Rick:
Your daughter's perception of the 5 paragraph essay serves as an
excellent support for why we don't privilege this genre in our
first year writing classes at Northridge. Our classes emphasize
what has been referred to as "academic argument," which can be
loosely defined as thesis based writing in which the main points
are used in support of a claim that responds to a specific
writing task. When our students first arrive, many of them are
so used to the paragraph essay form that they insist on three
points even when more (or fewer) points are needed for adequate
support.
Blind adherence to any form overlooks functionality, and we try
to help students gain insight into how writer, audience,
purpose, situation, and genre inform whatever they write.
By the way--my graduate students have enjoyed your essays in my
graduate seminar on Rhetorical and Literary Genre Theory.
Irene Clark
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 13:55:09 -0800
>From: Rick Coe <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: My daughter on the 5-PE
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I must stand corrected. And I have two questions.
>
> I was discussing the 5-paragraph essay (5-PE) with my
youngest
>daughter (who oddly enough is majoring in Writing & Rhetoric at
UBC). She,
>of course, has more recent and direct experience with how it is
taught in
>high school hereabouts. When I said to her that the basic
structure is
>defined by a thesis statement in the form of 'X is true because
a, b, and
>c' or 'X is true as exemplified by a, b, and c,' Sasha informed
me that, in
>practice, the structure is not nearly so precise. Having
written a thesis
>that defines a topic, she says, the student need only discuss
anything
>three things that fit into the topic; the three things need not
necessarily
>prove or support the claim of the thesis statement in order to
get a good
>grade.
>
> I am presently responding to some short course papers
from 1st
>year students in a large lecture course (over 200 students, 4
TAs). A few
>students tried to use the 5-PE format. And what they did
confirms Sasha's
>assertion. They are on topic, but off task: although they
demonstrate
>that characters in the plays they have studied face specific
ethical
>issues; they do not fulfill the assignment, which asked them to
discuss how
>the dramatic action of the plays cause audiences to consider
ethical
>issues. (This, I should add, is a distinction that has been
emphasized in
>the course and even defined in the syllabus.) The paper I am
reading just
>now demonstrates, for instance, that the characters in An Enemy
of the
>People face the issue of whether or not to renovate the Baths,
but not that
>the play causes audiences to consider whether one should do
what is safe
>and expedient or what is right.
>
> If what Sasha says is correct, I am asking them to do
something
>they have not previously been required to do, i.e., to write
not just on a
>topic, but to fulfill a purpose. (N.B., Not even a rhetorical
purpose.)
>
> Does my explanation make sense to anybody? Am I being
too picky
>in what I want from 1st year students? (I realize, of course,
that if I
>were teaching the way Russ advocates, this problem probably
wouldn't arise.)
>
>Thanks,
>Rick
>
>
>
>
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>
>For the list archives and information about the organization,
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> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Irene L. Clark Ph.D.
Director of Composition
Professor of English
California State University, Northridge
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To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
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