Representative Comments From Student Surveys re the Segmented Essay Project

Note: Regarding the four more-or-less essential elements that give a CNF essay its special cachet (Personal Indwelling, Truth, Resonance, Craft), my students pretty much took the Truth and Resonance of their writing for granted—or at least did not wrestle with those concepts in the way that older writers might. Instead, nearly all of their comments regarding what they liked and disliked about the project (they were asked for both) dealt with either their personal involvement or their experience of being a conscious craftsperson while putting together the piece. They generally did not see the close relationship between those two elements; their comments about the “personal” nature of the writing mostly referred to (to use Britton’s terms) Expressivist elements, not Poetic ones. We, on the other hand, know that the “magic” of a CNF project—its ability to engage students intensely-- has as much to do with artistic engagement (Britton’s “spectator” role) as with personal indwelling (Britton’s “participant” role). This may be a case where the term “synergy” actually applies.

Personal Nature/Indwelling of the project: Two representative criticisms

“The only thing that I really disliked was the fact that I had to work in the writing Center on it. It felt like a really personal piece that would have liked to work on alone.”

“If the wrong person (aka my parents) read this I will be in trouble.”

Personal Nature/Indwelling of the project: Two representative endorsements

“I like this assignment because it allows the reader to be in the author’s shoes to understand their problems. I also like this piece because it allows the reader to read between the lines.”

“I like the fact that I got to express something that has been eating away at me for a very long time.”

The Crafting Element of the project: Two representative criticisms

“I felt as though the directions were a little confusing.”*

“At times it was a little confusing. I wasn’t exactly sure what you were looking for, but then I figured out it had to be segments that were right for me.”

The Crafting Element of the project: Three representative endorsements

“I like that the assignment didn’t require any special formatting.”

“I liked the variety we were allowed to use for this essay because it gave us choices.”

“I liked that it was totally different writing . I was kind of like an artist.”

*This is a critique of the teacher, of course, but in this case I didn’t take it too hard; I knew the strangeness of the genre as well as my reluctance to be programmatic would inevitably cause younger students some anxiety. This is a much tougher “genre” to teach than most of the expository and persuasive modes that still dominate our writing curriculum.