"Writing anxiety" and "writers block" are two informal terms that come to most students mind when thinking of papers. Some people may feel more comfertable about writing on a specific topic, while feeling apprehensive about writing on topics you my not know a lot about. Writing anxiety and writers block are situational. People are not born anxious writers; rather they become anxious or blocked through negative or difficult writing experiences.
These feelings may arise when you have to adjust to a new form of writing, working with limited amount of time, you may not enjoy the given topic, your reader may be overly critical or your dealing with personal issues outside of school. In order for students to overcome these feelings while doing a writing assignment they should find and use some useful strategies. Get support, choose a writing buddy, someone you trust and know will encourage you during your assignment. Identify your strengths as a writer rather than focusing on your weakness's. Recognize that writing is an attempt to contribute what you know and how you feel about a topic at a particular point in time. Think of yourself as an apprentice, learning as you write, figure out your own unique writing process and go with it. Celebrate your successes. Whatever obstacles you've faced, celebrate the occassions when you've overcome them. There is always going to be parts in your writing that you may fail, but without failure it would be difficult if not impossible to grow as a writer.
Emily Cooper
I find that when writing a paper it is crucial to build around your strengths. Anxiety often occurs when time restraints are given to your writing process. The feeling of having only a short amount of time to write a paper is quite stressful. The best way to handle the anxiety is to try to find a way to take a break from writing for a few moments every fifteen or twenty minutes to prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteWriter’s anxiety seems to be unavoidable in many cases, especially in a college setting. The topic of a paper itself may be difficult for the student, but another big issue is finding the time to write the paper. When overwhelmed by large amounts of homework, it is extremely difficult to force yourself to focus on a single paper and ignore everything else. If a paper is due the same week when you have a big exam or quiz, the student may put off writing the paper until the last minute, which greatly adds to the stress and anxiety. So, writers anxiety is not only caused by the topic of the paper itself, but also the amount of stress which comes with having large amounts of work to finish in a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the anxiety part of any paper. No matter how familiar I am with a paper, my anxiety comes from someone else reading it. What will they think of it? I try to overcome this by reminding myself that no matter what the reader thinks, I will always know how much work went into the paper and try to remind myself that it is a great work, no matter what a reader may say. It is your work. Be proud of it, no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI think alot of writing anxiety comes from the time that has to be dedicated to brainstorm and organize your paper and topic. To me, that is the hardest part, coming up with a topic that has a valid argument and reliable sources you can use as references. Its more of the pre-writing process that causes anxiety than the actual process of writing it. I find that it helps to set aside a half hour for two days to choose a topic, and think of reasons to support your arguement before you actually write it. Also, writing the paper a good amount of days before the paper is due, allows you to step away from the paper for a day or two then come back and reread it, and make any changes you might want to make, without being stressed by the deadline.
ReplyDeleteI think, as college students, all of us, at one time, will write a paper that we are not fully confident about. We may not know a lot about the topic or may have put off writing the paper until right before it is due. I think the most important part of writing a paper is committing to the topic and gathering all the information you can. Also, I found your strategies to avoid writers anxiety helpful when starting paper four. =)
ReplyDeleteI find myself having the most trouble with writer’s anxiety is finding the time. Like Leslie said a paper will get pushed back until the last possible second to do it. I’ve done this a few times. There are exams and projects that get priority over the paper. People will always have writer’s block or writer’s anxiety. The trick is finding useful strategies that work for you. I found some of the tricks Emilee mentioned helped.
ReplyDeleteI know that that for me writing a paper on a topic that I am more knowledgeable on is much easier for me than writing on a topic that I know nothing about, or I am just not into. When I enjoy writing about a specific topic I can sit down and focus and not have any problems with it, but writing a paper on a topic I know nothing about and I’m not interested in is a completely different story. In order to complete a paper like this I try to start it way earlier then when it is due. I make sure to do this because I always have to step away from my paper and take a break. This helps me out because when I come back to my paper my mind is fresh and I am able to make connections that I did not see before, and come up with more points to further support my paper.
