As evidence of the longevity of the shelf life of the 5 paragraph essay and
its apparent usefulness, I submit this exerpt from an advertisement
received this morning from McGraw-Hill Ryerson:
College Writing Skills with Readings Fourth Canadian Edition will help
students master the traditional five-paragraph essay and variations on this
essay structure. It is a very practical book with a number of special
features to aid instructors and their students.
Four principles are presented as keys to effective writing - unity,
support, coherence, and effective sentence skills. Activities and
assignments are numerous and varied; nearly two hundred activities and
tests are included. The emphasis on logic and the pursuit of ideas and
explanations in a sequential manner starts in the first chapter.
Students are introduced to the two principles that are the basis of clear
thinking and writing; making a point and providing support to back up that
point.
Katharine
At 09:16 AM 10/27/2005, you wrote:
>Sandy Dorley wrote:
>
>>Before we dismiss it out of hand, there is a time and a place for
>>such structures as the 5 paragraph theme. The problem is not that
>>they exist--they are quite useful in some cases with novice writers
>>and simple subjects. The problem is that they have a limited shelf
>>life.
>
>And I have to agree with this, wholeheartedly. The history of the
>five-paragraph essay suggests that like the New Criticism in literary
>studies, it fit the post-WWII need for a simple teaching model with
>distinct rules and expectations. Novice teachers could be rapidly
>"trained" and given a set of marking criteria. The history to this
>is, I believe, fairly well documented in the American comp curricula.
>
>I found the five-paragraph essay quite effective in Detroit's urban
>middle schools, where I first became aware of its teaching. But in
>that setting, as well as in Adult Basic Education in British Columbia
>-- a spread of settings that would seem to make a world of difference
>-- I found the continuance of the five paragraph form to be an
>impediment specifically among those who had been judged as
>inarticulate by its criteria.
>
>In Detroit, the prevalence of strong home languages and communication
>styles, especially those which were driven by example, interfered
>with what the students saw as the relatively dry expectations of the
>form. Surprisingly, among both the First Nations and non-First
>Nations adult learners I've encountered in three years of teaching in
>BC, the same effect showed through. Students with rich life
>experiences to share and a significant grasp of rhetorical strategies
>in verbal environments ran up against the same internalized demon of
>what "good writing" meant. And it simply wasn't big enough to "fit"
>their story.
>
>Arguments about immersion in a culture of literacy aside, I found
>that once students "learn" that one style is the expected style, they
>chafe against its constraints at the same time they continue to judge
>their own writing as inadequate by its parameters.
>
>In short, I found that those who felt -- or who had been told -- that
>their writing did not live up to the expectations of this form
>(whatever the particulars of the form might be -- number of
>paragraphs, use of "I", whatever) managed to internalize the form,
>and its constraints, far more than those who felt -- or who had been
>told -- that they were good writers. The self-identified "good
>writers" already knew that the five paragraph form was just one
>style, did not need to be taught that speeches, magazine articles,
>book reviews and research papers did not necessarily all follow this
>model. The writers who struggled against the formal constraints had
>to be reminded to try other styles, and to look towards other writing
>models.
>
>As long as the five-paragraph model is offered only as a style -- as
>one pattern in a rich field of writing technique -- then it certainly
>has credible teaching merit. But at least in the US, it feels that
>thirty years of Composition work (roughly since the early '70s
>publication of a Student's Right to Speak) have largely been directed
>at undoing the historical damage of the mass post-WWII training in
>(and resultant monoculture of) the five paragraph form.
>
>Cheers,
>-marc c.
>
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