RE: Against Formulaic Writing -Reply

[Denise Rogers <drogers@linknet.net>]

>The debate about the five paragraph essay has been interesting.  I find
>that at the community college where I work, my developmental students
>frequently are aching for some sort of form upon which to hang their
>ideas.  Throughout their education they have been urged to "express"
>themselves, but being aliterate ( all too frequently) they do not have any
>idea how to proceed, do not have any comfort with reading, and do not have
>any confidence in their own voice.

Ron,

As I have mentioned earlier, I am in the same boat as you are--teaching
lots of sections of developmental English.

But you know, another thing that has struck me in this discussion is the
assertion that little professional writing is formulaic. I have to say that
I don't think this is true. I know what a lot of literary non-fiction is
not formulaic, but having worked in the legal profession (as a
secretary/para-professional) and in a law library (as a clerk), I have to
tell you that lots of that kind of writing is formulaic, whether it's
drafting a pleading, preparing a research memorandum, sketching out a
letter of intent, etc. And those of you who have some acquaintanceship with
the real work of the law office will know that much of this work is done by
secretaries and paralegals. Many is the time my boss said on a tape, "You
know what we need, fill in the blanks."

This is true, too, in the sciences and in those professions requiring
technical writing. It's also true for mechanical engineers, etc. Reports
are a basic feature of many jobs, and so I don't have a problem with
devoting a goodly bit of time to formulaic writing.


But, as I also said before, I enjoy teaching more free-flowing essay forms
or raising possibilities as far as construction of essays. But the other
thing that comes to mind is the fact that over in history (or political
science, or industrial design, or wherever), there are teachers who may
also have 100 essays to look at a few times a quarter (if not more), and
they want the thesis statement, etc. laid out for them. As I said, I like
teaching the art of writing, but some departments are not looking for that
from my students. I perhaps err on the side of the practical, but
certainly, when I see a student constructing a logical argument, being
inventive with paragraph breaks, doing all the things that a good essay
does without fitting the 5 paragraph theme, I encourage it, not squelch it
because I know that the chances are that that writer will be able to adapt
herself/himself to the "fogies" who want a 5 P essay.

On the other hand, when you have so many students coming to college without
having written much of anything in the past few years, it seems only right
to give them a basic tool to work from, then, as the semester goes on, you
talk about choices in thesis placement, sentence length, transitions, etc.

I doubt there's anyone here on this group that teaches the 5P essay and
lets it go at that! :)


Denise Rogers
University of Southwestern Louisiana
"Have a piece of fried alligator--it tastes just like chicken."