RE: Against Formulaic Writing -Reply

[Profsteven@aol.com]

Denise has a good point about the use of formats and structures in what we
laughingly call the real world.

And about the needs of instructors in other fields to have thesis etc. laid
out for them so they (and we) can work through thousands of essays.

How about adapting a practice from technical writing--namely, the abstract?
What if we required students to write a brief abstract of their essays across
the curriculum.  Every essay/paper would be accompanied by an abstract.  Thus
the instructors could get the gist of the essay/paper in a moment and then
could concentrate on idea development etc. as well.

Steve Strang
MIT
14N-316
617-253-4459