Thursday, February 18, 2010
New Prompt: Writing Anxiety
If it's your turn to write a post this week, use the opportunity to write about you biggest source of writing anxiety. What is the part of the process that is most difficult or most hand-wringing for you and what do you do to combat that difficulty? IF this works the way it should, maybe some of your peers will add in the comments their own approaches to dealing with writing anxiety.
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For me, getting started is the biggest source of anxiety. writing an introduction sets the mood for the entire paper. It introduces all the topics I want to touch on in my paper. In the introduction, I try to set a vibe to make my paper want to be read. With all that pressure it is hard to get started on what exactly I want to right and what tone I want to set my paper. To help me with this difficulty I have to use my resoures from grade school, maybe by making an outline to organize my thoughts. Doing this makes it easier to get what I want to say out in the introduction. This makes it easier to build on to the body of my paper from the ideas in my introduction.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vmsherrill. Starting is the hardest part. I always sit and look at a blank document for a few good minutes before i actually type something, it is a slow starting process. Another anxiety i occasionally have is staying consistent and someitmes running out of things to say in a paper. I always get anxiety if i fear not having enough things to say and put into a paper when im writting, especially long assignments
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vmsherrill as well getting started is definitely the hardest part and also making the paper long enough without repeating yourself in the paper. I find that I always repeat myself by using different words to say the same thing. Its been very different writing this semester than last because my english 101 teacher didn't care much for specifics, so I got into his style of writing so switching to please the teacher is always the hardest for me especially during speech 109, because he even wanted a different style than the english 101 teacher. So remember my audience is always a hard thing for me todo, because I want to appeal to my reader. These few things cause me to have "anxiety" when writing my papers.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that starting some kind of writing is a big anxiety. What helps me start my paper is to just write down sentences and ideas that I would put into my paper and try to put it together in the beginning to start. I find that staying on topic and having all of my information run together clearly for me is an even bigger anxiety though. What helps me with that anxiety is reading my paper out loud and also having other peers read it before I turn in that paper to my teacher. Although it may still not be as clear, it helps to not be as stressful when you hear from someone else that your paper makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that starting an essay or paper is an anxiety. When I start writing a paper, I try to get as much information on the topic as possible. I research information and then I try to make an outline of all the information I have. That helps me to organize the paper. Next, I write my paper and let someone else read it and tell me what they think about it. If they have an input that I like, then I just go back and add that comment in. Writing a paper is hard work but you have to do it later in life.
ReplyDeleteGetting started is where most of my writing anxiety exists, as well. My biggest fear is that my paper will not adequately convey my message or fall in line with the topic assigned. I tend to really freak out before I put any words on paper. I want to make sure that my vision is clear before I write. I feel as though I have to have it all clear and organized in my head before I can get started. I know that this way of thinking is totally backwards, but still can’t seem to change my behavior. I want to be able to start writing and be able to revise and reorganize at the end, but feel as though I need to make my paper perfect as I go along. I find that once I have my vision laid out, I can whiz through the paper with little difficulty. I have heard several techniques for making the writing process less stressful, such as writing the introduction last, but can’t quite get comfortable with changing my process. I have tried in previous classes, but found that it actually makes me more anxious.
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