Failure in the Writer's Journey: How New College Composition Instructors Experience Failure as Writers

The value of failure is often reduced to a mere learning opportunity, especially in writing, but as composition scholar Allison Carr has argued, this narrative masks the complex emotional landscape that renders failure a profoundly affective and transformative experience for writers. This qualitative case study uses phenomenography and mindset theory to analyze the complex experiences of failure among three new college composition instructors at Texas State University. The first writer, Candace, endured intimidation thanks to what she perceived as exclusively negative feedback from her committee chair on her master’s thesis, an experience emerging from tensions within the rhetorical situation of the thesis genre. The second writer, Alex, experienced self-doubt while navigating writing processes impacted by dyslexia but, through consistent practice and time management, learned a lesson in patience while navigating these writing processes. The third writer, Malcolm, experienced exhilaration while facing failure, realizing his true identity and future as a writer. This thesis ends by urging more college composition instructors to reflect on their own writer’s journeys as impacted by failure so they can empathize with their students’ struggles and thereby foster process-centered perceptions of writing wherein failure becomes a subject of critical reflection.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Rhetoric and Composition

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Brucher, Tyler

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wilson, Nancy

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Leake, Eric
• Hodges, Russell B.

• failures
• writing studies
• emotions
• affects
• identity
• mindset theory
• phenomenography
• agency

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/20729

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/20729