Abstract
Getting beginner-level students to write with less hesitancy and fewer errors is a goal for which all teachers strive. However, it is a daunting and challenging task for these students to write in paragraphs. One way to start them at an earlier stage is through guided composition, which has potential for raising motivation and reducing errors. This paper specifically explored the effect of the “Question-Answer” (Q&A) method of guided composition as a preliminary step to paragraph writing for 54 beginner-level Japanese university students. The teacher instructed students to write the “Composition Design” in Japanese and conducted 32 classes in total. After this course, 70-88 percent said they felt less nervous about writing a paragraph. In addition, comparing specimens before and after the four sessions, students typically extended their paragraph length by around 30–40 words.
