Experimenting with the “Unessay”
By Annette Finley-Croswhite
Photo credit: Celine Cejas
Since early in my teaching career I have experimented with a variety of assessment options, but most recently the "unessay" has intrigued me the most, a way of combining creativity and course content to demonstrate student learning. Put simply, the unessay is not an essay; it moves beyond the traditional term paper that usually focuses on grammar, argument, and sources and opens students to a multitude of possibilities for showcasing the knowledge they have acquired in a course. Unessays can be used in just about every discipline and also allow faculty to engage with course material in new ways. As a means of assessment, unessays were first devised in the field of digital humanities around 2012. Evidence indicates that during the COVID pandemic lockdown and the turn towards online instruction, unessay assignments became more-and-more popular.
I first came into contact with the term "unessay" via my son and his own college projects, a podcast, a website, a series of transcriptions. I realized that I had already been using the unessay in my courses without calling it that. During the early days of COVID I designed assignments that gave greater freedom to students, and I was pleased by the results. Now I have a term, unessay, to attach to what I have long been doing.
Let me underscore that as a history professor, my students do lots of writing in discussion prompts, in-class writes, short papers, essay exams, and research papers. However, for a final assignment, I offer students the option to develop almost any imaginative or creative project they want, as long as it is grounded in course content. Examples of unessays include: poems, podcasts, posters, plays, short stories, songs, board games, videos, video games, jeopardy-like game shows, cartoon strips, maps, site analyses, transcripts, travel guides, costuming, embroidery, sculpture, lesson plans, or just about anything that allows students to think beyond the confines of a traditional paper or lab report.
While I use unessays at the end of a course to serve as the final reflection, some faculty use them as the major research project for a course. In this case, faculty usually require a project proposal vetted in advance by the instructor, a significant bibliography, and a final showcase where student work is presented to the class.
The results of unessays can be remarkable. A historian I know decided to use the unessay in a Holocaust course. One student in that class used her craft skills to sew a wedding dress as a final project and as a symbol of the Nazi assault on Jewish families. Pictures of Jewish brides in their wedding gowns were affixed to the dress accompanied with biographies of the women and acknowledgement of their demise during World War II.
In FacSheet we have explored the "Unessay" in the past; however, in this instance I wanted to reflect on my own experience. In my History 304T class, History of Medicine, Disease, and Health Technology, I use the unessay as an option for the final course assignment. In the picture included here, student Celina Cejas produced artwork reflecting her experience with COVID. An accompanying reflective text explained aspects of the picture and related the embedded images to course content.
What I like about the unessay assignment is twofold:
- It generates enthusiasm and offers students a good deal of control over their final product; and,
- Students showcase their strengths.
Those who aren't strong writers might be amazing artists, musicians, or gamers. For me the unessay is always an option. Whatever the final prompt, students can produce the traditional essay. But, they don't have to.
Reference an earlier CFD article on the "unessay" here:
Other useful links and resources include:
- https://esclark.hcommons.org/the-unessay/
- Wood Jamie, and Nicole Stringham (2022). "The UnEssay project as an enriching alternative to practical exams in pre-professional and graduate education." Journal of Biological Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2022.2047098
