Re: formulaic writing, a different take?, reply

[Muriel Harris <harrism@omni.cc.purdue.edu>]

> 
> I did have one student this spring who wanted out of that prison.  
> Not only had he been taught the three-point theme, but also he 
> had been taught that theme needed a certain number of sentences.  
> He was really engaged in the topic of his paper, but he couldn't 
> get it to fit the formula he had been taught.  I finally 
> understood his problem and gave him permission to dump that 
> structure.  
> 
> Lynne Belcher


Lynne, that jibes with a study I did eons ago, asking a couple of
hundred students in our FYC program about "rules" they learned in high
school and still use. Thus, I learned that intro paragraphs have to be
diamond-shaped, pyramid-shaped, etc., that really good sentences have
to have over 15 words, that you can't start sentences with "and" or
"but," etc., etc., etc. Mike Rose also wrote about this in an article
on "Rigid Rules." The purpose of my quest was to unearth those
unspoken constraints that some students work with in their heads but
forget to tell us when we're trying to figure out what's not working
for them. Otherwise, how would I have guessed that the 14-word
sentence in some kid's writing marked it as an inferior sentence?

..and, Lynne, that ain't cow pies.....   ;-)

Mickey


----------
Mickey Harris
harrism@omni.cc.purdue.edu