Writing any text requires a certain confidence. However, for reasons already outlined, this initial confidence is often lacking when FL students begin assignments. The problem may be that students find it difficult to get started, and are therefore reluctant to get their ideas down on paper. You may find this short speed reading exercise useful:

From an inter-personal point of view, the first task is complicated, though it may be easier than the second because students are more familiar with the genre of e-mail.

Hadfield and Hadfield (1990) also note the importance of speed writing. They argue that the large number of difficulties which students experience in writing (psychological, linguistic and cognitive) can sap the creativity of the writer and raise the associated problem of perfectionism. To this end, they suggest some use of activities such as 'circle writing', where students pass their papers to the next group of students for further completion of the task, or quickly complete a piece of writing based on a sequence of events. In FL classrooms, timed essays can also be used to positive effect where students remain unnecessarily worried about their writing, and find it difficult to put pen to paper when under pressure.