Yes, I get as anxious now as I did 20-something years ago when I faced my first composition students. Nervous because I know that the first minutes of a class are like the first sentences of an essay. If you don’t gain your audience’s attention then, chances are you never will.

Of course my students will be anxious too. Because most of them fear writing. They tell me they’re not good at it. They get writers’ block. And if they should succeed at getting words on the page, the sentences are unintelligible or there are too many technical errors. Or both.

These students know they suck at English because they’ve been told so. OK, maybe teachers were kind enough not to use those words, but the low marks and red ink said it for them. So most of the students I will see today believe they are poor writers. And most believe it is a terminal condition. They will never be a strong writer.

Therein lies my challenge. Research has shown that high writing apprehension is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Folks who fear writing avoid writing classes, and when they are forced to put pen to paper, they write less words and produce fewer drafts—all self-defeating behaviors.

The good news is that the opposite also is true. Confident writers take more writing classes, put more words on the page and write more drafts before they turn in much better papers.

So, much of my job this semester is to get them to believe in themselves as writers. We’ll start today with laughter.