Last week was the first time in a very long time that I have experienced serious anxiety about writing. Sure, I can get stressed out from time to time about the writing process, but writing isn’t something that typically worries me much anymore. For the most part, I feel I have a command of what academic writing demands from me, and I can transmute ideas from my mind into syntactically sound sentences that are organized well. I generally enjoy the composition process. Last week I was given a take home essay exam, which I thought would be easy enough. I spent countless hours mulling of each sentence deleting and adding new ones, questioning every word, re-reading again and again my note as well as articles, and in the end after finishing the questions I was still felt unease with my written responses. Writing tested me and was a painful, anxiety-laded exercise.
So, why am I bringing this up in this week’s blog? Even though, as a writing tutor, I spoke with and listen to students across academic as well as diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds expressing similar fears and anxieties about writing, I’ve for so long forgotten what the negative emotions and feelings associated with writing can feel like fist-hand. I have taken for granted my ability to produce written texts, which I was reminded of in Local Literacies by Barton and Hamilton. My task last week reminded me writing is a process that is not detached from the person doing the act of composing, and writing apprehension can have a great impact on individuals’ perceptions of themselves, teachers, material, and the composing process. Of equal importance, I was reminded that writing apprehension is a type of anxiety that is rooted in factors such as time, writing tasks, in-class and out of class constraints, experiences, and perceptions of the writer.
