Rattled by Writing

Dear CRCers:

I have a 25-page term paper due at the end of the semester. Even as a senior, I'll be honest and say that I'm terrified. I guess I feel a combination of imposter syndrome and writer's block anxiety when I think about it, and I need this class to graduate. Help!

Signed, 

Crawling to the Finish Line

The Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison came to Brown to participate in the inauguration of President Ruth Simmons in 2001. In her remarks, she shared two stories about writing. In the first, she said that at a conference for writers in Europe, a fellow attendee approached her and said (paraphrasing here), "Ms. Morrison, you must help us. In my country, writers are censored and cannot freely express our views. What can we do to free ourselves?" In the second, she said she had a doctoral student who in college had been an athlete, the president of his class, and a successful undergraduate scholar. Yet in graduate school, he told her that he was paralyzed with fear about producing writing for his graduate work.

What is the difference between the two stories? Both people feel real barriers, though the first's is structural and the second's is self-imposed (perhaps). Writing well is a lifelong pursuit, and it is something that gets (a little) easier as we keep showing up to the page. In Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's memoir My Beloved World, Sotomayor shares her own battles with writing, starting with the time a professor handed back her paper circling a myriad of her grammatical mistakes and highlighting her lack of a thesis statement.

The point here: Don't let your anxiety get the best of you. Brown students are fortunate to have professors who willingly spend time with their students outside of class on strengthening their writing skills, and of course, we have a robust set of services at the Writing Center.

As for some concrete advice, break down the assignment into smaller tasks, such as doing your research well in advance of the deadline; formulating a thesis statement and rough outline; and writing even one page at a time, to help you get over the psychological barrier.

CRCer Ruth says:

When I was in high school, my debate coach gave me a great piece of advice: Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. That bit of wisdom has stuck with me for years, and I find myself coming back to it frequently. I often struggle with starting essays because I feel like I don't have anything smart to say, or I feel like I can't properly express what I'm thinking, so I don't end up writing anything at all. When I notice myself struggling to get started, I repeat my debate coach's advice and give myself permission to write a draft that won't be perfect, knowing that it's better to have something on paper that I can come back to and develop than to have nothing at all. Having some ideas down helps me build momentum and makes me feel like I'm making progress, which is nice when I'm feeling bogged down by an assignment. Another trick that you might find helpful: I'll often write the first draft of my papers like I'm explaining the idea to a friend in conversation, then I translate what I have to into "academic-ese." I find it's much easier to get my ideas out first without worrying about whether I'm sounding smart. Good luck! You can do it!