In speaking with Carol Shaben about her non-fiction writing recently, she reflected briefly on her experience giving writing workshops in a local high school. She remarked that while students seemed to be willing to take risks as creative writers, they appeared less willing to do so when approaching the task of writing non-fiction, possibly because they brought to the latter task knowledge of particular rules of essay writing that limited their willingness to experiment.
I mused that an approach they were likely to have encountered was the five-paragraph essay, that utilitarian formula for writing widely promoted as a way to express one’s opinion clearly on any matter: say what you’re going to say, say it, and say you said it.
In 1985, Donald Stewart bemoaned North America’s long-standing love affair with the form:
The five-paragraph essay is a formula, not a composition. It is rule-governed, hence easy to mark, but imposing it on every subject one writes about is the equivalent of trying to put a wiggling 100-pound dog, or a barrel of apples, or several gallons of fresh maple syrup, or the unassembled parts of a ten-speed bicycle, or three different typewriters, or a wardrobe for a Florida vacation all in the same size box. (137)
In English language arts classrooms, encouraging students to read and write a variety of non-fiction is often overlooked, and the result is that students finish their formal education with no clear understanding of how to approach non-fiction as writers or critical readers.
Reference:
Stewart, D.C. (1985). Some History Lessons for Composition Teachers. Rhetoric Review, 3 (2), 134-144.
Can we really get away from the 5 paragraph essay? It is so engrained, even in the minds of parents who desperately want their children to learn how to write. What writing? Essay writing! It seems that the concept of writing is enveloped by the 5 paragraph essay. I have run into difficulty with parents tutoring who when their child creates a fiction piece, they freeze, almost assuming that somehow their child is “fooling around” or perhaps not staying on task with me. I have to explain the composition of their ideas and explain how they have followed an idea and developed it throughout his/her piece of work. Only then, and with great resistance do they smile and say “ok, just making sure.” Cleverly, one student of mine stated that he was going to change writing and the new essay format would be called by his first name and would consist of no fluff and mumbo jumbo as he called it. What he wanted was to give the points and not have to make connections or “back himself up” as I repeated to him throughout our time together. Where is the place or the room for students to write and not feel that everything they say is being judged or critiqued for style and normative alignment? I say alignment because it seems that is what they are trying to do, align themselves, their work, with a particular construction of an essay.
I think there is a place for it but I am not sure how it figures into non-fiction, except that there are many variations of writing that can include non-fiction. For example, a great little book I have is called, “If you’re trying to teach kids to write, you’ve gotta have this book!” by Marjorie Frank, 1979. In here she lists many things that she states, “involves the written word…remember you’re teaching kids to LIVE-so include forms and topics that touch on a variety of the feelings and experiences of LIFE” (17). For example, comic strips, complaints, game rules, headlines, impromptu speeches, obituaries, observations, bulletins, bumper stickers, anecdotes, autobiographies, awards, character sketches, magazines, marquee notices, puppet shows, warnings, wise sayings, weather reports, TV commercials, telephone directories, sports accounts, sports analyses, quotations, newscasts, dramas, editorials, letters, interviews…you get the idea. If you have a chance, take a look at this list she provides and it really opens your eyes to the world of language and writing forms that we don’t consider.
Coming into university, my only interaction with the essay as a literary form was the five paragraph essay that, as Katie mentioned above, had been engrained in my brain as the only acceptable form for an essay to take. Consequently, I found myself completely overwhelmed and unprepared for my first year English courses at UBC (which all students are required to take). I was told repeatedly by my TA and professor that my structure was too rigid and did not leave room for ideas to be fully developed or explored. I imagine that I am not the only one who felt this way, or received this type of feedback. If this is the case, why do we continue to promote and enforce the five paragraph essay as the only acceptable way for students to interact with fictive and non-fictive material?
I feel that, like the pyramidal plot structure for fiction, the five paragraph essay has become the safe and simple way to have students interact with nonfiction. It is reassuring to teach students a form that has been promoted for so long by so many, rather than go out on a limb with your teaching method and risk failing to reach the expected learning outcomes. And certainly there is value in a structure that can clearly explain to students new to essay writing concepts such as the thesis, arguments, introduction and conclusion. However, by telling students that there can be three and only three body paragraphs, we run the risk of cutting off their thought process midway. What if they have more to say, and we don’t get to hear it because it would require five paragraphs rather than three? Students need guidance in order to comprehend and effectively write about non-fiction, but we need to be careful not to stifle them or hold them back in the process.
I like writing essays. I think the essay and the magazine article are basically the same form. What we need to be able to do is not to be so ridgid. The five paragraph essay is as Donald Stewart states so cleverly above “just a form”. It is not meant to fit everything. It should be taught as part of a continuum. The three part essay is good. The 30 paragraph essay is good. The 200 paragraph essay you wrote for your masters thesis is part of this continuum.
