Below is an introduction to a paper (unfortunately unattributable at this time) on the general topic of writing apprehension - a condition which makes people afraid of, or inhibited about, writing.

TASK:  Compose a title for the report based on the following summary of the introduction.

Establishing the field
The term ‘writing apprehension’, originally coined in 1975 by Daly and Miller, refers to a generalised tendency to experience ‘some form of anxiety when faced with the task of encoding messages’ (1975b).

Summarising previous research
Much of the early research in writing apprehension was concerned with defining the theoretical construct of writing apprehension and establishing the validity of the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT), an instrument designed to measure the construct (Daly and Miller, 1975b, 1975c). Later research has explored the correlative and predictive functions of the WAT. Specific studies have connected scores on WAT with choice of academic majors and careers (Daly and Shamo 1976, 1978), scores on self-concept and self-confidence measures (Daly 1979), and performance on various assessments of writing skill and writing quality (Daly 1978a, 1978b; Daly and Miller 1975a, 1975d).

Creating a research space (by indicating a gap)
To date, however, no substantive research has been done to define the relationship between writing apprehension and the process students employ as they compose. It is not even certain, for example, how or to what extent the theoretical construct of writing apprehension is evidenced during the act of composing; whether, in other words, there are definable differences between the composing processes of people with high and low apprehension.

Introducing your research project
The current study was designed to address this particular question. The research project reported in this paper had three main goals:
1. to record the pre-drafting processes of several high and several low ‘writing apprehensives’ engaged in academic writing.
2. to analyse the pre-drafting processes of both groups.
3. to examine the results of this analysis for evidence of differences related to writing apprehension.

 

Suggested title:  A study of the relationship between university students’ writing apprehension and composing processes