Student Attitudes Towards Writing and the Effects on Writing Progress

Abstract

Abstract Attitude plays a large part in students’ literacy learning. Attitude affects motivation to learn and influences how students approach an academic task; in this case, writing. Self-efficacy, an aspect of attitude, is discussed as well. This study examined the relationship between students’ attitudes towards writing and their writing progress. Three first grade students from a private school in western New York were given a survey about attitudes towards writing, and three times they were observed writing in their classroom. Writing pieces were collected from each participant each week for six weeks and analyzed using a rubric. All of the data collected was cross analyzed. The results indicated that student attitudes towards writing do positively or negatively affect writing progress, that more than one method of analyzing student attitude is needed, that regardless of attitude, writing progress takes time, and writing progress does not happen linearly. Recommendations for future research include investigating topic choice and prompts, teacher attitudes towards writing and their writing instructional practices, and which method, or methods, used to teach writing is most effective for improving student attitudes towards writing.