Thus, Ergo, Clearly, and Furthermore
So, I changed my font last time because I was feeling the urge to go against the grain, but now I realize that I threw the entire blog aesthetic out of whack. My bad.
Okay. Two sections today: transitions and the 5-paragraph essay. I honestly feel that transitions can make or break a paper, and I also think that writing good transitions is one of the most difficult parts of writing a paper. I know that I never worry about transitions when I'm struggling to write a first draft; I simply attempt to get my ideas down on paper, no matter how rough or inarticulate they are -- and that's usually what I tell my students to do, too, when they're writing a first draft. However, in my teaching experience, students' first drafts were often eerily similar to or exactly the same as their final copies, despite my best efforts, and then I would kick myself for not encouraging the students to use transitions right away. I ran across a diagram a few months ago that depicts the paper-writing process, and I love it -- it's strangely simple but made me say "Whoa! I like this!" I think many students would respond well to it, too, so I'll have to draw it on the chalkboard in class or something -- I can't reproduce it here, sorry. But I think it helps to show the need to write a paper that continually reminds the reader of the thesis, which in turn should help with understanding the need for precise transitions (operative word: "should").
When I think about the 5-paragraph essay, I feel exhausted. I know the arguments against teaching it and for teaching it, why it's bad and why it can be useful, how it works with certain learning styles, etc. It is irritating, I admit, when a student feels "stuck" in the 5-paragraph form because that's all he or she knows. At the same time, I've worked with such low-level writers that I was ecstatic to receive a paper that had paragraphs at all, much less five whole paragraphs. I've also spent time grading district writing proficiency tests that were prompt-based and graded according to a detailed yet problematic rubric, and I have to admit that some of the most refreshing essays during those long 8-hour days were the 5-paragraphs essays that weren't all that original but did exactly what the rubric wanted. We cannot forget that the original purpose of the 5-paragraph essay is to teach beginning writers the importance of organization in their writing, but I do think Amy's idea of a writing survey early in the year would help us discern student perceptions of the 5-paragraph essay.
Of course, now I realize that I sometimes see paper assignments in the Writing Center in which the instructor has laid out a very specific outline for what each paragraph of the paper should accomplish -- isn't that even more prescriptive and perhaps even more damaging than a 5-paragraph essay? I'd tend to think so.
FYI: I've deliberately not transitioned between my paragraphs in this post, and I have to tell you, I feel a bit out of sorts. I'm fighting the urge to go back and increase my cohesiveness (as Murphy would refer to it), but I'm going to resist in order to make a point. Or something.
Is anyone else tired?
Okay. Two sections today: transitions and the 5-paragraph essay. I honestly feel that transitions can make or break a paper, and I also think that writing good transitions is one of the most difficult parts of writing a paper. I know that I never worry about transitions when I'm struggling to write a first draft; I simply attempt to get my ideas down on paper, no matter how rough or inarticulate they are -- and that's usually what I tell my students to do, too, when they're writing a first draft. However, in my teaching experience, students' first drafts were often eerily similar to or exactly the same as their final copies, despite my best efforts, and then I would kick myself for not encouraging the students to use transitions right away. I ran across a diagram a few months ago that depicts the paper-writing process, and I love it -- it's strangely simple but made me say "Whoa! I like this!" I think many students would respond well to it, too, so I'll have to draw it on the chalkboard in class or something -- I can't reproduce it here, sorry. But I think it helps to show the need to write a paper that continually reminds the reader of the thesis, which in turn should help with understanding the need for precise transitions (operative word: "should").
When I think about the 5-paragraph essay, I feel exhausted. I know the arguments against teaching it and for teaching it, why it's bad and why it can be useful, how it works with certain learning styles, etc. It is irritating, I admit, when a student feels "stuck" in the 5-paragraph form because that's all he or she knows. At the same time, I've worked with such low-level writers that I was ecstatic to receive a paper that had paragraphs at all, much less five whole paragraphs. I've also spent time grading district writing proficiency tests that were prompt-based and graded according to a detailed yet problematic rubric, and I have to admit that some of the most refreshing essays during those long 8-hour days were the 5-paragraphs essays that weren't all that original but did exactly what the rubric wanted. We cannot forget that the original purpose of the 5-paragraph essay is to teach beginning writers the importance of organization in their writing, but I do think Amy's idea of a writing survey early in the year would help us discern student perceptions of the 5-paragraph essay.
Of course, now I realize that I sometimes see paper assignments in the Writing Center in which the instructor has laid out a very specific outline for what each paragraph of the paper should accomplish -- isn't that even more prescriptive and perhaps even more damaging than a 5-paragraph essay? I'd tend to think so.
FYI: I've deliberately not transitioned between my paragraphs in this post, and I have to tell you, I feel a bit out of sorts. I'm fighting the urge to go back and increase my cohesiveness (as Murphy would refer to it), but I'm going to resist in order to make a point. Or something.
Is anyone else tired?
posted by K. | 11:13 PM
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