2003-2004 MIL Fellows: Diane Clark's Project

2003-2004 MIL Fellows: Diane Clark's Project
the maricopa institute for learning

A surprisingly large number of students have writing anxiety, which can be a debilitating condition that often leads students to avoid courses, majors, and jobs that require writing. In addition, affective variables such as anxiety have a strong impact on a student's ability to learn. Despite substantial evidence supporting these statements, very little has been written that addresses how writing teachers can help their students actually overcome their fears to increase their success as writers. This project will begin to fill this gap through the exploration of an English 101 course designed specifically to help students overcome their writing fears and thus increase their success in the writing classroom, in other courses in which they are required to write, and in writing in their lives outside of school.

The primary goals of the project are to:

Determine if the Overcoming Writing Anxiety English 101 course helps students significantly reduce their writing anxiety, thus increasing their ability to learn how to write more effectively

Determine which anxiety reduction techniques are effective and develop additional techniques as needed

Communicate with colleagues across disciplines to enhance our understanding of anxiety and the kinds of practices that will help reduce students' fears and allow them to focus on their learning

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