The Reader as Entity

This study examines the reading apprehension, the writing performance, and the perceived job reading requirements of 91 students enrolled in an upper-division business writing course at the University of Arizona. To measure reading apprehension, the investigators used the Estes Scale (1971), and a modification of the frequently used writing apprehension measure developed by Daly and Miller (1975). The investigators used course grades to measure writing performance, and they used a single question to measure students perceptions of reading requirements in their future jobs. Results indicated that students with higher course grades exhibited lower levels of reading apprehension. Further, those students also anticipated higher reatlitig requirements in their future jobs. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.