Romantic breakups are a relatively common life event for college students, with as many as 98% of young adults reporting having experienced a breakup at any point in their past (MirsuPaun & Oliver, 2017). Although the events are common, breakups have been associated with several adverse outcomes, including loneliness and social isolation…

In the field of rhetoric and composition, literacy narratives are sometimes framed through the idea of "inventing the university"; this, unfortunately, creates a trope of literacy as success. I argue that the success trope limits student expression of "outlaw" emotions in literacy narratives--like loss, pain, and anxiety--and…

In this article, we examined whether career writing--creative, expressive, and reflective writing--can increase luck readiness, which is the ability to respond and make use of (career) opportunities. Two 2-day writing courses were taught to third-year bachelor students, one before and one after work placements. In this exploratory study, results…

An experienced physician-teacher shares her own experiences with loss in medicine and loss in her personal life. Through personal writings during her divorce, she exemplifies the healing effect writing can have during difficult transformations that occur in life. She shares her bias that physicians need to accept and own their emotions and can use…

The effects of a widely used expressive writing intervention on adolescents' somatic symptoms, distress, and positive psychological functioning were evaluated. Eighth-grade (n = 106) students were randomly assigned to write about either an emotional or a neutral topic for 3 consecutive days. Students completed measures of somatic symptoms, medical…

Three studies were carried out to investigate the writings of suicidal people on the Internet, hypothesizing consistent findings to equivalent research of offline writing. In Study 1, suicidal persons' (n = 34) attributions as the cause of their condition, as expressed in their free online writing, were compared to those of emotionally distressed,…