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Insecure Students The poster child for insecurity is what several high school and colleges students view themselves as. There are some students out there that are very smart, yet when it comes to their writings they get very insecure about it. This can start at a very young age but most of the time it is more evident in high school and college. Many students could become anti-social for fear of being judged based on their work. The reason as to why students might become anti-social is the fact that people could look at them differently and not want to be associated with them, which in the end could cause the student to not have anyone to talk to. Then there is always the case of students who write the best that they ever have but are still not confident about it. In both of these cases the student can feel insecure and no longer will they want other people to read their work. Another reason why several kids are insecure about their writing is if they receive negative criticism on the part of their work that they are somewhat confident about. Insecurity is one of the most common problems in high school and college students, yet many of them will never let others know about it. High school and college is where many students feel they need to show others that they are the coolest person in the room. The students that successfully master this are considered popular and the ones that everyone wants to hang out with. However, the students who do not master this are insecure and dont want to be judged by the cool kids on their writings. Anne Lamott, an author who focuses on writing, agrees with the insecure students in her article Shitty First Drafts: The whole thing would be so long and incoherent and hideous that for the rest of the day Id obsess about getting creamed by a car before I could write a decent second draft. Id

worry that people would read what Id written and believe that the accident had really been a suicide, that I had panicked because my talent was waning and my mind was shot. (327) Lamott, a professional writer, is even insecure about some of her writings. Everyone is at some point in their life. She, however, has found a way to make her writings better and that is through shitty first drafts. Insecure students can look at this quote from Lamott and see that they are not the only ones who fear criticism from others. Lamott puts it simple in her quote that she does not like her first draft and wants to hide it from everyone. Charles Bazerman, an English and Education professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, goes on in his article Where is the Classroom? to inform readers how a student views the classroom. Bazerman implies that students are being shaped by their teachers, and in doing this, the way the student turns out is how well the teacher has done. So, for the students that feel like they are being judged in a class is all based on the teacher? No not in all cases. A lot of the time the student just wants the teacher to read their work because they fear what others will think about them. The teachers part in this problem is that most of the time they assign projects where the students read each others work and critiques it. This is a problem because after reading another students work the reader learns more about the author and in some cases it makes the author feel judged and uncomfortable. Bazerman can relate to Lamott in the fact that the students who fear being judged in a classroom are like Lamott who fears people reading her first draft. Fear overtakes them and all they can think of is a way to get away from the criticism. Physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Alexander Calandra, adds to students being judged by telling the story about how one student didnt fear what he was going to be told and answered a question on a test that was nowhere near the correct answer but he said that he deserved full credit for his answer.

It is not always other students who intimidate an insecure student it can also be teachers or even people who the writer has never met before. If Lamott is insecure about her first draft; if Bazerman blames both the teacher and student for insecurity; if Calandra points out that administrators can also judge a student then insecurity will always be a problem for high school and college students. From a young age students are taught to think inside the box and always do what they are told to do so that they can pass a class with no worries. Bazerman goes off from this by showing that the teachers make the kids think a certain way and do things a specific way. The problem with this is that once students reach college they are no longer told exactly what they need to do, they have to go and figure it out for themselves. They have to think outside of the box. But what is stopping several students from doing this is the fact that they want structure, they want to be spoon fed the information, they want to be lazy! Every student can recall that their favorite writing assignment was when they were allowed to write about whatever they wanted to they were allowed to free write. Lamott loves free writing. She loves being able to write down whatever she wants without thinking about it. Lamott expresses, If one of the characters wants to say, Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants? you let her (326). Letting the inner child out in writings is what Lamott says she likes to do. With that she can get out all of her free writing and after her first draft is done she can take it out and make it more formal. One problem though with students doing this is that many of them write about personal stuff and fear that someone they know will read it. But at the same time, free writing could be what insecure students need to be able to show their writings off to others. Students want to free write, they want to think outside the box but they dont want others to know. Insecure students want to show others what they are all about and they want to be accepted by it NOT CRITICIZED! The student in Calandras

article is criticized on his answer to a physics question and claims, He should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student (159). The student points out the fact that colleges want students to think a certain way instead of getting an answer that in not accepted. Nancy Sommers, the Sosland Director of Writing at Harvard University, gives her views on students free writing in Between the Drafts by claiming: The world night become uncontrollable: Students might start writing about their grandmothers death in an essay for a sociology course. Or even worse, something more uncontrollable, they might just write essays and publish them in professional journals claiming the authority to tell stories about their families and their colleagues. (137) In Sommers article she feels as though teachers should not fear the authority, but rather they become the authority for themselves. Sommers wants both teachers and students to take their own authority and to think of themselves as a main source. All four authors agree that the student should be allowed to think outside of the box and to write what they want. For Calandra, the student has every right to think of an answer anyway they want; for Bazerman, the student needs to get away from the cookie-cutter life style and think for themselves; for Lamott, the student can write freely then go back and revise it later, for Sommers the student should be allowed to write personal essays rather that all academic essays and for the student they need to break the rules and do what they want rather than follow the pack. Insecurity is something that many people look at as just another form of being shy; however, some people who are insecure can be very outgoing and social. Insecurity can lead to students becoming anti-social but that is not always the case. Bazerman implies,

Ohers perceive that learning grammar or spelling or the five-paragraph essay will serve them well. Other, however, may get lost because the reduction eliminates some important element that might link them more closely into the dynamics of written communication. In some cases formal textualized reduction is a useful and valid and successful thing to do. (186) What Bazerman is getting at here is that some students might understand what is going on in a class but they wont speak up when they have questions about an assignment/writing project because they may have gotten lost during lecture. The important element that is being eliminated is the basics of writing and Bazerman agrees that, with different teachers, something is always eliminated for the lesson plans. This happens to a lot of students and because of it many of them will become insecure when it comes time present their work. Lamott gives her readers a little bit of relief when she writes, But because by then I had been writing for so long, I would eventually let myself trust the process sort of, more or less (327). This lets students know that their writing will get better it just takes time. With this in mind many students who are insecure about their writings can sit down and focus on what is needed to make it better. The student can then ask for help once they are confident about what they have written, however, the student has to work hard on the writing so that they become confident about it. Insecurity can be overcome but its really about how hard the student wants to work on the writing. The first step they need to do is write a first draft that they never want anyone else to see. With doing this they can get everything they want onto the paper and once looking over it they can decide what is important and what is not. The next thing to do is not try to impress everyone. If the student spends all their time trying to impress other students they will never feel good enough and always be insecure. Students should not waste their time with impressing

people, but they should focus all their time on what is needed to make their writing something that they are comfortable with. The last step to overcoming insecurity about writing is to have the student write what they want free writing. Let others know the real them and have them be accepted by what they truly are not what others want them to be. By following these steps and taking advice from Lamott, Calandra, Sommers, and Bazerman the insecure student can become a great writer and feel confident about some of their writings.

Works Cited Calandra, Alexander. "Angels on a Pin: The Barometer Story." 1961. Composing Knowledge: Readings for College Writers. By Rolf Norgaard. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 159-60. Print. Bazerman, Charles. "Where Is the Classroom?" Composing Knowledge: Readings for College Writers. By Rolf Norgaard. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 181-87. Print. Lamott, Anne. "Shitty First Drafts." 1987. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 325-28. Print.