it have improvements in your self esteem?