Thursday, January 20, 2011
5-Paragraph Essay
Your homework assignment for Day 2, January 27th, is to post a short comment (250-500 words) to this thread on what you think about the 5-paragraph essay, whether you would teach it, in which grade, what for, etc. You can reflect on information we read during our in-class activity on Day 1.
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I believe it is a great structure for learning, but in order to prosper as a writer, you must learn to break your old habits. Although I do favor that method overall, I don't think you will be able to grow as a writer if you are confined into structure. It is good to learn at the beginning because of the way everyone starts off with anything. You must follow the structure in order to learn how to write correctly. It is just like learning to walk before you run. Of course you're not going to be great at it at first, but you will be able to practice it and further your education with writing. Once you've mastered it, you are able to break out of your shell and continue to write beautifully. By doing that, you are able to find out what your possibilities are, and that is endless. Compare this to leaving home for the first time. You will be able to break free of the rules and regulations from your authority figure and do as you please. This means that you are able to write what you wish in whatever format you please. But you will not prosper as a writer if you do not break out of your home.
ReplyDeleteThe five-paragraph method works as a great template. I believe that the basics must be mastered before there can be any growth from those basics. This method is important because it can help lower level students grasp writing correctly and as a result, help them feel that their writing is appreciated. I would challenge the critics of teaching the five-paragraph template to tell of an alternative and equally effective way of teaching it. It is our job as future teachers to show examples of how to move on once the five paragraph style is mastered. I believe that students might be stuck because they don't exactly know how to move on. I think that all of us would agree that the five-paragraph style is effective. It might stifle certain writers at first, but once understood can create affective, creative writers.
ReplyDeleteI learned to write beginning with the 5 paragraph method. Based on personal experience, the method is a great beginning structure for the essay writing process. My group read an article that was against the 5 paragraph theme and there are certain arguments that I agree with. The author said that the 5 paragraph theme is great for structure but it limits creativity and restricts the writer to 5 small paragraphs. Although I do believe that the 5 paragraph model is great for structure, I don't believe it limits the writers' creativity because as any writer develops they realize that five paragraphs merely skim the requirements for most upper level essays. Obviously the five paragraph essay has its place but I believe the real issue is with the writer; if a writer doesn't realize that they will not be able to fit adequate answers in his 5 paragraph essay, then it seems there is a problem of strategy and outline instead of structure.
ReplyDeleteThe five-paragraph essay is a nice place to start your class. I imagine that when I begin teaching, I will begin with the five-paragraph essay, but encourage students to use other forms of writing essays. I will also emphasize that the five-paragraph form is important for college admissions, so it is important that even the advanced writers learn how to work within the method, as stifling as it may be. While some might not be able to move past the five-paragraph essay, I feel that many students will not only be able to move past it, but for creative purposes will /want/ to move past it.
ReplyDeleteThe materials we read were excellent on the matter, and all seemed to agree that the five-paragraph essay is a nice place to begin. The five-paragraph essay certainly does offer clarity, as Kerri Smith argues, and this is certainly something to strive for--but under the right circumstances, obscurity can be perfectly acceptable. In researching or attempting to understand a difficult problem, an exploratory essay is an excellent vehicle—and can be very enjoyable and invigorating if it is written and edited very carefully. The five-paragraph form is unable to suit an interesting essay style; one must have a thesis, defend the thesis in the body paragraphs, and conclude with the findings.
Perhaps it is the mark of a good writer to make interesting a five-paragraph essay, but excellent and interesting essays do not seem to have this form. While Smith argued that Virginia Woolf uses this style, I would argue that in “A Room of One’s Own” she uses a more exploratory feel for her essay, which also seems to be parallel with her style of writing when it comes to fiction. Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” is another exploratory essay. Again, while conclusions are reached, the style and mode of presentation of both “A Room of One’s Own” and “The Myth of Sisyphus” seems to be a collection of ideas that are hinged together by a line of questioning.
Ultimately, no matter what style is chosen, it all comes down to editing, pre-writing, and having good examples of interesting prose by which one can be inspired.
I would definitely teach the five-paragraphs essay to novice writes because this method serves as a basic guide. As students develop their writing skills they also learn to develop complex forms of writing essays. But first they need a base, and I believe this method provides exactly that. Students will eventually outgrow this method and move into longer and more complex paragraphs that will eventually lead to the writing of elaborate essays. The same thing happens with the learning of sentence structure. Students must first be taught the simple form of writing sentences along with its components. Once they learn this, students are able to shift into writing simple sentence into compound sentences.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I believe that this type of method would be best for freshman in high school because at this stage students tend to write simple and to the point type of answers. It is later that they learn how to expand their thoughts into critical ideas. To write an elaborate piece of writing, students must first need to learn how take abstract thoughts and elaborate them into ideas that can be broken down. The five-paragraphs essays would be best taught to first year students in high school, because as the students advanced to higher levels of education their instructors can teach them how to expand their essays. This technique may be considered the beginning process that will help students perfect his or her writing skills.