I loved Carol Shaben’s non-fiction piece on the sorry state of the aviation industry. I would use it to teach my students. The reason is that Carol is awesome at backing up what she says with excellent research and investigative journalism.
This what we are trying to get students to do in the so-called 5 part essay, back up your opinion or argument. The strength of argument should be the way an essay is assessed rather than how well the argument fits into an arbitrary form.
After meeting with the lovely Carol Shaben today I just wanted to add some insights I had on the five paragraph essay. I had asked Carol how much of her research is done when she starts her outline. Her response was that quite a lot of it was already done.
This got me thinking about how we ask kids in high school to write their essays; We ask them to think of a topic and compose a thesis and then to go and find information to support that thesis. As Dr. Dobson mentioned, it is a scientific way of thinking about the essay (as in thesis equals hypothesis). I much prefer the way where you do your research and (to borrow Carol’s hilarious terminology) your ‘puke’ draft and then you form the intro as a summary of what you have written. How can anyone know what they will write before they write it.
I also truly believe that in writing you use both spheres of your brain: one half is the super creative part that gives you all these great ideas, and the other half is the critic and editor. The best way to write is to do all the creative stuff first and get it all down. Don’t interrupt the creative brain because it takes a while to get warmed up. Don’t fix anything just keep writing, not even a single comma. Then when you’re done, switch to the other half of the brain to edit. For kids in high school the critic can be pretty loud so we need to teach them how to shut it off and just get it all down on paper. We can always fix it later.
The Five Paragraph Essay and Showing Students How to Enjoy Non-Fiction Writing
To begin with, I believe there is nothing wrong with the five paragraph essay being taught, just as long as students are given the opportunity to develop their creativity skills through other means. Creativity is a skill in literature, a skill that may be suppressed in the classroom, because teachers overly stress the five paragraph essay. Students will be limited in their scope of ideas if they are always preoccupied with fitting their thoughts into the very rigid style of the five paragraph essay. The teacher should always limit the number of five-paragraph-essay assignments. I still believe the five-paragraph-essay structure is essential for teaching kids to back their ideas with evidence and explanation, which is a necessary skill in non-fiction writing. The need to back your ideas in non-fiction should not drain the fun from writing non-fiction all together. There are many creative and free flowing processes that are inherent in writing non-fiction. Students should not be discouraged from writing non-fiction before they get to partake in those creative exercises.
Carol Shaben spoke about how imperative the puke draft was to her non-fiction work. Basically, the puke draft or rough draft, entails writing to just get the ideas from your mind. Students need to practice ways of working towards the rough draft. The importance of the rough draft stage may be disregarded by students, but this stage is the key to writing an effective non-fiction piece. In fact, students may neglect this stage because of how overwhelming this part of the writing process can be. There are a lot of thoughts and facts that need to come together on paper to eventually become a cohesive story. This part of non-fiction should really grab students though, since they will be able to use the facts they remember from their research and combine with their own creative insights on the topic. There are numerous preemptive exercises to prepare students for this creative-collaboration stage. A possible exercise could be giving them a word, such as “nurture” and telling them to write about what thoughts or memories this word provokes.
In regards to the research involved, Carol Shaben admitted during her presentation that she did not refer to her research until she was further into her rough draft. The research part of non-fiction is also something that does not need to get in the way of the students enthusiasm for writing non-fiction. The research portion of non-fiction writing should be kept entirely separate. By this I mean the students could be instructed to research a topic of their choice long before the unit of non-fiction writing has even begun. Their research could be used for another assignment and then reused during the non-fiction unit. This will disassociate any dreaded formal researching from the non-fiction writing process.
Finally, the editing stage only needs to come at the end. Checking your work is necessary in any form of writing and can include changes in spelling and grammar, fixing sentence structure, ensuring cohesive flow of ideas supported by evidence, reviewing overall clarity in writing, etc. This stage is really only crucial towards the end, when they have transformed the puke into a nicely polished final draft. Definitely a necessary and dreaded part of writing, but this should not deter students from writing specifically non-fiction, since this is involved in all types of writing.
I think it is important to learn how to write the 5 paragraph essay. Young writers need some type of structure important in order to learn how to organize their thoughts in a powerful attention grabbing way. As someone mentioned in class, it is similar to learning grammar – one needs to know the rules before breaking them. If the five paragraph essay were not taught, students’ ideas would be all over the place. The good/natural writers would somehow find a logical way to present their thoughts anyway-something most likely similar to the 5 paragraph essay. So I guess I’m trying to say that the structure of the 5 paragraph essay helps those who are struggling with how to organize their thoughts and writing. This being said, I think it is also important for the teacher to help students think outside of the 5 paragraph essay and explore more creative ways of writing-essays, fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Students should be given many chances to experiment and break the rules of structure and even grammar.