Believing You Can is Half the Battle: The College Essay and Other Academic Writing When English Isn&

Your attitude toward your ability may have everything to do with how well you do in writing your college application essay or, if you are already studying in the United States, academic writing assignments. Farrington, Roderick, Allensworth, Nagaoka, Keyes, Johnson…Beechum (2012) pointed out the importance of considering the relationship between noncognitive factors and students’ academic performance. Academic outcomes may differ greatly between students with similar ability because of the influence of belief on accomplishment (Farrington, Roderick, Allensworth, Nagaoka, Keyes, Johnson…Beechum, 2012). In relating these factors to writing, Pajares (1997) suggested, “students’ self-efficacy perceptions predict their writing performance and play the mediational role that social cognitive theory hypothesizes” (p.357). Pointing to the privileged position of standardized English in the university, Innes (2006) described a “great chasm” (p. 183) that is created when students whose language and culture differ from that of the White middle class are required to write as if cultural and linguistic experiences should have no bearing on their processes, interpretations and output.

Students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds “challenge monolithic concepts of academic literacy”, and while they may often be met with indifference in universities, they must also learn to address their own concerns regarding their cultural heritage and its place in the academic environment (Okawa, et al., 2010, p. 40). This may be particularly important for international students in American Universities. Suggesting that the differences in the language experience of English as a Second Language (ESL) students must be considered in assessing the outcomes of their writing efforts, Silva (1997) asserted, “In my view, there are four basic ways in which ESL writers need to be respected: they need to be (a) understood, (b) placed in suitable learning contexts, (c) provided with appropriate instruction, and (d) evaluated fairly” (p. 359).

Even so, there are writing conventions that are necessary for you to master to gain admission to and be successful in English-medium universities. As background to consider self-efficacy in writing, it is worthwhile to consider self-efficacy, more generally. Bandura (1989) argued that human functioning is significantly impacted by self-efficacy beliefs. These beliefs, a process of self-persuasion, result from the cognitive processing of efficacy information derived from various sources. This processing can result in a low or high sense of efficacy. If one has a low sense of efficacy, he or she will avoid difficult tasks because of a focus on personal inefficiencies. A person with a high sense of efficacy, however, will see difficult tasks as challenges. Thus, difficult tasks will be approached with focus and determination rather than avoidance strategies (Bandura, 1989). Key to this notion of social cognitive theory is the idea that people who learn to regulate the motivational, affective and social determinants of their intellectual functioning do much better academically (Bandura, 1989).

Your success in writing your college application essay or writing that upcoming research paper begins with BELIEVING you are capable of learning what is necessary, and then finding the right support to help bridge any gaps in knowledge to equip you TO DO what is necessary.

Bandura, A. (1989). Perceived self-efficacy in exercise of personal agency. The Psychologist: The Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 10, 411- 424.

Farrington, C., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T., Johnson, D., & Beechum, N. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance: A critical literature review. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.

Innes, S. (2006). Literacy myths, literacy identities: The writing center regulates institutional constructions of racial identity. In N. Barron, N. Grimm, and S. Gruber (Eds.), Social Change in Diverse Teaching Contexts: Touchy Subjects and Routine Practices (pp. 183-200). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Okawa, G., Fox, T., Chang, L., Windsor, S., Chavez Jr., F., & Hayes, L. (2010). Multi-cultural voices: Peer tutoring and critical reflection in the writing center. Writing Center Journal, 30(1), 40-65.

Pajares, F., & Valiante, G. (1997). Influence of writing self-efficacy beliefs on the writing performance of upper elementary students. Journal of Educational Research, 90, 353-360.

Silva, T. (1997). On the ethical treatment of ESL writers. TESOL Quarterly, 31(2), 359-363.

Strauss, P. (2012). ‘The English is not the same’: challenges in thesis writing for second language speakers of English. Teaching In Higher Education, 17(3), 283-293.