When the Smoke Clears: Overestimations of Efficacy and Writing Anxiety

by Jinat Rehana Begum

 

Writer’s block, writing apprehension and writing anxiety are often used interchangeably to refer to a fear and avoidance of writing that is based on a writer’s perception of ineptitude, unpreparedness or in more extreme cases, inability. As such feelings of inadequacy influences mood, concentration and motivation, numerous studies have found that writing anxiety has a negative effect on writing performance (Cayton, 1990; Fischer & Meyers, 2017; Jawas, 2009; Limpo, 2018; O’Connor & Jurist, 2017; Martinez et al., 2011; Stewart et al., 2015). The fear of failure causes anxious students to delay or avoid writing. Task-avoidance and procrastination may then result in poorly edited, shorter, or incomplete assignments that are submitted late, or not at all (Jawas, 2009; Martinez et al., 2011).

Research in language teaching suggests that such instances of poor writing performance is related to self-efficacy, or an individual’s perceived ability to complete a task. Students with lower writing efficacy (perceived ability to succeed in a writing task) are more likely to experience writing anxiety and consequently, to demonstrate lower levels of writing achievement. Conversely, students with higher writing efficacy are expected to experience less anxiety, and so, to perform writing tasks and develop writing skills more successfully. The success that students with high writing efficacy enjoy is believed to be linked primarily to their ability to self-regulate. In general, studies have consistently demonstrated strong correlations between writing performance, writing anxiety, self-efficacy and self-regulation (Jawas, 2009; Prat-Sala, M., & Redford; Martinez et al., 2011; Stewart et al., 2015; Vanhille, et al. 2017). Students who experience writing anxiety because of a lack of writing efficacy will continue to delay and avoid writing tasks (Prat-Sala & Redford, 2012). With each writing assignment, their fear of failure becomes greater and their anxiety worsens.

Students with lower writing efficacy (perceived ability to succeed in a writing task) are more likely to experience writing anxiety and consequently, to demonstrate lower levels of writing achievement.

My reflections on writing anxiety and how to approach it began in earnest when I started to teach FAS1101: Writing Academically.  The module aims at developing fundamental academic writing skills in first year undergraduates from the Humanities faculty. The formative nature of the assignments in this module attempts to facilitate the transition from a pre-university education, which is arguably characterized by a high-degree of dependence on teachers as primary sources of information, in other words ‘spoon-feeding,’ to a style of learning that is more ‘autonomous.’ In effect, these assignments, “scaffold the development of self-regulated learning skills” (Beaumont et al., 2016 p. 332).

This type of scaffolding is particularly designed to address the anxieties of students who profess a lack of confidence. Yet FAS1101 students who self-diagnose their writing anxiety by admitting their lack of writing efficacy often ask for, and receive, the help they need.  Their perception that their peers in the Humanities faculty possess a capacity for language that far exceeds their own drives them to understand the importance of setting themselves achievable goals and manageable tasks. As they monitor and assess their own learning goals, attempt learning strategies to improve their writing and consistently seek feedback, such students may be described as “proactive self-regulators” (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011, p1). These students may have problems with language and expression but their help-seeking behaviour and the active steps they take to treat their anxiety ensure some degree of success (Williams & Takaku, 2011).  When conventional interventions such as language remediation and feedback on content are provided for these students, their anxiety decreases as their writing performance improves.

The first few classes of FAS1101 are usually focussed on the importance of academic reading and research, the fundamentals of citation conventions and the significance of personal opinion and its place in relation to the large body of scholarship that has preceded their individual, and largely uninformed beliefs on subjects. Students who consider themselves to be of lower ability tend to take a pragmatic approach to this information. From the onset, the more strategic of these students tend to make it their business to find out what is easiest to do and then settle on a topic that they feel they can manage. Their anxieties usually drive them to practice self-regulating behaviours; they tend to select the less challenging options and map out their approach to the task cautiously (Williams & Takaku, 2011).

Increasingly, the group of students who appear to exhibit the most writing anxiety throughout the module are those with initially higher levels of writing efficacy.  These students are fluent, consider themselves well-read, and have been regularly complimented throughout their academic careers for their capacity for reading and writing.  Typically, they select the set of research questions and topics that are most unpopular with the majority. The reasons they do so range from the strategic, “I can stand out more easily on a topic that fewer people are attempting” to the personal, “I want to challenge myself.” The subjects they choose tend to range from the conceptually challenging ideas in Sociology, to the more nebulous demands of a topic on Southeast Asian superstitions. Their learning behaviours are a direct contrast to the self-professed lower ability student. Like their less confident counterparts, students who have high levels of writing efficacy believe that academic writing demands fluency and the capacity to “smoke” through the information. The belief that a sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors, word games and analogies, trickery, will satisfy the scholarly reader, is widespread and arguably begins with the compulsory narrative writing pieces students are made to write in primary school, a view which is then consolidated by the General Paper essay where linguistic fluency is assessed.

Like their less confident counterparts, students who have high levels of writing efficacy believe that academic writing demands fluency and the capacity to “smoke” through the information.

Often, their failure to fully grasp the differences between the general writing tasks they were accustomed to and writing for academic purposes, lead them to overrate their writing efficacy. Williams and Takaku (2011) observe that students frequently overestimate their self-efficacy in writing classes. Unable to accurately evaluate their capacity to complete a task, they often ignore advice to simplify and find a manageable focus for their short essay. As Stewart et. al. points out, “positive learning outcomes can take place only when such beliefs are accurate representation[s] of the actual skills possessed by an individual” (2017, p. 14).  By the third week of semester many of these students experience a sharp decline in writing efficacy. The realization that academic reading requires more than linguistic fluency causes them to lose confidence in their capacity to understand the large body of scholarship they feel they must read in order to write the essay. The challenges of learning the conventions of citations while attempting to make sense of the vast amount of information that they need to manage and synthesize become so daunting that they begin to experience what they believe is “writer’s block.” Unlike the former group of students I discussed, these students are unlikely to seek help (Williams & Takaku, 2011). Instead, personal and social expectations in their own writing ability motivate such students to resolve their confusion by further reading. As a writing teacher, these students and their unexpected journey to lower writing efficacy present an urgent concern. Having witnessed the avoidance and procrastination that accompany the writing anxiety such students’ experience, I now monitor students who are overambitious in their choice of topic more closely.

As instructors of academic communication, we are invested in improving our students’ writing performance. Apart from the fundamental and technical skills of composition, our teaching goals generally include socializing students to the discourse/s of scholarship, introducing critical thinking skills, fostering pre-writing habits such as note-taking, outlining and drafting and guiding self-evaluations. There is a universal urgency in developing independent academic writing skills in first-year undergraduates so that they are socialized into the world of academia. Too often, time and effort is concentrated exclusively on the nuts and bolts of academic writing. However, it is important to recognise that the regulation of multiple competencies including reading, research, note-taking, planning and then finally, writing present both cognitive and emotional challenges to students who are entering into university for the first time. These students may also be struggling with financial, social and emotional challenges, all of which have an impact on their writing efficacy and their capacity to self-regulate. Behaviours that are symptomatic of writing anxiety, particularly procrastination, non-completion and the late submission of assignments need to be viewed with a keener eye on the problem of anxiety.

 

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