This document summarizes Julia Smythe's research on writing anxiety among intermediate level college freshmen. Smythe administered a questionnaire to 35 students at a rural community college. The results showed that 66% of respondents experienced current anxiety about writing, with over half feeling most anxious during prewriting. Additionally, 54% reported not liking writing. Smythe's research explores factors that can cause writing anxiety, such as a lack of self-efficacy, understanding of the writing process, and past negative writing experiences. Understanding and addressing writing anxiety is important because it can inhibit students' academic success and career prospects.

1. Julia Smythe
English W501
Seminar Project
12/01/15
"Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen"
Julia Smythe
Indiana University East
____________________________________________________
Abstract: Research continues to show that incoming college students, regardless of age,
experience writing anxiety. Many factors are attributed to writing anxiety, including
self-efficacy, understanding of the writing process, and past experiences involving
written tasks. This article explores who experiences writing anxiety, what causes it, and
how it may be alleviated to enhance student success in writing. Thirty-five
intermediate-level English students at a rural community college participated in a
questionnaire about writing anxiety. Results show that, ultimately, a lack of
understanding of the writing process may be the root cause of writing anxiety.
_________________________________________________

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As an English 100 instructor at Kaskaskia College in rural, Centralia, Illinois,
each semester I encounter students who show mild to severe anxiety when they are
prompted to engage in written tasks. Some of these anxious students are obvious to
pin-point; they sit in the back, are mousey and quiet, and turn red when called upon.
Others are harder to identify because they participate well, do the assignments, and
show no physical signs of stress. Of course all the students enrolled in my English 100
class have tested into it, needing help with the basic processes of writing. Rarely does a
student take my class out of pure free will.
So for the purpose of this research I asked the basic, overarching question: why do
incoming college students experience writing anxiety? Research relating to composition and
anxiety is endless, as writing is an ever-present task in academia and other professional
fields.
Anxiety
Martinez, Kock, and Cass noted two types of anxiety; that students seem to either have
somatic anxiety, like tension, unpleasant feelings, and worrying about their own ability
to write, or behavioral anxiety, like withdrawal, avoidance, and procrastination with
writing tasks. For the purpose of my own research, I defined anxiety as: The quality or
state of being anxious; uneasiness or trouble of mind about some uncertain even: solicitude,
concern.
Who Experiences Writing Anxiety?
Writing anxiety knows no age limit or profession. "Professional writers, amateur
writers, and unskilled or basic writers all share what Donald M. Murray refers to as the
'terror of the blank page'" (Registad 68). Anne Lamott, in Shitty First Drafts, confesses "I
know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a

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great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic
and confident" (1).
Pearl Aldrich, in Adult Writers: Some Factors that Interfere with Effective Writing
(1982), found that professional adults with high levels of education, too, experience
writing anxiety. Aldrich conducted a multi-part study, with a survey administered to
254 top- and mid-level managers in their workforce, including technology consulting
firms, branches of the military, and Federal civil service jobs; some at the GS 12 level
and above. Among the 254 respondents, just over half revealed they had no training in
writing beyond freshmen composition. Interestingly, Aldrich first concluded that some
respondents—who seemed to show attitude in their feedback—were simply
overconfident: “These self-rated excellent and above-average writers seemed touchy
and defensive about answering questions that revealed how they write…I didn’t call
this attitude “writing anxiety”…[but later my attention turned] to the possibility that
these responses were due to writing anxiety” (287).
Martinez, Kock, and Casss explore gender as it is related to anxiety. Some
research suggests that women experience more anxiety than do men, but that little
research has been conducted to show a strong correlation. "Clayton (1990) argued that
women may encounter more difficulty mediating between their own voice and the
demands of the academic audience...[and of ] conventions of power of authority" and
that perhaps it's a difficult balance; what is expected of them from others in relation to
their writing and what they expect for themselves, which can lead to higher anxiety
(352).
Anxiety is prevalent among university students according to Martinez, Kock,
and Cass (351). And I find that, too, my incoming college students seem paralyzed at
the thought of writing...anything!

