week three reading post for 2/3

I'll be honest: while I definitely got some practical points out of the Dornan reading for this week, the Romano reading just felt monotonous.  Yes yes I get it: you like multi-genre papers.  All I saw from you here was a ton of small "zomg I love it so much!"  Not worthless, not by a long shot.  But at the moment..not so applicable.

HOWEVER, The Dornan stuff I've found immediate value in has been a very solid breakdown on different ways to approach different papers.  This goes even further in the wiki readings this week.  I have a huge background in argument and debate, as well as a love for the practical application of the five-paragraph essay.  So I responded pretty well to it...

Kimberely Wesley seems to lack any sense of transitive use.  At one point she states something like, "the form is restrictive because it doesn't allow possibly good ideas a student comes up with to come to fruition."  There was a tired seed metaphor in there too.  Anyway...sure, I can see that if she forces them to put large subjects into a small essay.  I think of it like this - the five paragraph essay is just a generalized template.  It's the "medium-sized" version of the form.  A few years ago, I volunteered in a sixth-grade classroom as they were learning the structure of essay-writing.  They started with the "perfect paragraph", which is also known as the paragraph sandwich graphic organizer.  We spent a few weeks learning the form of the intro/body/conclusion in a single paragraph, and then we moved onto a full page.  A five-paragraph essay using the same basic style.  The idea wasn't that it was the end: it's not.  they were told this, we know this.  But it's a good start to a good form of a thesis, a few points you prove, and a conclusion.  Wesley seems to really lack this understanding, and it's unfortunate that she's so willing to toss a good and perfectly valid format just because she doesn't understand that it's not an end to a process.  Novick's very introduction is perfect in that regard: it's a severe lack of imagination, and possibly an incredibly reactionary view of "it's been used in the past, and therefore invalid."  This causation fallacy is frustrating, to say the least.

Argument ties into this.  I view all essays as inherently argumentative.  In academic writing, it's largely rhetoric in nature.  As unfortunate as I feel it is that people like Wesley abandon a GOOD introduction to logical thought in writing via the five-paragraph essay, I feel incredibly fortunate that someone like Randi Dickson is able to identify the over-arching concept.  The form of the five-paragraph essay is good because it's manageable to kids who haven't written an essay before.  Optimally, by the time they're in the 9th-10th grade, they're also doing larger essays, but the five-paragraph essay keeps the general form in motion for them.  It's not just an exercise: it's an application of understanding the structure of the rhetorical argument, and it's a solid (and, again, MANAGEABLE for them) method to apply their instinctual verbal abilities into a written form.  Right now, I'm beginning work on a unit for writing a research paper for the honor's college writing class.  My method to getting there?  Impress on them the importance of verifying source, the proper use of collected-research, and giving them a solid understanding of logical argumentative processes.  This is the backbone to the writing we expect of them.  As-is, I have several tentative moments where they will be writing five-paragraph essays.  The idea is not for them to be purely summative assessments, but for them to be applications of learned concepts that they can bring into their larger (7-8 pages) research papers.

They need to understand how to avoid fallacy.  They need to learn persuasive argument in a written form.  While I'm all for something like Romano's multi-genre project, it's not something to replace a five-paragraph essay.  Those who criticize the form, I've noticed so far, simply aren't understanding what it is.  And by that measure: the teachers who are teaching the five-paragraph essay as a simple exercise with no further application are showing a similar lack of thought.

My links for the week:

how to win an argument

An overview of the academic essay

These are a little more wordy than my previously-linked sites. They're not really something I'd generally just throw on a student, although they're certainly something they can look at once they're on firmer ground. But they are something to keep in mind. The "essay" is a nebulous form held together by basic principles. Those basic principles are not just present in an academic setting.