Apprehension of Writing as a Predictor of Message Intensity

Abstract
The present study sought to determine the effects of writing apprehension on message encoding strategies. Ninety-eight undergraduate students completed measures of language intensity and writing apprehension. As hypothesized, individuals with high apprehension of writing encoded significantly less intense messages than did those with low apprehension (p < .05). The finding offers support for both (a) a theoretic proposition advanced by Burgoon et al. concerning the role of language intensity in persuasive messages and (b) the predictive validity of the writing apprehension measure.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: