Meet Karlygash Mukanova, Author of “Poison or Antidote The Role of Feedback Practices in Writing Apprehension”

Blog post by Meg Palmer 

Karlygash Muknova graduated from Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan) in June 2025, where she received her bachelor’s degree in World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. While her studies primarily focused on linguistics and the Kazakh language, she also had the opportunity to take the Writing Fellows classes that prepare writing tutors and researchers in the fields of writing and Writing Center studies.

It was then as a writing intern/tutor in her university’s writing center that the idea for her research paper, “Poison or Antidote: The Role of Feedback Practices in Writing Apprehension” emerged.

“I tutored multiple students, and after some time, I started to notice differences in the way they reacted to my comments,” Karlygash said. “Some students were engaged and receptive to the feedback I gave them, while others were quite closed off. At the end of the tutorial, the latter ones pointed out that they were scared of getting feedback in the writing center and were glad that I didn’t criticize them.” 

This observation led Karlygash to the metaphor that drives her piece: For some writers, harsh feedback can be the poison that limits their thinking and confidence in themselves, whereas balanced feedback can be the antidote that motivates them and helps them grow in their writing.

To better understand the role of feedback in the writing process and in her writing center, Karlygash began an initial literature review where she learned about the idea of “writing apprehension.” This helped to inform her research question, as she wanted to better understand how feedback may inform writing apprehension and which strategies may be learned from writers with low apprehension of writing that tutors can bring to students who may have higher writing apprehension — for example, what strategies were low apprehension writers using, and could the tutors encourage higher apprehension writers to try those strategies out in tutoring sessions.

Karlygash designed an IRB-approved study to learn more about writing apprehension, which included  a survey and follow-up 1:1 interviews with writers at her university. While she struggled to get participants — especially during the midterms season — her in-depth interviews with writers created space for them to reflect on their levels of apprehension and their writing process. To help facilitate discussion in her interviews, Karlygash further employed the metaphorical thinking seen in the title of her piece, by curating a series of images that writers could respond to as they discussed their writing process.

Card number 8 with two people painting the canvas while standing on the stairs, especially speaks to her. “For me, the research process started as a blank canvas with nothing on it,” Karlygash said. “The stairs I stand on in the picture symbolize the knowledge that I acquired step-by-step. I have climbed this ‘knowledge ladder,’ and now I can start working on my research. I take the brush and paint my work, creating my piece of research in my own style. Stairs also allow me to go back and repaint, change, or draw something else on canvas, which seems to be an accurate representation of the writing process. You always repeat and return to some parts of your research and make changes for the better.”  

“Poison or Antidote” is just the beginning for Karlygash, as she is continuing her education in South Korea at Ewha Womans University this fall, and she is more inspired than ever by the future directions her research could take. From bringing her findings to her own tutoring community,to publishing with Young Scholars in Writing, to uploading regularly to her YouTube vlog, Karlygash shows that the true antidote is sharing your work with others.

Meg Palmer is a PhD student in the English Department at Northeastern University. Their research interests include digital humanities, sonic rhetorics, and community engaged learning. Undergraduate research also played a huge role in their life and played an influential role in their decision to pursue a master’s and later doctorate degree. Now, Meg serves as a mentor to undergraduate students, and is so grateful to be able to support their research and self-discovery. Meg also loves paddle boarding, their cats, and singing in their barbershop quartet, Past Curfew.