No matter how intimidated or how blocked, any writer can tap into the vast oceans of creativity within by following the exercises in this book. Broken into small steps, each exercise is easy and takes only minutes to do. Yet each one forms a wave that brings with it a rush of ideas, images, and scenes as it crests. Chapters in the book are: (1)…

Treated two groups of academicians (N=10) with writing blocks with contingency management. One group received treatment in individualized therapy. The other group participated in an experiment in which meetings were confined to discussions of contracting and self-monitoring. Both approaches, clinical and experimental, effected stable writing…

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

Reports the methodology and results of a survey of professionals who write on the job to discern the problems they encounter. Indicates that fear and avoidance of the writing task, little or no advance planning, and an inability to organize content were at the root of their writing difficulties. (HTH)

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)

Reviews difficulties faced by English as a Second Language students in writing for evaluation. Describes approaches for reducing writing anxiety, including focusing on the fluent expression of ideas rather than grammar, and providing nonjudgmental responses. Discusses results from the implementation of these approaches, suggesting that writing…

Examines groups of business writing students containing high- and low-apprehensive writers, communicating about writing in both a face-to-face setting and through electronic mail. Concludes that, for both types of writers, collaboratively planning documents on e-mail enhanced the collaborative process. (MM)

Describes a study refining the Mass Communication Writing Apprehension Measure (MCWAM)--a test intended to identify dysfunctional writing attitudes and aid in advising students. Replicates multidimensionality and individual-subject differences. Extends earlier results by showing that MCWAM discriminates between mass communication and non-mass…

Examines changes in writing apprehension and blocking behavior among first- and second-language writers in first-year composition classes using computers. Finds that computer use alone did not reduce overall apprehension for either group and that it reduced blocking behavior for second-language writers but not for first-language writers. (SR)

Presents an annotated bibliography tracing 20 years of "Writing Center Journal" scholarship covering a variety of issues which include teacher training, critical thinking, writing apprehension, peer tutoring, Internet sources and individual instruction. Contains annotations of all the articles and reviews published in this journal's…

The problems of writer's block and writing apprehension have just started to be examined in conjunction with modern rhetorical theories and practices. One of the variables that can make students more vulnerable to writer's block and writing apprehension is the degree of freedom the student is granted in the writing assignments. Two such freedoms…

A program for improving the quality of student writing was developed. The targeted population consists of kindergarten, first- and second-grade students in an expanding middle class community, located in a suburb southwest of Chicago. The problem is documented through data collected from writing samples, anecdotal checklists, student interviews,…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on spelling. The paper begins with the observation that when people complain that students cannot write, too often they mean that when the students do write, they misspell a few words. After noting that spelling improvement comes from using words in…

Writing researchers must be concerned with whether the instruments they are using are constructed as soundly as possible and, if so, whether they are performing the necessary analytic procedures to interpret the results correctly. To examine the logic in the construction of J. A. Daly and M. D. Miller's Writing Apprehension Test and the incomplete…

Argues that writing apprehension can be dispositional, but that it can also arise in response to elements in the writing situation. Discusses the elements in timed writing competence tests that can trigger writing apprehension and hinder effective writing. (JK)