Standing at the core of Bandura’ social cognitive theory, students’ academic accomplishments are inextricably connected to their self-efficacy and constructed motivation. (Bandura, 1977). The resilient efforts that the highly self-efficacious individuals exert usually enable them to “master the challenges…and [produce] high-performance attainments” (Bandura, 1982, p. 123). Besides, individuals place more value on the academic activities which they used to achieve success (pajares & Valiante, 2005). Thus, recent writing research accentuated this connection between writers’ self-efficacy, motivation and efforts offered, and achieving success in writing. In another way, writers with a high level of confidence in their writing capabilities and processes are more willing to work persistently for satisfying and effective writing. In contrast, those who have less sense of efficacy are unable to resist any failure and tend to avoid what they believe it as a painful experience_ writing. (Mascle, 2013). In a nutshell, there is a casual relationship between self-efficacy beliefs that the writers hold and accomplishments that they can achieve in their writing. Accordingly, scholars emphasized that writing self-efficacy beliefs are instrumental for making predictions of crafting outcomes (Bandura, 1982; pajares & Valiante, 2005; Mascle, 2013).
Empirically speaking, according to Ryan’s (2019) study on introductory Composition courses, poor writing is strongly sponsored by the writers’ self-doubts of making effective writing rather than their actual writing capabilities. Bandura (1982) describes self-referent thought as a powerful mediator that links one’s knowledge and actions. Therefore, even when individuals have the required skills and knowledge, their self-referent may continue in hindering their optimal performance. Therefore, increasing their writing positive beliefs resulted in better performance in their writing (Ryan, 2019). This was also evident in Zimmerman and Bandura’s (1994) study on collegiate students in their writing courses. Nurturing the participants’ perceived self-efficacy elevated the goals that they used to set up in the writing courses, and this, in turn, promoted their quality of writing and placed more sense of self-satisfaction. Another key determinant that Zimmerman and Bandura’s study emphasized is self-regulatory writing. The effect of self-regulation in writing has been investigated as well in Hidi and Boscolo’s (2006) article. In brief, self-regulation encapsulates the writing dynamism of complexities, time structure, strategies, and whether deficiencies or capabilities. Through self-regulatory efficacy, writers strive toward more self-efficaciousness that effectively impacts their writing attainments.