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Why Does Anxiety Matter?
Adult students are less likely to persist than younger students and most likely to drop
out in their first year back in school (Cleary 65). Writing is consistently one of the
classroom tasks which cause students to fail. In a study of nontraditional students at
CUNY, participants ranked term papers as the most stressful of twenty-seven tasks.
Adults returning to school, in comparison to younger students, have substantially
higher anxiety in regards to writing.
Research has shown that students with higher anxiety, overall, receive lower
grades. Some students actually perceive their writing to be a barrier to continuing with
their education. This is not only a problem for schools and instructors who count on
high enrollment to keep their jobs, but for overall student success, which is at the heart
of why we become educators in the first place.
Writing anxiety is not only problematic in the classroom setting, but in
professional environments as well. Again, Aldrich concluded that some well-educated
adults, who earned degrees in engineering, chemistry, law, etc., move on into
professional careers, are capable of basic mechanics and grammar, but are unable to
write effectively. These ineffective writers lack understanding of the writing process
and their written work usually results in "...clumsy, redundant...pompous statements
[which is the writer's attempt] to hide behind a barricade of words--any words, the
more obtuse the better--so that their confusions about writing and their fear that they
can't write well will not be revealed" (298). The work they produce turns out to be
disorganized, wordy; conceptually ineffective, which can have a negative effect on their
careers.
Registad noted that the majority of sustainable jobs require post-secondary
education and skills in advanced writing and critical thinking. “The counterproductive,

5. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 5
debilitating writing anxiety most often felt by basic writers…can prevent the flow of
any writing” (68).
So if writing anxiety inhibits the basic tasks of writing, affects enrollment and
academic success, and even obstructs the quality of work in the professional career
field, then writing anxiety matters. Perhaps addressing the concern for writing anxiety
and its effects should begin at the instructional level. More thoughts on this are
revealed later in the section Approaches to the Problem.
Research Methods
There's no qualitative way to define anxiety as a psychological construct and it's
commonly assessed by self-reports, behavior, and physiological signs.
The most common measurement of general anxiety is the self-report. In
response to the anxiety...observed to be prevalent among college basic
writers, John A. Daly and Michael D. Miller developed a standardized
self-report instrument to isolate apprehensive basic writers from those
who are not...
Despite the existence of other measures of writing apprehension,
most studies of the relationship between writing anxiety and writing
performance have compared results on writing tests to WAT scores
(Registad 69).
For my own research, I designed the Experienced Anxiety in Composition
Questionnaire. This questionnaire included 24 questions, which probed into participants
ages, majors, whether reading or writing was enjoyable, and if/when/at what point
anxiety is experienced in the writing process. I surveyed 35 students from a local
community college, all at the intermediate English level. While thirty-five students

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seems not large enough of a sample, it's important to know that classes are small; my
own English 100 class consisted of 7 students. The questionnaire was anonymous.
Students who participated in the survey ranged in age from 18-23. About half were
undecided in their majors and were enrolled in the intermediate English courses
because it was required. The following data I found to be highlights of the
questionnaire: 50% of the students reported enjoying reading, while the other 50%
reported no enjoyment in reading. Of the 50% who indicated that they do enjoy
reading, 35% indicated that they do not enjoy writing; while the remaining 64%
reported liking the activity of writing, especially for pleasure. Nineteen of the 35 total
respondents, 54%, reported they do not like writing. The majority of respondents, 66%,
indicated experiencing current anxiety in regards to writing; and a majority experiences
anxiety at the prewriting phase. These findings are further explored by the literature
reported within this article.
Table 1: Key Data Breakdown
Enjoys Reading Does not Enjoy
Writing
Experiences Writing
Anxiety
Experiences Anxiety
at the Pre-Writing
Phase
% of total respondents 50% 54% 66% 53%
Yet Does not
Like Writing
35%
Factors Which Cause Writing Anxiety
Self-Efficacy. According to Martinez, Kock, and Cass, self-efficacy is the belief in one's
ability to succeed and that this most definitely affects motivation and academic
achievement. A longitudinal study by Rechtien and Dizinno (1998) found that students

7. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 7
with higher self-efficacy were more in control of their writing, the writing process,
receiving feedback, and they experienced less anxiety (353).
Alice G. Brand explores how emotion affects the writing process. And she
insists that “No number of studies of writer’s block or apprehension make up for the
lack of serious research on the role of affect in writing” (436). Written discourse is a
representation of thought. Critical thinking gives writers the ability to identify,
organize, and manipulate relationships systematically.
Interpretation means reorganizing and storing ideas…in line with our
interests and values…Speech syntax becomes increasingly abbreviated.
Articles and adjectives disappear, pronouns drop off, and the predicates
shrink to verbs—until what remains in our mind is only the single naming
word. Fully internalized, that single work carries the most information
and comes closest to pure meaning…Pure meaning is endowed with
images and connotation. Pure meaning is saturated with affect. But the
profession side-steps this (437).
Brand also suggests a blind spot in writing theory in regards to how long-term
memory and language interact. Constructing memory is central to cognition; writing is
an exercise in decision making. Cognitive ability can be traced back to emotion.
If we are looking at critical thinking, we are also looking at moral
orientation. If we are looking at moral orientation, we are looking at belief
systems. If we are looking at belief systems, we are looking at attitude. If
we are looking at attitude, we are looking at preference. If we are looking
at preference, we are looking at the fundamental polarities of good and
bad and are expected to choose the good over the bad. If we are deciding
on the goodness or badness of things, we are trading in the affect (438).

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McCarthy et al. recognize the importance of self-efficacy and its effect on writing.
A student’s assessment of his or her written work can influence the quality of work he
or she produces; and a strong correlation has been found between these self-evaluations
and the quality of work produced. McCarthy et al., “…defined self-evaluation as
assessment of ‘self-efficacy,’ a construct described and studied by social learning
theorist Albert Bandura” (465). This self-efficacy theory is a formulated model to help
explain and change human behaviors; it distinguishes between outcome expectations
and efficacy expectations, and is important to understanding how students learn to
write. Hence, individuals will successfully perform a task when they know which
behaviors will produce the desired outcome and if they evaluate themselves as capable
of performing the behaviors. Therefore, if a writer does not believe he or she can
successfully write, then he or she will not write successfully. So it makes sense that to
improve writing we must enhance an individual’s efficacy expectations about his or her
writing.
My own research indicates that 37% of respondents to my questionnaire judged
themselves as either horrible or crappy writers. Most of them indicated that they indeed
do not enjoy writing, while a few actually indicated they like to write, even though they
think they stink. In contradiction, 2 of the 13 respondents who considered him/herself
to be a poor writer also indicated he/she was an experienced writer (I'll come back to
this later). Nevertheless, this data helps corroborate the idea that poor self-efficacy
may indeed lead to poor writing.
Table 2: Self-Efficacy & Writing
Judged His/Herself as a Horrible or Crappy Writer
37%
And Does Not
Enjoy Writing
Yet Enjoys Writing
% of the 37% 61% 38%

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McCarthy et al. conducted a study to determine whether the strength of
efficacy expectations is related to quality of writing and to provide a better
picture of the psychological variables related to effective writing. They identified
anxiety, locus of control, and cognitive style as variables of their research.
Locus of control “designates individuals’ general beliefs about whether
the rewards and punishments in their lives are controlled by themselves or by
[external agents]” (467). In terms of cognitive styles, they suggest that “...a
cognitive style of ‘deep’ information processing is related to effective writing.
‘Deep’ processors are abstract thinkers who look for meaning in information,
compare and contrast ideas, and evaluate information, as opposed to 'shallow'
processors, who simply memorize material (467). In this regard, McCarthy et al.
constructed four hypotheses.
1) Students who evaluate themselves as capable of performing
various writing tasks and feel fairly certain about their self-
evaluation, i.e., those with strong efficacy, will be better writers
than students with weak efficacy. 2) Students who experience less
anxiety will be better writers than students who are highly anxious.
3) Students who are more inclined to believe that their locos of
control is internal will be better writers than students who are more
inclined to believe that control is external. 4) Student who are deep
information processors will be better writers than students who are
shallow processors (468).

