Re: Against Formulaic Writing

[Denise Rogers <drogers@linknet.net>]

Wendy and others,

Just as we tell our students that we need to think about audience when we
write, I also think it would be helpful to think of audience as we teach. I
think that we should teach other essay models to our students, but this
thread, in general, seems to me to suggest that all of our students are
coming from the same places in terms of skills.

I teach developmental English in an institution which, until this year, has
had open admissions, which means that students with ACT scores of 9 (and
lower) could attend the university. Some of these students couldn't write
sentences, and the ones that could had difficulty with paragraphs, and
those students had difficulty with formulating an argument at all.

For these students, the 5 paragraph essay is a challenge, and it is a tool
upon which we can build further skills. Even in English 101 and 102, I
still get students that have difficulty with argumentation. Yes, the 5
paragraph essay is a kind of crutch, but there's a way to wean them off it
(introduce them to professional essays and discuss how those essays are put
together).

When I teach something like Essay Writing or Advanced Writing, I use
Charles Simic's book of essays, The Unemployed Fortuneteller, as a
sourcebook for models. I also like Ken Macrorie's works, too. And Zinsser
is very good.

But I do think it's important to understand that sometimes our colleagues
may be working with students who really and truly have not had the best
educational experience in high school. I am not in favor of formulaic
writing, but I do agree with Sara that some students at least may find a
degree of security in mastering at least one mode. No, we don't stop at
that place, but in my developmental classes, just getting the students to
have success at writing a coherent, well-developed piece of prose is a
thrill for me and for them.

Denise Rogers
University of Southwestern Louisiana