Personal Essay Research Articles

Research, Reflections, and Resistance: A Review of Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations

Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations offers a superb learning resource for exploring the body in social, emotional, cultural, and political contexts across many different career stages and disciplines. Edited by seasoned embodiment scholars Dr. Chris Bobel and Dr. Samantha Kwan, this new collection brings together 13 research reflections and 16 personal essays on different aspects of embodied resistance. It offers an expansive view of intersecting forms of body marginalization and ways to center these experiences in seeking embodiment justice. It also makes a superb resource for orienting learners at all career stages to embodied resistance and its crucial role in contemporary society. Body Battlegrounds is particularly useful for qualitative pedagogy because it presents diverse applications of qualitative methods in discovering patterns of embodied resistance.

Contextualizing the SAT: Experimental Evidence on College Admission Recommendations for Low-SES Applicants

Although it is well established that college entrance exams have become a key factor for admission to selective institutions, less is known about the influence of test scores in relation to other academic factors in the evaluation of a student’s application file. This study conducts a randomized-controlled trial to determine whether providing students’ test scores in context—how they perform relative to their school and neighborhood peers—increases the likelihood that admission officers ( n = 321) would recommend admitting low-socioeconomic status (SES) applicants. The study also examines how including a personal admission essay that conveys grit, or ability to persevere in the pursuit of long-term goals, influences admission decision making. Admission officers in the contextual condition were significantly more likely to accept both the low-SES and high-SES applicant than those without contextual information on test scores; however, they were not more likely to accept applicants who convey grit in their personal essays.

The Lives of Ancestors

Arguing that the past informs our present and indeed our future as migrants, this essay focuses on the history of movement and interaction of the earliest Sri Lankans who emigrated to Australia in the late nineteenth century. Rather than follow a sequential narrative arc, I use a personal essay form that allows me to humanize the migrant by identifying imaginatively with the migrant's sense of self, and through that strategy, question assumptions about singular national, ethnic and religious identity in the light of transnational border-crossings.

Analysis of rater effect in the evaluation of second language grammatical knowledge in the context of writing: Application of a generalized linear model

Despite ample testing research involving the impact of rater background characteristics (e.g. raters’ native language) on assessment, relatively little has been known about how raters’ linguistic knowledge influences their scoring decision-making process. By associating second language acquisition research with regard to two types of linguistic knowledge (i.e. implicit and explicit knowledge), this study aims to explore the influence of raters’ linguistic knowledge and other rater factors (including teaching experience) on second language writing assessment, particularly in relation to the grammatical aspect of performance. Forty-two raters’ grammatical knowledge was measured with an untimed paper-and-pencil grammar test (explicit knowledge) and a timed computer-based experiment (implicit knowledge). The raters also responded to a background questionnaire. For scoring, the raters evaluated five examinees’ responses on two writing tasks (a personal essay and an argumentative essay), based on a six-point analytic scoring rubric. An analysis of a cumulative link mixed model revealed that the raters’ scores could be significantly related to their grammatical knowledge and teaching experience. In addition, different effects emerged across the examinees’ ability levels. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the predictors with respect to rating performance and provide practical implications for rater selection and training in second language performance assessment. (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies · Seoul National University)

Holographic Reconstruction of Objects in a Mixed-Reality, Post-Truth Era: A Personal Essay

The ephemeral holographic image is an appropriate medium to express the nature of reality and illusion, an early interest I explored with trompe-l’œil painting. To make a representational hologram, one needs a worthy object to copy, and one that is hand-made by the artist adds to the unity of the work. The resulting copy physically resembles the original, and when both are placed together in the final composition, the material object now has an immaterial, metaphysical presence one could identify as soul. In this paper, I present a recent artwork that exhibits these characteristics, and the theme of Reality, Truth and Lie is firmly placed within the current political context. The historical background to my work, relevant aspects of the technical process, and closer analysis of the ambiguities inherent in the hologram are all noted in my narrative, and I add my own personal comments and opinions. One invaluable source has been the published accounts of other artists/holographers who describe their own experience in holography, a medium that fuels ideas rather than being only a tool to express them.