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They went on to assess the in-class expository writing of 137 freshmen at a
university in Southern Illinois at the beginning and end of one semester. The students
also participated in questionnaires and self-evaluations of their writing. When all was
said and done, McCarthy et al. found that of the four
possible predictors of writing performance, students
with a strong sense of self-efficacy did write better, as
did less anxious writers. They further suggest that
future diagnosis of self-efficacy should include questions
about the composing process, like “Can you generate
ideas for writing?” or “Can you write for different types
of audiences?” They also question whether accurate assessment of self-efficacy predicts
writing performance. “Our research suggests that students who accurately evaluate
themselves as effective writers do in fact write well, while those who assess themselves
as poor writers perform accordingly. But we frequently see writers, especially at the
basic writing level, who either vastly over-rate or under-rate their writing performance.
(469).
Negative Past Experiences. Writing anxiety has been linked to students' early experiences
with writing. When I began my research, I thought for sure that this factor was high on
the list of issues which causes writing anxiety. However, the literature, and my own
study-results overwhelmingly pointed to other factors. One respondent to my
questionnaire noted a cause for writing anxiety after witnessing a classmate receive a
harsh punishment for plagiarism on a previous paper. But again, negative past
experiences with writing did not correlate high with writing anxiety in my own
research.
Fear of Evaluation. Some writers fear error and are crippled by any type of feedback, be
it from an instructor or peers. “…editing often plays an intrusive role that ‘breaks
How students view
themselves as writers has a
huge influence on how well or
poorly they may write.

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down the rhythms generated by thinking and writing” (Registad 681). Although my
own research showed no strong correlation to writing anxiety and negative past
experiences, there were a few students who did indicate a link between writing anxiety
and fear of evaluation. The survey included the question: Is there a particular memory or
situation from your past, involving written tasks, which caused this anxiety? One participant
answered in the affirmative and then with "When you feel you have done good and
then get a poor grade." Another participant answered the same question with "Horrible
grades on papers mostly."
"Writing anxiety is also related to students' poor performances on English
writing exams and in jobs requiring writing...Therefore, writing anxiety is a central
concern for university faculty" (Martinez, Kock, and Cass 351). Students should be able
to enter the job market with the ability to write well as per their job descriptions. If we
instructors are seeing students fail the writing portion of exams, this must mean we
must rethink instruction.
Lack of Understanding of the Writing Process. As noted before, many writers face a terror
of the blank page. Registad found that basic writers are highly anxious because of their
unfamiliarity of the craft of writing and that students are “…less terrified of writing
once they are encouraged to think of it as a process, as a series of stages, draft upon
uncorrected draft, through which they eventually discover their subject” (68). Aldrich
says: “…the root of the problem of well-educated adults who must write to perform
their jobs… [is that] they have no method by which to plan their work and organize
their material” (287). “The student who has made a negative judgment about writing
and approaches it without confidence presents a major challenge…confidence cannot be
founded on apathy or boredom” (Novick 50).

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Pause. Remember earlier when I noted 2 of the 13 respondents who considered
him/herself to be a poor writer who also indicated he/she was an experienced writer?
Could this be that, perhaps, although these individuals have a lot of writing experience,
they perceive themselves to be bad at writing because they are receiving undesirable
results/feedback? Or is it simply their own self-criticism? If these students consider
themselves bad at writing, perhaps it doesn't matter how much experience they have at
writing, maybe it's that they've been going about writing incorrectly all along. In
reality, practice doesn't make perfect unless you practice correctly.
At Mohawk Valley Technical Institute at Utica in 1959, a program was planned
with the aims of building writing competence and enhancing confidence among
students. "We believe lack of confidence in writing arises because the student has no
method of dealing with the organization of ideas" (Novick 51). The process of
organizing was divided into four steps in which students had to think and categorize
which information goes into which step. Students wrote papers with outlines, rough
drafts; they graded each other's papers. Students were asked to log any notions that
came to mind about writing, where grammar and punctuation was overlooked so not to
spoil their level of confidence. After eleven weeks of the course, students did show an
improvement in their ability to organize for writing.
My own research shows a high correlation to writing anxiety and the writing
process; 66% of respondents in my questionnaire indicated that they feel writing
anxiety, and the majority of anxiety is experienced in the prewriting phase of writing. I
consider the answer choices of When informed I have to write and Pre-writing to be
categorized as the same; as in, pre-writing. This means that 53% of respondents feel
anxiety before the drafting process even begins.

