A random sample of 305 principals was drawn from the membership roosters of 4 Principal Centers. Responses from 100 principals (33 percent) show that there is a relationship between writing apprehension level on performance of job writing skills. Advises school administrators to take courses in current written communication practices. (six…

Acknowledges the anxiety of writing and of teaching writing. (JL)

Identifies three types of writer's block. Suggests a model using peer tutors to help blocked students overcome the problem. Discusses diagnostic considerations, tutor qualifications, and the importance of clear communication among the student, teacher, and tutor. Emphasizes the importance of relaxed relations between student and tutor. (PAA)

Designed to identify students with writer's block, this measure is an attitude questionnaire of 24 items separated into five subscales: blocking, lateness, premature editing, strategies for complexity, and attitudes. If teachers or researchers wish simply to identify blockers, they can administer only the items within the behavioral…

The Attitude Toward Writing Inventory, is a simple, Likert-type instrument designed to assess students' positive, neutral, or negative attitudes toward writing. This instrument helps to identify the negative attitudes which must be changed before an instructional method can be effective. (CB)

Since 1979, over 300 adults have participated in writing anxiety workshops at Northern Virginia Community College. The self-identified, self-diagnosed sufferers of writing anxiety have had problems in one or more of the following areas: letter writing, memo and report writing, writing for academic purposes, writing demanded of women reentering the…

Offers suggestions for teaching journalism students media law, ethical standards in journalism, creative interviewing, writing leads for stories, and world reporting. (HOD)

Suggests that a focus on traditional rules for good writing can create writer's block and offers strategies that focus on the topic and student's thinking for overcoming writing apprehension. (HOD)

Offers a test for identifying students with writing apprehension and offers strategies for dealing with these students. (SRT)

Describes a method for using the press release to introduce basic technical writing principles and increase students' writing confidence. Includes lecture format and writing assignment. (HTH)

Describes the setbacks and remarkable progress in one student's writing and attitudes as the result of focusing on the writing process in a one-to-one tutorial relationship. (HTH)

Examines research on the causes of writing apprehension. Profiles high-apprehensive writers, characterizes their written products, and describes their writing processes. Suggests four procedures for dealing with writing apprehension: peer group workshops; positive reinforcement; teaching about writing process, and gradually increasing students'…

To learn more about the impact of word processing on the writing of college freshmen, a 2-year study involving 320 students of average writing ability investigated whether (1) students using word processors write significantly better than those who do not; (2) manipulating and improving sentences on a screen affects students' awareness of grammar,…

The William Perry model of learning is directly parallel to what has been learned about writing processes. He observed that the student is essentially a dualist who sees everything as right or wrong. This stance of absolute acceptance wavers when the student encounters varieties of or disagreements among truths, thus gradually evolving into the…

Imaging, or disciplined daydreaming, can be used in the composition class to expose students to their innate creativity, lessen writing anxiety, refresh memories before writing of personal experiences, and make impersonal subjects, such as historical events, vital and personal. Teachers can construct a classroom imaging session (which takes about…