Experiments with Truth: Narrative Nonfiction in South Africa

In this reflection on his recently published book, Hedley Twidle explores historical and theoretical approaches to the question of non-fiction in South African literature. Experiments with Truth reads the country's transition as refracted through an array of documentary modes that are simultaneously refashioned and blurred into each other: long-form analytic journalism and reportage; experiments in oral history, microhistory and archival reconstruction; life-writing, memoir and the personal essay. Its case studies trace the strange and ethically complex process by which actual people, places and events are shuffled, patterned and plotted in long-form prose narrative. While holding in mind the imperatives of testimony and witness so important to the struggle for liberation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the book is increasingly drawn to a post-TRC aesthetic: to works that engage with difficult, inappropriate or unusable elements of the past, and with the unfinished project of social reconstruction in South Africa. It places southern African materials in a global context, and in dialogue with other important nonfictional traditions that have emerged at moments of social rupture and transition.

Persuasive uses for the Personal Essay

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Immediacy pandemic: consumer problem-solving styles and adaptation strategies

Purpose This paper aims to delve into the complexity and multiplicity of consumer experiences in relation to mobile and virtual technology, and provides a lived-experience account of the Consumer Immediacy Pandemic (CIP) and related consumer experiences and responses. Design/methodology/approach Using open-ended, in-depth interviews, as well as personal essays, the research questions are addressed through the interpretive hermeneutic approach. Findings The CIP is an important, multifaceted consumer shift, whose ramifications are traceable in consumer behavior. It encompasses three consumer problem-solving styles (i.e. real-time, mobile and virtual problem-solving). Consumers adapt to the CIP through such strategies as unbundling of presence, temporal gain and synchronization, task continuity, work-fun integration and multi-tasking. Research limitations/implications With conventional theories ineffectively explaining consumer experiences with such products as smart phone, social media and selfie stick, this paper provides fruitful directions for studying consumer-technology relationships. Practical implications The findings point to untapped and novel needs rooted in consumer experience with mobile and virtual technology such as the needs for personal information management and/or professional counseling. Social implications The paper provides evidence as to a deep-seated shift in the role of technology in consumer life. Underestimating the ongoing and future success and power of mobile and virtual technology can be too costly for society at large. Originality/value This study exposes the dialogical interplay between consumer agency and structural influences that compels consumers to internalize immediacy as a taken-for-granted expectation. Such pandemic alters the ways consumers go about satisfying their needs and wants. The findings can help understand the twenty-first century consumer, theorize product agency and chart marketing and policy directions.

Language Forums

In this essay, I present three found poems consisting of discussion thread titles from a popular bilingual dictionary website, WordReference.com. Browsing these forums during a translation project, I became fascinated by the ways in which thread titles hinted at larger narratives, and I wanted to investigate what these user queries might reveal about the sorts of language that people need, sometimes desperately. The poems are preceded by a personal essay investigating the difficulties of maintaining authority and confidence as a non-native speaker and translator.

Emotional Impact of Participation in an Intergenerational Service-Learning Course

Service-learning offers numerous benefits to students, yet there is minimal research exploring the immediate impact of service-learning on students’ emotive state. Given the prevalence of stress, depression and anxiety in college students, this area of research carries important implications. This paper investigates the emotional impact of participation in an intergenerational service-learning course on college students’ moods. In the course investigated, students were responsible for providing direct services related to pet care to low-income elderly persons, and individuals with disabilities. Students were asked to track their moods before and after each interaction with a pet owner using a mobile application. They were also required to write reflection papers about their experiences, views, and insights gained over the course of the semester. Using the mood tracking application, participants reported improved mood after visiting clients and their pets when compared to before their visit. Students’ personal reflection essays supported this trend in mood change. While it was not possible to determine whether the observed gains were due to interactions with the elderly or their pets, intergenerational service-learning courses represent a possible avenue for ameliorating mental health issues among college students.

