What is Writing Anxiety?
Writing anxiety, also known as “writer’s block” or “writing resistance,” is a response to the specific situation of writing. Though this response can illicit physical and emotional reactions, writing anxiety is not a mental health or psychological condition. This resource pack is about supporting students with a writing problem, not a healthcare problem.
Writing anxiety can impact writers at any stage in the writing process. Anxious writers might have trouble starting a project because of perfectionism or external constraints on their time. Writers might struggle to work through the messy middle of a project because of uncertainty about expectations. Writers may face anxiety making final touches and submitting an assignment because of deadline pressures and fear of being graded.
Why is addressing students' Writing Anxiety important?
As writing instructors, we cannot manage students’ emotions, but we can give them tools so that writing anxiety is purposive, not paralyzing. When we address students’ anxiety around writing by providing clear expectations, openly acknowledging the difficutly of writing, and providing a supporting classroom community, we can help students embrace their personal identities as writers and take creative and intellectual risks with their writing.
How can you Support Students with Writing Anxiety?
Below are some strategies for reducing writing anxiety in your classroom to improve students’ engagement, confidence, and ultimately, their relationships to their own writing practices. These strategies work best when paired with clear prompts that include all relevant criteria and assessment tools (rubrics) that communicate student expectations.
Openly Acknowledge the Difficulty of Writing
Research, writing, and knowledge creation are hard to do even for the most experienced writers. Reminding students that writing is iterative and there is no reason to get discouraged when work needs to be revised can help prevent dysfunctional thoughts like “this should be easy” or “why is this so hard for me.”
In class, try opening the door to your own writing process. Curate a collection of “writing artifacts” from your own writing process that shows students what tools you use to work through the difficult process and how long it takes you. Some ideas of artifacts you might include:
- Notes from your process journal about how your writing is going
- To do lists
- Time blocks you have scheduled to write
- Reviewer comments
- Emails with a colleague about your writing process
- The tools and apps you use like Word processors, scheduling apps, or even pen and paper!
Foster a Supportive Community
Even though we tend to think of writing as a solitary action, writing is always happening in a social context. Commuity fosters engagement and combats isolation which can intensify anxious, dysfunctional thoughts about writing. Try incorporating moments of connection throughout the writing process, like:
- Peer response activities
- Opportunities to talk about how writing is going and reflect with peers. This might look like reflective group discussions, peer response activites that focus on spoken feedback rather than only written feedback, and think-pair-share brainstorming activities.
- Group or 1-on-1 conferences with the instructor
- Incorporating feedback loops throughout the writing process
Mindfulness/Embodiment
All research, writing, and learning are embodied practices. Reducing distressing physiological symptoms that can accompany writing anxiety (like rapid heart rate) can make room for creativity and deep thought work. Try introducing your students to these mindfulness exercises in class:
The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique:
Ask students to get in a comfortable seated position and maybe take a few breaths, then identify:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
Then, invite students to start writing, having banished their writing anxiety. Perhaps, pair this excercise with a Writing-to-Learn prompt or free-writing exercise.
Read more about the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique here.
The 5-7 Breathing Method
Ask students to get in a comfortable seated position and begin slowing down their breathing and…
- Inhale for 5 seconds
- Exhale for 7 seconds
- Repeat at least 3 times
This short, simple breathing exercise works great before an in-class writing assignment.
Read more about how slowing exhales down so they take longer than inhales can relax the nervous system here.
Cultivate Students' Identity as Writers with Reflection Prompts
Cultivating an identity as a writer can help sudents push past writing anxiety and start actually writing becuase, what do writers do? They write. Reflection can be a helpful tool for helping students develop their identity as a writer. The below reflection prompt could be done in or out of class.
Shifting Identities Reflection Prompt:
Identify one dysfunctional idenity that you hold as a writer and one functional identity from the lists below that you would like to embrace. Spend ~150 words reflecting on your old identity and another ~150 words reflecting on how you will step into your new identity.
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Identity & Dysfunctional Thoughts
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New Identities & Functional Thoughts
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