Theses and Dissertations

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Moving toward a newer understanding of writing anxiety in adult students using a critical emotion studies framework
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Smith, Carmody Leerssen, author; Langstraat, Lisa, advisor; Jacobi, Tobi, committee member; Davies, Timothy, committee member
Writing anxiety has been a part of composition scholarship for many years, but the research has failed to adequately address the effect it has on adult students. Early research on writing anxiety was primarily cognitively based and focused on quantitative data analysis such as Daly and Miller’s Writing Apprehension Assessment from 1975. These cognitively based research strategies are useful and valuable to composition and for understanding writing anxiety, but in this thesis I argue that it is now time we move beyond the notion that writing anxiety is an internal, mental barrier to writing success and instead look at the causes as well as strategies for alleviating writing anxiety through a critical emotion studies lens. By using a critical emotion studies framework, we can begin to understand writing anxiety as a social and cultural construct that is created through the individual’s relationship with writing.