“Your Paper Saved Seattle”: E. W. Scripps and the Star’s Role in the General Strike of 1919

ABSTRACTThis article examines the role of E. W. Scripps and one of his pillar newspapers, the Seattle Star, in the General Strike of 1919, the first citywide, multi-union labor action to receive a “general strike” designation in the United States. It profiles a prominent figure in American journalism, as well as his daily newspaper’s coverage of a pivotal event in American labor movement history, analyzing Scripps’s response to one of his editors breaking from his business model and turning against the working class during a time of civic turmoil. While Scripps eschewed the spotlight and built his business on selling affordable newspapers to the working class, in his business dealings, Scripps was an ardent capitalist. Illustrating these contradictions, this article explores the ways Scripps responded to the labor strike when its deployment hurt his business interests, citing his personal essays, disquisitions, letters, and newspaper coverage from the Seattle Star.

Parade of ghosts: buildings &amp; their echoes

At the centre of this personal essay is my effort to understand the impact of buildings on literature, and the impact of literature on buildings. What happens when the built environment is drastically altered? How does memory mediate between what used to be there and what replaced it? I have drawn from personal experience, ancient myths and modern fairy tales, seeking to highlight both the intimate and the universal voice about places and the memories of those places. Piecing together personal narrative in prose and poetry with passages from classic and modern works, I endeavor to create an openended collage of words and virtual images that help readers navigate their own oceans of memory and architecture. I am inspired by the work of other authors who animate the page, letting words and thoughts come in and out of focus. Among them are the American author Carole Maso (The Art Lover, 1990; Ava, 1993); the Canadian classicist and poet Anne Carson (If not, winter: Fragments of Sappho, 2003; Nox, 2010); the German academic and author W.G. Sebald (The Emigrants, 1996; Austerlitz, 2001); and the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle (Take Care of Yourself, 2007; The Address Book, 2012).

Following Geri's Lead

Drawn from a keynote delivered for Timeless Portraits and Dreams: A Festival in Honor of Geri Allen (Harvard University, February 16–17, 2018), this personal essay shares observations about Allen's intellectual and artistic leadership in diverse roles including bandleader, teacher, curator, and artistic visionary. In addition to discussions of Allen's music and recordings, this essay also focuses on her collaboration with the author and actor/director S. Epatha Merkerson, which resulted in two musical theater projects, Great Jazz Women of the Apollo (2013) and A Conversation with Mary Lou (2014).

The Rise and Fall of the Plastic Straw

This personal essay describes the recent bans on plastic straws in the United States and the subsequent response by disabled people on social media to ableist narratives centered on straws-as-harm. The cripping of plastic straws, an access tool for many people, is one example of disabled people creating and repairing what Nancy Mairs calls a ‘habitable world.’ The author shares her own experiences with the Great Straw Debate of 2018 and the collective power of online communities against this effort.

“I Know Who I Am and What I Represent”: Asserting Indigenous Labrador Identity

The following essay is an interdisciplinary engagement with the life writing of Doris Saunders, founding editor of Them Days magazine. Using postcolonial and decolonial life writing theories, it argues that Saunders asserted an Indigenous Labrador identity through her personal essays, speeches and letters by negotiating boundaries of colonial ideologies present in the settler state and a local Indigenous organization.

The Air that I Breathe: Surviving the Loss of the Communication Senses Through Narrative Writing

ABSTRACT There is a dearth of recorded lived experiences and reflections of scholars and healers grappling with the loss of their communication senses. I am assaulted by deafblindness as a result of a degenerative disease and find my world is unmade. With the loss of sight and the disappearance of hearing come dependence and despair. This personal essay looks at my poor experience at ground zero for research, writing and advocacy—combining personal memoir with other illness and disability narratives to elucidate the universality of human experience (particularly of suffering) while focussing on how carers can do better. I write of the wreckage of, repair to and transformation of my experience and tell of brief formative episodes in my history to give relatable examples of both devastation and resilience in the face of dual sensory loss. In addition, I detail how through my reading and writing I espouse the role of the deafblind researcher—pathfinding so the way can be easier for future students. This writing offers insights into the ways narrative medicine can help repair the self. We share stories, and then others can go on too.

