Southerner in a Cold, Cold Land

Considering the value of teaching students how to organize their writing, much has been written about the importance of form – in particular, the five paragraph theme/essay (FPT). Assessing various points of view on this topic, it’s clear that the FPT provides a basic framework of organizing one’s writing (e.g., the emphasis on strong opening to introduce the central ideas discussed in a given paper, as well as to encourage an audience to read on; also, emphasizing the development of conclusive statements that argue for the timeliness, practicality, or utility of these ideas). However, an essay is only one form of writing that develops voice and critical thinking, and for teachers working to teach composition to students, the medium may prove too rigid, or limited in some respects to young writers.

Dornan, et. al., notes the importance of building rhetorical strategies, for instance, as a crucial element of learning to organize ideas. She states that taking on opposing or conventional theories, positions, or arguments, if done thoughtfully, can ultimately strengthen a position and weaken its opposition at the same time. Further, emphasis is placed on the empowering process of data collection. For example, she claims,

“High school writers would produce more insightful papers if they were to
discover and analyze the ideological prejudices of their sources. If students were able to situate everyone’s (including their own) position in terms of class, gender, religious affiliation, and political views, they would be able to evaluate the readings more perceptively" (Dornan, 127).

In essence, students can be critics of the critics that help them understand given texts. The ability to challenge those with perceived authority on a subject certainly empowers young writers, and supports their ownership of a given position. Certainly these strategies help students organize their own thoughts, as they distinguish their own arguments from others.

Looking at critical arguments against focusing on teaching the FPT, Joanne Gillespie reveals how the form can be too rigid, as students may be more likely to express more varied, creative ideas while writing in a more unique voice. Similarly, expository papers tend to be indistinguishable from each other, at least superficially, which is a trait that doesn’t seem to serve our culture particularly well. Her argument suggests that embedding students’ practice in composition with the element of choice requires students to consider what they have to say, and how they will say it. Ideally, choice can empower many students to do good work. Also, she details how working with multigenre writing, students wrote “insightful, imaginative, and sometimes playful, turning what might have been a tedious literature unit into one that was fun" (Gillespie, 678-9). This was a fairly large project, requiring the composition of 10 pieces, along with student reflections on those pieces. So, while I have concerns with how much students centered their work on only one text, they were forced to be actively engaged in the process of writing.

Kimberly Wesley’s argument in English Journal illustrates the stifling conventions of the FPT, but she deemphasizes its usefulness in creating organized, systematic presentation of ideas. Similarly, she doesn’t mention that the FPT might be a tool in encouraging students to distance themselves from certain positions, in an effort to present ideas more objectively, which ultimately supports critical analysis. She does address certain core questions that writers should address during the pre-writing and writing stages of composition. In this essay, too, she stresses the importance of student choice and the need to encourage freedom of thought, as critical solutions to the blandness of the FPT format.

Looking at Culham’s text, again she begins a chapter with another strange, out of place, metaphor likening the organization of writing to the herding of cats (Culham, 68). Yet again, I can’t help thinking that it’s hard taking advice about how to write well, or teach good writing skills, from someone who makes so many poor choices as a writer. Honestly, it’s hard not to be skeptical of her message from a chapter that opens:

Chapter 3

Organization

Herding Cats

It’s a disorganized, bad metaphor; the presentation of the text is too varied, with a jumble of fonts; meanwhile, the next page presents a contrived, uninspiring poem about organizing good writing. Bad metaphors aside, though, she offers several options on how teachers can get students to think about organization (e.g., order of chronology, order or importance, order of content). Also, she provides a list of common transitional phrases that would assist young writers.

Further considerations in teaching writing is the teaching of proper citations. Students can consult several websites, in addition to references older texts, that provide adequate information. For instance, see The Owl at Purdue University.