Do you Struggle with Writing?

Writing Apprehension and

Writing Anxiety may be the reasons why
By: Elisa Ngo

Writing can be a difficult task for many people to do. In my personal experiences,
writing has always been a challenge because I struggle with formulating and
articulating all of my ideas into words to create a well structured and cohesive essay. I
would often compare myself to my English or writing course classmates which made
me feel insecure about my writing skills. I felt that the quality of my writing products
could never amount to my fellow peers who seemed to excel when writing. Writing
would always leave me frustrated.

Oftentimes, I dreaded the writing process and going to English or writing classes
because I doubted my ability to write. I wondered if my anxiety and apprehension
towards writing plays a role in my experiences with writing. In this blog, I will uncover
the research question on the relationship between writing apprehension and writing
anxiety with writing performance and competency.

What is Writing Apprehension and Writing Anxiety?

Writing apprehension is the tendency to avoid situations that involve and/or require
writing. This is usually followed up with high-levels of anxiety when faced with the
task of writing, which refers to the term of writing anxiety.

For a person who experiences writing anxiety, it affects their behaviors and attitudes
towards writing which can be translated into their writing products.
Writing Apprehension and Anxiety on Writing Performance

From a study by professors at the University of Texas at Austin, Faigley, et al. found
differences in writing performances between high and low apprehensive individuals for
different types of essays. High apprehensive writers scored lower on writing skill tests
and had a difference in quality for writing personal narratives compared to low
apprehensive writers–they used less writing conventions and created shorter length
and less “fluent” essays. This shows that writing apprehension plays a role in writing
performance.

While I was learning that this relationship affected first language students, like myself,
I didn’t realize that writing anxiety and apprehension can affect anyone, especially
second language learners, such as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a
Second Language (ESL) students. I decided to dig a little deeper into this relationship
by looking at other studies by Erkan, et al. and Kara who focus on second language
learners.

In a writing apprehension test by Erkan, et al., instructors at Cukurova University in

Turkey, low apprehensive students performed better than high apprehensive students
in writing skill tests. Their self-efficacy in writing scale and questionnaire on writing
attitudes, or attitude towards writing such as a person’s feelings about their writing
and self-evaluation on that writing, also show that when writing apprehension
increases, writing performance decreases, and vice versa; as writing apprehension
increases, writing self-efficacy or successfulness decreases, and vice versa. Also, as
writing apprehension increases, writing attitude increases, or as writing apprehension
decreases, writing attitude decreases. This shows that there is some relationship
between writing apprehension and writing performance, which matches Faigley, et al.’s
study.

ESL students wrote some paragraphs about their reasons for writing anxiety and
failure in writing courses, and their attitudes towards writing in a study by Kara, an
assistant professor at Anadolu University in Turkey. The reasons for writing anxiety are
categorized into four groups:

1. Writing itself
2. Writing as a skill
3. The instructor
4. The coursebook

For the first category, ESL students had writing anxiety due to limited experiences and
habits of writing, and they were not used to expressing themselves in writing. The
second category showed that students lacked the skills and strategies needed for
writing such as organizing ideas, gathering information, and combining ideas. For the
third category, students expressed that the instructor wasn’t encouraging, didn’t
provide good feedback, and wasn’t interested in students’ writing problems, and their
teaching style didn’t work for them. In the fourth category of the coursebook, it shows
that the lack of examples, exercises, and explanations for writing caused failure in
writing courses since it didn’t help students.

The effects of the sources of writing anxiety in ESL students is revealed in their writing
performances and failures in writing courses. By looking at these reasons for writing
anxiety, this study has helped perfectly communicate my struggles with writing that I
couldn’t fully express in my own words. I hope that this information can be useful to
you to help you understand how you can find your sources of writing anxiety or writing
apprehension and learn how to navigate through these problems for future references.
Also, I would like to know if you have experienced these sorts of problems with
writing.

