Attitude Problems about Writing is > Writing Problems

Here is an observation I have made and continue to make as a composition instructor. There are
two types of student writers who come to college with various needs: the ones with writing
problems and those with attitude problems about writing.
The first category of student writers recognize that they have writing problems and that writing is a
process. They always seek to refine their writing. They are not threatened by critical questions
about their writing but welcome these questions. They invest their time in drafting and revising
multiple drafts according to the feedback they receive or give thoughtful reconsideration and
assessment of their writing goals to articulate them better, thereby polishing their drafts some
more. In the long run, their writing problems become smaller problems because they have a mature
attitude about writing (reading and research) in general.
Then there is the second category of student writers who enter college thinking that they have no
writing problems, they do not need to revise their drafts, and do not need any commentary on their
writing. Any criticism about their writing is personal criticism. It is war against them! So, they go on
the defense and later offense to neutralize any criticism about their work. These students mostly
have attitude problems about writing. To them, commentaries on their papers are just a matter of
personal opinion and interpretations are not warranted if the given feedback does not validate
them and their bias according to their own standards.
To them, assignment papers or discussion posts submitted are meant to be “liked” as though these
are posts or status updates on social media. When the high walls of their hidden writing problems
begin to crack, when their writing problems are brought to the light of reason and evidence, they
multiply their attitude problems about feedback, about revision, about time, about their class,
about the professor, about their peers, about college, and about everything else. In the fullness of
time, their writing problems are magnified as much as their attitude problems—in fact, they
congeal into one gargantuan problem.
Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that “writing problems are smaller problems; attitude
problems about writing are bigger problems than writing problems.” This conclusion may be
debated, challenged, and/or despised, but I have not deduced it by careless observations not
grounded in experience or reality. It is quite the opposite – Isaac Ewuoso.