ReplyDeleteI believe that no matter how experience of a writer someone is they may always have a little bit of anxiety while writing. A writer may have anxiety about whether or not their writing is well written. Also they may have anxiety about whether they can keep the interest and attention of their audience. Anxiety is a very common in all writers, it may never go away but there are ways in which you can subside anxiety. For example, by planning your paper before writing you can organize and edit your information.
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ReplyDeleteFor me I face the most anxiety while writing a paper on a topic I am unfamiliar with or not interested in at all. When I know about my topic or it really interests me I can write the majority of the paper without really thinking to much about what to say next. But I agree that you should find something that works for you that helps the anxiety go away when writing a paper.
ReplyDeleteWriters Block is a serious condition that many students suffer from. For myself I start off anxious and that turns into writers block. This mainly happens when I feen unprepaired for an assignment. My advice to other students who suffer from this is: do your research and brain storn after each source you observe. This will enable you to write all your ideas down before you forget them and keep them organized.
ReplyDeleteAnxiety with writing something is problem for everyone at one time or another. When I am not fully interested in the topic I am writing about is when I get the most anxiety. The more you familiarize yourself about this topic by researching it or asking others the more calm and better adjusted you will be about writing it.
ReplyDeleteAnxiety is the worst for someone trying to gather their ideas for a paper. Most of the times that's me. It's very stressful and it causes me a lot of times to hold off on papers. I believe taking yourself out of your normal study habits helps a lot.
ReplyDeleteAnxiety is something everyone has faced before. I have encountered this problem plenty of times, especially when writing a paper about something i'm uninterested in. Brainstorming is usually very helpful for me. I write all my ideas down and soon after that i have enough information to start my paper.
ReplyDeleteI feel that anxiety is a common problem when people do not know a lot about the topic. When writing paper two about the bands outside the United States, I had no idea what to write about. But after researching and gaining knowledge about the band, I felt confident in my paper.
ReplyDeleteIn many cases, most of the anxiety that I go through witha a paper is because I procrastinated. This is probably due to the fact that I waited to start the paper, giving myself little time to compile information, references etc. that is when I feel overwhelmed and stressed. However, if I give myself enough time to thoroughly examine a paper, I usually have little anxiety. If I have a good understanding of the topic and have all of the necessary information I'm usually on top of my game with papers.
ReplyDeleteWriters anxiety is a huge problem with college students because professors in every class think that you only have there class and that you should do there work 24/7 but in reality college students have 3 or 4 other classes.
ReplyDeleteAt some point in our lives as students and working adults we all suffer from writers block. I wish I personally could say this has never affected me but almost everytime I sit down to write this anxiety starts to take over and I freeze, as well as my pencil. I've come up with some steps that help me overcome this. I think it all depends on the person and what helps them individually rather than listening to someone else. Advice is helpful but you have to find out what helps you on your own.
ReplyDeleteEveryone experiences writing anxiety at many points in their life. Especially me when I'm unfamiliar with a topic i get so worked up about doing it right. As i get older and start to write more papers its becoming easier for me to just relax when writing a paper. Take it one step at a time instead of getting worked up about something that could be so simple if you read the directions and pay attention to the topic.
ReplyDeleteanxiety is worst when it comes writing papers. Most of the time it depends on the teacher,the topic of the paper, and have to follow by the syllabus. The worst time is during finals because you have to study for exams and do papers.
ReplyDeleteADAM CLEMENTS
Of course it's easy to be nervous while writing college papers but I think having Professor Ahmed it made it much easier to understand how to be calm while finishing the projects. He says in all his rubrics to not get to worked up about the paper and just write freely about the topic without the strenuous effort of trying to do everything perfect. Reading this made me realize to relax and know that as long as I take my time with the subject, I will finish the paper successfully.
ReplyDeleteMy writing anxiety is a plus for me. I look at anxiety writing as an advantage because you are already over-thinking, creating more ideas and a broader set of options where you want the paper to go. I learned from my english professor last year about "word vomit", in which you sit and write every word, name, or phrase that comes to mind you think relates to your topic. After the list, I suddenly feel relaxed knowing that I have somewhat of useful information to start my paper
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