Badrasawi et al., professors at the International Islamic University Malaysia,

interviewed a writing instructor and student to show their perception on writing
apprehension and writing performance. The instructor and student both share that
writing apprehension has a negative impact on writing performance. For example, the
instructor had to learn how to manage the student’s anxiety which affected the flow of
lessons and the student voices that their apprehension would affect their quality of
writing, and they could not properly organize and produce their ideas. The direct
experiences told by a writing teacher and student show the negative effects of writing
apprehension on performance.

Suggestions and Strategies to Reduce Writing Apprehension

Kara shares that when writing instructors are faced with any anxious and apprehensive
writers, they should refer to the four categories of reasons for writing anxiety in
students to prevent anxiety and apprehension. Erkan, et al. suggests that writing
competency in apprehensive students can be built from confidence through
self-efficacy. For example, self-efficacy can be seen in things such as completing tasks,
feeling accomplishment and success after completing tasks, and receiving messages
from authority figures.
In an interview from Badrasawi, et al., the instructor would help train the student on
how to manage time for writing exams, give advice and exercises to learn how to
organize ideas, provide writing samples to use, encourage the student to read to
understand vocabulary, expressions, and structures, and tried to mitigate a negative
attitude towards writing by telling the student that they possess the ability to write
and motivate them to be patient. Also, the student provided some ideas for teachers
like knowing the students’ problem, teaching seriously, summarizing the lessons,
checking the students’ writings, and teaching more writing strategies. Another plan to
reduce writing anxiety can be through providing a comfortable and safe space to write,
so students won’t feel pressured by teachers, friends, and classroom activities.

Final Thoughts

There is a relationship between writing anxiety and writing apprehension with writing
performance and competency that is seen from the studies by Faigley, et al., Erkan, et
al., Kara, and Badrasawi, et al. There is a negative connection and negative effect of
writing apprehension, anxiety, and attitudes towards writing on a student’s writing
performance, competency, and self-efficacy. Kara and Badrasawi, et al. tell us the
sources of writing anxiety and apprehension in students through the direct experiences
expressed by students and writing instructors, and mention strategies for instructors to
reduce writing apprehension by first taking notice of anxious and apprehensive writers
and learning how to lessen those problems, as well as using new writing techniques
and strategies to help improve students’ writing skills.

After reading and comprehending the suggestions to reduce writing apprehension, I

found that they would be fairly effective to use in writing courses since a teacher and
student interaction and the type of classroom environment should be the most
important things to consider for a student to gain confidence and improvement in
writing. I would like to see the use of positive and constructive feedback from peers
and teachers, reassurance from the instructor, and examples of writing and writing
techniques to be applied more in writing classes.

To the fellow first language and second language students who also have writing
apprehension and anxiety, do you want to see these strategies be implemented into
your writing courses? Why or why not? Do you think these resolutions will be effective
strategies to reduce apprehension? I would like to hear your thoughts in the comment
section below!

As an anxious and apprehensive writer myself, it was difficult to describe how I felt
about writing, but these studies have helped clearly express the negative reasons why
students have writing anxiety and writing apprehension. I hope that these reasons will
help teachers become aware of these issues about writing apprehension and to learn
how to mitigate them in order to build more confident and successful writing students.
 References

Badrasawi, K. J., Zubairi, A., & Idrus, F. (2016). Exploring the relationship between writing

apprehension and writing performance: A qualitative study. International Education

Studies, 9(8), 134-143.

Erkan, D. Y., & Saban, A. İ. (2011). Writing performance relative to writing apprehension,

self-efficacy in writing, and attitudes towards writing: A correlational study in Turkish

tertiary-level EFL. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly March 2011 Volume 13, Issue,

13(1), 164-192.

Faigley, L., Daly, J. A., & Witte, S. P. (1981). The role of writing apprehension in writing

performance and competence. The Journal of Educational Research, 75(1), 16-21.

Kara, S. (2011). Writing anxiety: A case study on students’ reasons for anxiety in writing classes.

H. Ferhan Odabaşı, 103.