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Table 3: Percent of Total Respondents Answers to Questions 16 & 23
16
To what extent do
you currently feel
anxiety? 17% 40% 14%
1
Very little
2
Some
3
A lot
4
Extreme
23
At what point do
you experience
anxiety in regards to
writing?
(circle all that apply) Pre-writing Drafting Revising Publishing
31% 20% <1% 17%
When informed I have to write
22%
My students, however, enroll in my intermediate English course because their
previous test scores show they have a lack of basic writing skills. We start the semester
by learning that writing is a process; that it is recursive; that the four stages of the
writing process are prewriting, drafting, revising, and publishing. Later in the semester
we focus on grammar and mechanics. Yet throughout the whole course, we continually
work on clear sentences, combining sentences to create paragraphs, creating outlines,
and small writing tasks in response to--whatever topic we are exploring. Still, though, I
witness students struggling to get their pens to move on the paper. In hindsight, I
would have included more questions on the questionnaire which target whether or not
they have an understanding of the writing process.
Writing as a Mode for Learning
Writing is an important task which is demanded of us at some point in our lives. It is
also been found to be a successful strategy to learning. Bazeman et al. contend that
writing to learn is based on the observation that students’ thought and understanding
can grow and clarify through the process of writing (2005) and describe three
functional types of writing: transactional, for communicating; poetic, for creating; and
expressive, for exploring and reflecting upon ideas. “Because writing is

14. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 14
neurophysiologically integrative, connective, active, and available for immediate visual
review…it represents a unique form of learning that deserves increased experimental
and theoretical attention” (58).
In keeping with the three functional types of writing, results of my survey show
that of the 35 respondents, 43% enjoyed writing for pleasure, while less than 1%
enjoyed writing to communicate, such as for work and things like writing letters to
loved ones. The box below is an excerpt from my survey. I chunked all the answer
choices that I think would fall into the category of writing to create (as one of the three
functional types of writing) and indicated them in red. I color-coded, in blue, the
choices which, in my mind, seem to fall into the writing to communicate category. I could
not distinguish any of the choices below as expressive writing, for exploring and reflecting
upon ideas. Perhaps adding a choice of Journaling would help to indicate whether
students enjoyed engaging in this third, functional type of writing. What this data says
to me, is that writing is an important, meaningful activity. Because the majority of
respondents indicated an enjoyment of writing for creative purposes, writing can be
used and prescribed to enhance learning.
Table 4: Respondents and Functional Types of Writing
*43% of respondents
circled one or more of
the choices in red.
*Less than 1% circled
one of more of the
choices in blue.
I enjoy writing: (circle all that apply)
For pleasure Persuasive essays For work Poetry Non-fiction
News articles Short stories Summaries Fiction Narrative essays
I do not enjoy writing
other: (explain) "I wrote letters to my boyfriend in the military"

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In the past, there has been a lack of empirical research supporting writing as a
mode of learning. “By 1983, a noticeable body of literature had amassed, uniformly
celebrating writing as a central learning process…[and it was recognized that] writing
involves a variety of recursively operating sub processes rather than a linear sequence;
writers differ in their uses of the processes; and the processes vary depending on the
nature of the writing task” (58). One example of this is of note-taking; this strategy was
more effective for studying compared to reading or listening, or underlining , even.
Furthermore, essay writing was found to require that writers integrate elements of –the
topic at hand--into their own knowledge schema of the topic rather than leaving
information in isolated parts, which leads to a better understanding of concepts
compared to, say, answering study questions.
A study by Langer and Applebee in 1987 drew three important conclusions: that
writing activities promote learning better than activities involving only studying or
reading; that different kinds of writing activities lead students to focus on different
kinds of information; and that analytic writing promotes more complex and thoughtful
inquiry but on a smaller amount of information. Journal writing, or free writing, has
also proven to be an effective method for writing to learn.
One experiment, by Robert Canon in 1990, focused on whether journal writing
helped to improve his microbiology, virology, and immunology students’ writing skills
as well as the interaction with class material. In the end, his students reported having a
positive experience with free writing activities and Canon was convinced that students
were learning more about the class content because they were spending more time
thinking about the discipline through writing. Other studies have shown similar,
positive results for integrating writing into other academic disciplines. One note,
however, to be considered: “With mandatory journal writing also comes the increased
responsibility of ensuring student’s rights to privacy and confidentiality, a

16. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 16
responsibility that English suggests teachers take very seriously before implementing
journal writing in the classroom” (65).
Approaches to the Problem
If we actually think about writing anxiety in relation to instructional effectiveness, we
may see how our teaching decisions can affect writing anxiety. Because “Fear of errors,
unfamiliarity with the composing process, and a lack
of voice…” is a reason why anxious writers fail,
teachers can turn “…failure into competence by
applying current knowledge about writing anxiety to
their teaching practices and evaluative measures”
(Registad 69).
Most strategies for reducing writing anxiety share the common goal to build
confidence. A program developed by Teresa Glazier attempts to improve this issue by
helping students with writing thesis statements, getting students to write
“immediately”, providing supportive statements, and letting students feel successful.
Another strategy, developed by Merle O’Rourke Thompson, defines a ‘language study
approach’ model in which students talk in small groups about language, read and write
about language, and respond to each other’s writing.
The instructors at State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo use five
strategies for helping highly apprehensive writers; they use student-teacher
conferences, they encourage students to analyze their own writing processes, avoid
formal evaluation of student work in the early phases, refer students to university
resources, and assign the appropriate level of sentence-combining exercises.
In College Freshmen Can't (?) Write, Robert Baden proposes that one problem may
be that we instructors automatically assume the position that college students can NOT
write. "If there is one generalization popular with regard to the writing of college
Tweaking the way we
educators approach writing
instruction can benefit students
greatly.

17. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 17
students, particularly freshman college students, it is the one that says, with varying
degrees emphasis, that they cannot write" (430). We have all been there. Sharing
papers with colleagues. Smirking at the ridiculous writing blunders; the abundant
dependent clauses, misuse of the comma, off-topic supporting details... We expect
students to know better than this at this stage of academia. But what Baden says is that,
knowing these hideous blunders our students make, we restructure the English classes,
lowering the bar.
It is quite interesting to consider how these constants might change if the
assumption were different. If we would assume instead that college students CAN
write, we would certainly change our methods of writing instruction; we would be
forced to change the syllabus, different terms might be necessary to describe what
happens, the objective of making a student capable of a minimal written response might
become one of allowing, encouraging, and helping him to use the skills he has, and
experienced teachers might again be tempted to spend time with the freshman writing
program. At the same time, Freshman English might shake off the image of a service
course for the institution and become a center of writing experience instead of a
sacrifice on the altars of science, history, and education.
Michelle Navarre Cleary, in Anxiety and the Newly Returned Adult Student,
highlights some common ways to reduce anxiety:
Composition scholars who work with adults most often recommend the
following practices: Encouraging students to write about their
experiences and their prior learning... Creating collaborative learning
...Demystifying academic writing with explicit instruction ...Assigning
frequent, low-stakes writing and teaching writing as a process with
multiple drafts ...Providing feedback on drafts that is focused and

18. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 18
formative, praises strengths, and offers constructive criticism that helps
students develop ideas (371).
Martinez, Kock, and Cass suggest that "By assessing writing anxiety as a
multidimensional construct, researchers can examine the relationship between the
psychological, cognitive and behavioral effects of writing anxiety and the various
outcomes" (352). Developing and using coping skills, such as meditation, breathing
exercises, and guided imagery have worked to alleviate anxiety for students who
experience somatic anxiety; some of these strategies might be used before, say, a written
exam. For those who experience behavioral anxiety in which they procrastinate or
avoid the writing task, taking advantage of faculty support, writing labs, and mentoring
can help reduce anxiety.
Brand suggests that future studies about the affective processes in writing should
be a knowledge which is clear and useful to teachers and students. Critical questions at
the basis of this suggestion include: what happens affectively between having an idea
about writing and creating the first draft? How do students read their own writing?
How do writers affective states vary with each part of the writing process?
Examining how emotions impact writing can help us understand why some
problems occur during the writing process and how we might solve them. In the past,
the field of composition looked at the what of writing. Then it moved to examine the
how of writing. The field should now be looking at the why of writing. “We are just
now recognizing that personality may govern discursive style, just as discursive style
had an impact on personality. In fact, how personality influences the way writers
function is the direction I think composition research is ultimately headed" (Brand 441).

19. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 19
All Signs Point To…
….a lack of understanding of the writing process. As per Novick "We believe lack of
confidence in writing arises because the student has no method of dealing with the
organization of ideas" (51). Aldrich says it: “…the root of the problem of well-educated
adults who must write to perform their jobs… [is that] they
have no method by which to plan their work and organize
their material” (287). My own research with the Experienced
Anxiety in composition Questionnaire, revealed that 66% of
respondents currently experience anxiety with writing tasks,
overwhelmingly at the pre-writing and drafting phase of the writing process.
Over and over, the literature is telling us that two major factors cause writing
anxiety: a lack of self-efficacy and a lack of understanding of the writing process.
Writers experience writing anxiety because they don't know where or how to begin.
Even past, negative, experiences involving writing are no matter, because, if we teach
how to go about the process of writing; how to organize material and to recursively
edit, students will find that they can be good writers. Synonymous with teaching the
writing process is helping students develop a sense of positive self-efficacy. When they
know how to go about writing, they will experience confidence, because they know
they can. If we approach our incoming students with the position that they CAN write,
students may just live up to that expectation.
This research has been meaningful to me. It caused me to focus on and explore
the needs of my incoming students. I knew they had writing anxiety. I always
wondered why. But I never thought about addressing the issue itself. Perhaps the most
important revelation for me is that self-efficacy plays a huge role in the ability to write
successfully. I already teach about the writing process. Now I will put more emphasis
Understanding the
writing process is key.

20. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 20
on building their confidence and making them feel like successful writers, even when
they're terrified or make mistakes.

21. Smythe | Writing Anxiety and Intermediate Level College Freshmen 21
Works Cited
Aldrich, Pearl G. "Adult Writers: Some Factors that Interfere with Effective Writing."
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Appendix A
INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDY INFORMATION SHEET
Experienced Anxiety in Composition
You are invited to participate in a research study of anxiety as it relates to writing and
composition. You were selected as a possible subject because you are in a class which includes
writing tasks at the intermediate college level. We ask that you read this form and ask any
questions you may have before agreeing to be in the study.
The study is being conducted by Julia Smythe of Kaskaskia College with Dr. Clint Stevens
aiding in the administering of the survey.
STUDY PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to discover whether students experience anxiety in regards to
writing assignments, why students experience such anxiety, and the various factors connected
to this anxiety.
PROCEDURES FOR THE STUDY:
If you agree to be in the study, you will do the following things: Fill out a one-time survey with
twenty-four questions.
RISKS AND BENEFITS
The risks of participating in this research may result in feeling uncomfortable answering the
survey questions. The possible benefits of participating in this research may result in a better
understanding of how instructors should approach the curriculum, in terms of composition, for
optimal student success.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The survey is anonymous and all information is confidential.
CONTACTS FOR QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS
For questions about the study, contact the researcher, Julia Smythe, 618-545-3428.
For questions about your rights as a research participant or to discuss problems, complaints or
concerns about a research study, or to obtain information, or offer input, contact the IU Human
Subjects Office at (317) 278-3458 or [for Indianapolis] or (812) 856-4242 [for Bloomington] or
(800) 696-2949.
VOLUNTARY NATURE OF STUDY
Taking part in this study is voluntary. You may choose not to take part or may leave the study
at any time. Leaving the study will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits to which you are
entitled. Your decision whether or not to participate in this study will not affect your current or
future relations Kaskaskia College.

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