A Brief Writing Intervention for Graduate Students: Can Writing-Related Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, Self-Awareness, and Self-Management Improve?

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: College Student Learning and Development Roundtable

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess whether among a sample of graduate students at a large, public, research-intensive university, a brief intervention to develop healthy writing habits could help participants better manage themselves and their academic writing. Graduate students enrolled in the researcher-developed Writing Studios were invited to take a pre and post-test measuring writing anxiety, writing self-efficacy, and two dimensions of emotional intelligence: self-awareness and self-efficacy. Results indicated statistically significant differences and moderate-to-large effect sizes between the pre and post-test results for writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy but not for self-awareness and self-efficacy. In addition, ANCOVA and Gain Score analyses comparing native and non-native English speakers’ scores on all variables indicated the intervention benefited both groups equally.

Authors

• Margarita Huerta, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Patricia Goodson, Texas A&M University - College Station