Sections.

I really liked how the sections in the Cofer piece worked - it was my favorite of that group of readings.  By alternating between italicized and regular text, Cofer was able to intertwine two types of stories - her background and her dreamlike recollection of the home movie. She writes her story chronologically, but the italisized interjections go back to her past and are actually the interesting part of the story. They are the "creative" part of this nonfiction - because the audience knows that they are not 100% true - but they allow the reader to enjoy the story.

Simic's sectioning was also effective, although it was a little confusing. Since he did not state his purpose until the end (excepting the title, which I tend to ignore until I have some more context), the essay seems disjointed and there seems to be no reason why he is telling these short anecdotes about his life. In the end, he ties it all together, but until then, the reader is left wondering what exactly the point is.

I wasn't terribly fond of Atwood's use of sectioning. While I understand the prosey type of writing style she was using, I didn't take her as seriously because it didn't seem like a real article/essay since it was numbered. The sections gave the information structure, but at the same time detracted from the impact that her ideas could have had.

I think that if I continue with the writing from this week's class, I would probably use sectioning in my essay, also. I like the idea of using the seasons to create sections in time between paragraphs. In that way, you could make sure to include detailed memories of the scene, which would give the reader more of a visual idea of what's going on in the story. It's important to describe the setting in detail so that the reader can visualize what's going on, and it's easy to forget to write these things because it's such an obvious part of the story when you're reciting a memory.