Current Practices and Perceptions of Admission Criteria at Physical Therapist Education Programs in the United States

Introduction. Entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs in the United States (US) have developed admission criteria (AC) to identify applicants most capable of program success; however, there is little evidence to support these criteria. The purpose of this study was to 1) gather data on the use and weighting of AC, 2) explore the perceptions of the value of AC, 3) explore a possible discrepancy between the use of AC and their perceived value, 4) determine whether differences in AC exist between programs with higher versus lower licensure pass rates, higher versus lower student retention rates, and across geographic regions in the US. Subjects. All DPT programs (N = 218) in the US accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education were eligible for recruitment in this study. The survey was completed by a program director, an admission committee chair, or a faculty member familiar with the program's admission process. Of the 218 programs invited to complete the survey, 73 responded with a response rate of 33.5%. Methods. An anonymous, 30-item survey was used for data collection. Descriptive and comparative statistical methods were used on the data as a whole and by subgroups. Results. Undergraduate overall grade point average (GPA), math/science GPA, or verbal and quantitative Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores were weighted heavily in admission decisions. The personal essay, volunteer hours, and letters of recommendation were not considered predictive of program success. There were significant differences in the proportion of programs that use the verbal and quantitative GRE scores when subdivided by licensure pass rate, either ≥95% or &lt;95% (P = .005 and P = .049, respectively). There were no proportional differences in the utilization or weighting of criteria when programs were divided by student retention rate, either ≥95% or &lt;95%. Geographic differences were found in the use and weighting of AC when comparing the West region with other parts of the US. Conclusion. Previous literature suggests that undergraduate GPA is the best predictor of success in a DPT program; however, this study found no significant differences between the use or weight given to the GPA on licensure examination pass rates or student retention rates. Programs may wish to reconsider requiring a number of criteria that were not weighted heavily or considered to be a top predictor of success in a DPT program, particularly those criteria that are resource intensive.

Personal Essay: Being Liminal: Life as an HOH Teacher

This personal essay addresses the intersections of my experiences as a HOH (Hard of Hearing) person and my teaching.

Holding on to history and each other: The unexpected LGBTQ legacy of a Czech Holocaust survivor and a Torah scroll from her hometown

A Czech Holocaust survivor rescued by a Kindertransport in 1939; a long-lost Torah scroll, rediscovered in 1964, from a Jewish community wiped out in World War II; a German American lesbian who converted to Judaism in 2001. Three disparate stories, unfolding decades apart, converge in one memorable encounter, a Kristallnacht commemoration in Los Angeles organized by Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC), the world’s first LGBTQ synagogue, which leads to an enduring friendship and fresh insight into contemporary queer Jewish life. In this personal essay, longtime BCC member Sylvia Sukop interweaves history and autobiography to explore the beauty and power of ritual, the resonance of the “Choose life” passage in Deuteronomy that her congregation reads from its rescued Czech scroll every Yom Kippur, and the many forms that good deeds and survival can take. Progressive faith communities, the author suggests, and the traditions in which they are rooted make space to witness and affirm the fullness of one another’s humanity, bridging differences and fostering unexpected kinship in a brutally divisive world.

How can scholarly work be meaningful in an era of lost causes?

ABSTRACTThis personal essay is an attempt to position our work as scholars and teachers within the conditions we currently live. I consider what kind of guidance the environmental humanities might offer to promote an ethic of advocacy and persistence which endures without the expectation of victory. Using literary references, critical sources, and examples from my own classroom, I propose how we might do this in two ways. The first has to do with language: we are well-situated to intervene in lexicons of bureaucracy by promoting words and stories that articulate intimate, creative relationships with nature, and ways of reading which enhance the public’s ability to perceive environmental justice issues. The second concerns community action: we can teach ‘activism’ as daily ceremonies of local involvement, and re-frame hope as a form of work – inter-generational, perpetual work we are committed to practicing even if it fails to prevent the consequences of global warming.