Supporting Students in the Writing Intensive Classroom: Insight on Reducing Writing Apprehension

Written communication skills are often among the most important applied skills sought by employers when hiring graduates of colleges of agriculture. However, recent reports cite a gap between employers’ expectations and graduates’ levels of preparedness in key applied skills, among them “effective written communication.” One critical barrier to developing effective written communication skills is writing apprehension. This study surveyed undergraduate students (n = 74) in a writing intensive course to determine which course structures and writing interventions were most effective at reducing apprehension. Students reported course structures, such as the ability to revise and resubmit assignments, and written or verbal feedback from instructors as the most effective in reducing apprehension. While course structures were overall more effective than specific interventions, among interventions, modeling was most effective at reducing apprehension.