Computer Conversations and Writing Apprehension

Abstract

As participants in a growing number of online business writing courses, students must communicate with each other and the instructor electronically. One group of students may face particular challenges in this environment: those with high degrees of writing apprehension. This study examined the online communications behavior of such students as they communicated with both familiar and unknown audiences via Internet newsgroups. Low-apprehensive writers tend to exhibit simi lar communication strategies in both types of newsgroups. But high-apprehensive writers contributed more, initiated more topics of discussion, and felt more com fortable participating in electronic discussions with unknown audiences than they did when communicating with familiar audiences.