WHEN THE WRITING GETS PERSONAL: HELPING STUDENTS WRITE THROUGH TRAUMA

Narrative essays and assignments which ask students to share personnel experience can be found not only in composition classes, but across the curriculum. However, what happens when a student selects a topic which connects with a traumatic event or situation he or she has experienced? Instructors may struggle trying to decide if they should limit students’ topics to safe ones. There may be concerns as to whether writing about something connected with a trauma is good for a student. In addition, there is the concern that if a paper’s purpose is more objective in nature, such as a research paper, that writing about a traumatic topic might encourage the student to erroneously change the text to a more personal forum. Finally, if the content is personal and traumatic, some instructors may feel uncomfortable giving feedback, feeling they might hurt the student. Thus, the feedback needed to strengthen the student’s skills is not given. This paper will discuss the positive nature of writing as regards those students who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). While the focus is on those suffering from PTSD, the principles can give insight into helping students who write about topics which touch the students in a very personal way and how feedback on such work can be given in a way that guides the students to developing stronger skills. In addition, the paper will address the self-reflection instructors need to do to decide whether to limit assignments to certain topics because the instructors do not believe they can handle possibly reading papers that may contain painful content.