Pedagogy

Fear Of Writing by Mehnaz M. Afridi

There is a place where words are born of silence, a place where the whispers of the mind arise, and a place of writing. Writing to me is both painful and pleasurable, which creates a certain powerlessness that is inexplicable. Many students are afraid of handing in a piece of their writing to teachers, colleagues, and their families. Why do students have this fear? And what can we do about this fear?

As a teacher of the Humanities I would like to point out that there is an obvious fear on the part of my students when they write. A fear that we all are familiar with when we struggle to publish, and are rejected throughout our professional lives. As faculty we know that there have been many cases of Plagiarism, and rephrasing in papers throughout universities, and I believe that this does not stem from a purely laissez-affaire attitude but also a real sense of fear of language. Many of my students are afraid of critique, disappointments, and rewrites. Especially when we are teaching adults who have so much experience and have lived through the very history that we are teaching them, they are afraid that perhaps they will somehow let out a secret: “I have lived but I can not write.”

As teachers we must help our students overcome the fear of poor grades, disappointments, and critique. We must build an environment, which welcomes failure, but in the long run success in order to truly understand what is writing in the classroom. I encounter a lot of fear in the classroom with students who are afraid of writing and these particular students normally hand in their papers late even though they know they will lose points for late papers. Generally, these late papers are handed in with anecdotal remarks such as: “My grammar is poor, I don’t know if I make any sense, I have not written a paper in years, do you grade heavily on writing?” These students are willing to express their fear, and do so by undermining their writing before it is read. So, what can we do? I have two ways of approaching this fear; one is to give them a couple of brainstorming exercises, and then a formal draft of their first paper. No grades are allotted except for positive reinforcement, which allows for the student to feel confident about what he/she is saying, and everything else follows like grammar, style, content, and clarity. The second approach I use is oral positive reinforcement during discussions, and questions, which tends to alleviate a certain confidence level in the classroom. After positive feedback, I notice that these same students are more confident in class and much more outspoken because they feel they truly have something to say. Fear of writing is to believe that we have nothing to say, and have no contribution to make either to the subject material or community at large.

My goal as a teacher is to encourage writing and reading but also to encourage creativity in the classroom. I am interested in language that can speak and write in the classroom. My students and I work on writing, reading, and research but also body language, and silence. Gestures (body language) in the classroom can be a tool that is valuable for the confidence of writing. For example a student may have fear of writing but he/she must be allowed to express through oral and gestural means what he/she is going to say. If the student can express orally and think clearly, he/she must be encouraged further. Fear is a very big problem in terms of writing. Every student and teacher has fear of expression. Therefore, it is important to allow students to write freely before we can judge whether they are able to write or not.

For to write is to draw back. Not to retire into one’s tent, in order to write, but to draw back from one’s writing itself. To be grounded far from one’s language, to emancipate it or lose one’s hold on it, to let it make it’s way alone and unarmed.

____Edmond Jabes