As these three students navigate their research, unexpected triggers may arise, shedding light on the intricate relationship between reading, trauma, and learning.

Reading and Disruptive Emotions

We know reading can be emotional, right? Maybe your heart has swelled at a “good morning” text. Maybe you’ve wept at poetry. You may have let out a little laugh at a funny meme. Maybe you’ve felt concerned about a news headline. Maybe you’ve fallen asleep from boredom while reading your chem textbook. In any ...

Why Does Practice Matter?

In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get good at something. Gladwell grounds this claim in his interviews with successful writers and review of scholarly conversations on the topic. It’s hard to say how long it takes to become a successful writer. People seem to vary. ...

Have Faith in the Writing Process

Faith in the Writing Process refers to a quintessential attitude successful writers have about composing: that over time a phrase, a felt sense, a really rough draft can become rhetorically focused, elegant, and impactful. This faith requires a writer embrace a Growth Mindset and learn from Procedural (Tacit) Knowledge related to Composition Theory, Communication Studies, ...

Growth Mindset – Fixed Mindset

Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset refer to a personality construct theorized by Carol S. Dweck (2006). People with a growth mindset assume traits such as intelligence and talent are a product of hard work, grit, determination. Have you ever heard anyone say or have you thought yourself, “I’m just not good at math,” or “I’m ...

pic of writing on board: "Your Life is as good as your mindset."

Self-Regulation & Metacognition

What are Self-Regulation & Metacognition? Self-regulation, a personality trait, refers to taking control of learning and the writing process oneself. Metacognition literally means ‘about thinking’. Metacognition involves thinking about thinking—about being self-reflective about your learning and thinking processes. Metacognition is usually considered to include two components: For example, consider the task of remembering a phone number. ...

Research on Mindset & Intrapersonal Competencies

Below is a summary of research on Mindset and Intrapersonal Competencies where Mindset concerns a person’s way of thinking. For instance, people could be described as having a growth or fixed mindset. Or someone could be said to have an optimistic or pessimistic mindset. Intrapersonal Competencies refers to “self-management and the ability to regulate one’s ...

Resilience

Resilience, a personality trait, refers to a person’s ability to persevere when confronting confusion, difficult tasks, obstacles, and rejection. Resilience is grounded in Conscientiousness (e.g., achievement striving, industriousness, and self-control.) People who are resilient tend to have higher “self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability” (National Research Council 2012) “I’ve missed more than ...

Professionalism & Work Ethic

Professionalism and Work Ethic refers to a cluster of traits that people use to describe a person’s character and behavior. Professionalism refers to a cluster of competencies that experts possess. For instance, a mathematician can work with mathematical formulae to solve real-world problems while a tennis pro can hit the ball from anywhere on the ...

Intellectual Openness

Intellectual Openness refers to a cluster of personality traits related to curiosity, to experimenting with new experiences, and to being willing to change one’s opinion in the face of evidence and reasoning. Intellectual Openness plays a key role in composition. Collaborating with co-authors and teams requires writers to experiment with new roles, listen and respond ...

Mindset

Mindset Definition Mindset may refer to A mindset may be rational or irrational. It may be based on custom, habit, folk lore, opinion, belief, a faith, empirical evidence, theory, or hermeneutics. People may be unconscious or unconscious about ways their mindset influences their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. A person’s mindset at any given moment may ...