Abstract
Writing helps one to connect and remember. It makes individual reflections and thinking clear and
meaningful to survive in the world of symbols. The present study adds to the existing body of
knowledge on determining the interplay of writing anxiety, writing strategies and writing
achievement of Saudi EFL learners. It further explored the use of writing strategies to reduce
writing anxiety and to illustrate its effect on EFL students ' writing achievement. The study
employed a descriptive correlational research design to the 128 EFL-major students (56 males and
72 females). Participants were advised to respond to a written apprehension inventory and to
complete a writing activity. Multiple writing workshops were done with the students to ascertain
their writing anxiety, writing strategies and writing achievement. Inferential statistics were used
to determine correlations between learning and teaching methods both among high- and low-risk
students. It was revealed that writing anxiety is negatively correlated to their writing strategies and
writing achievement. The results of this study question the common assumption that some of the
Saudi students' fears are relevant to their writing. The results showed that students with no learning
apprehension prefer creative more than tense strategies.