''I hate to write! I can't do it!''

by Heather Urbanski

This research documents and examines the experiences of a particular group of students: Resistant Writers, the conscientious, dedicated students who struggle to succeed in writing courses for no easily discernible reason. Resistant Writers often express that they "hate" writing, and a related belief that they can't write, avoiding writing as much as possible while seeking out other academic tasks. These students don't just struggle with writing; they actively resist the task and the course because both seem incompatible with their strengths and disciplinary affinities.;Despite this, Resistant Writers are also often invisible in First-Year Composition classrooms and have been ignored in the scholarship, perhaps because of their success at navigating academic demands. In an effort to better understand these students, this research relies on three primary data sources: (1) In-depth weekly interviews with a case study student (whom I call Katie); (2) Weekly reflective logs kept by Katie; and (3) Screening survey results from fifty-five students in three sections of a first-year writing course (Lehigh's English 1).;Based on an examination of those data sources, this dissertation identifies a significant role conflict at the center of Resistant Writer struggles: the expectations and behaviors of the Student role seem to interfere with those of the Writer role around which First-Year Composition is built. The student voices gathered in this study point to three specific manifestations of that role conflict: (1) Writing as a Course; (2) Writing as a Task; and (3) Writing as a Discipline. This dissertation reviews each of these in-depth and provides pedagogical recommendations for instructors who encounter Resistant Writers in the classroom.

195 pages, NOOKstudy eTextbook