Treatment of Writing Apprehension and Its Effects on Composition.

ABSTRACT A 16-week study to investigate the effects that two methods of teaching writing had on writiig apprehension and on overall quality and length of student writing involved over 100 college freshmen enrolled in English Composition classes. Except for the methods cf writing instruction, both control and experimental group conditions were held constant, including class hours, number of words assigned, and choice of topics. Daly and Miller's writing apprehension test was administered at the beginning and end of the experiment along with a two-hcur posttest writing sample. A summary of the features of the experimental treatment includes: (1) introductory large group interaction activities: (2) paired-student problem solving: (3) small group problem solving; (4) instruction in peer evaluation: (5) introductory large group "what to look for" practice: (6) small group sustained peer evaluation: (71 specific essay oblectives: and (B) a six-step instructional sequence preceding each essay. Conclusions drawn from the data were that students, writing apprehension was reduced using either method but at a faster rate with the experimental method and that the experimental treatment produced writing that was as proficient in overall quality as that produced by the conventional `..reatment and significantly longer.