I think the five paragraph essay is a great building block for helping to form early writing skills. I would use the five paragraph essay format for most grade levels in order for my students to develop the concept of consistency and structure; however, upon finding myself in a classroom of fairly-organized and five-paragraph-essay-seasoned students, I would encourage, if not require, my students to broaden their repertoire. The five paragraph essay isn't superior to other writing styles; rather, it provides students with a starting place. Once a student has grasped the style, it is important that he or she continues to grow as a writer, and thus my reasoning for wanting to push more advanced students passed its confinements.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I do believe that it is important to encourage (adequately prepared) students to vary between styles to better communicate their writings, I also believe that, should a student truly master and understand the basis of the five paragraph essay style, he or she would inherently realize the capabilities of expanding upon it. Though I would encourage my upperclassmen/honors students to experiment with other styles, I do not believe they would essentially be “learning” other styles from me; instead, they will merely have my approval to do so.
The five-paragraph essay is the way that I learned to write. I remember using different colored pencils for each component of the essay. Blue as used for the introduction; green was used for the body; and red was used for the conclusion. My teachers called it Power Writing. I remember this vividly. Obviously something about Power Writing stuck with me. I feel that I am a very competent writer and this is largely because of the education on the basic structure for writing an essay that I received at a young age.
ReplyDeleteI would use the five-paragraph essay because it is a simple way to teach students the basic structure of an essay. I believe it is incredibly useful when teachers are introducing students to writing essays. The five-paragraph essay is a good structure to use because it can grow with the students. It has the ability to be expanded and modified as a student's needs change. The same basic structure underlies beginner writers' essays and experienced writers' essays.
I think like many people, the five paragraph essay is a good building block for teaching writers the basics of organizing thoughts into an essay. That being said, students can't rely on just that format to get them through college, and teachers shouldn't just teach that one format for that very reason. The way it teaches structure is certainly important, but how any student or teacher can be fooled into thinking this is all that is needed is beyond me. I think that we shouldn't stop teaching the five paragraph essay, but it shouldn't stop there. Students need to know how to write a variety of essays and write things for more than just five paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteMost of my college classes ask for pages, not paragraphs. Beyond that, when the professor assigns an essay, they usually have very specific guidelines for what they want in it. I think that teaching students to be able to follow these sorts of guidelines and have them practice these sort of college level essays is good, mainly because they ask for things that expand beyond a five paragraph format, including critical thinking, specific evidence, and proof of a theme or concept. In my high school, I did a little of this sort of college essay writing, but it wasn't taught to me until late junior or senior year. I think it would be helpful if we started this type of teaching earlier and were more regular with it. If we did that, there would likely be not as many students who enter the university life and are caught unprepared.
Overall, I believe that the 5-paragraph essay is an extremely useful tool for students in the younger grades as well as upper-level classes. Students in the younger grades will benefit from this system because they are still unsure about what they are capable of when it comes to their own writing styles. By giving students the standard 5-paragraph model, students will be challenged to dig deeper and find more material than they would have originally incorporated into their papers. The 5-paragraph model also helps teachers monitor comprehension as well as how well the students can follow directions and actually apply it to a paper. When teachers introduce the 5-paragraph essay to students, I believe it would be most beneficial to give students the opportunity to choose their own topics. Because the students are already being asked to write 5 full paragraphs, which may be a challenge to some, it would be best to let them choose a topic that may be familiar and fun for them to write about. When concerning the older grades, junior high and lower level high school classes, the 5-paragraph model should serve merely as a guide or a limit to the students’ writing. Students in these grades should be encouraged to write more than just 5 paragraphs, as this number can be limiting to some students. This being said, I would absolutely teach the 5-paragraph method to younger students to help stretch their minds when finding useful information for their essays. As for my older students, I would merely use it as a guide, but encourage them to write much more than what the 5-paragraph essay requires.
ReplyDeleteThe 5-paragraph essay is a good essay for beginning writers to use, and it can also be a good option for advanced writers who are writing a short, 2-to-4 page essay. The toughest thing for beginning learners to figure out is how to organize an essay. This is where the 5-paragraph essay comes in. It is easy to quickly grasp the concept of the introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion. This method of essay allows the beginning writer to quickly get a grasp on how to organize his or her essay. The writer can gain an understanding of the organizational procedures that go into creating his or her essay, and after he or she has mastered the 5-paragraph essay, he or she can then move on to more advanced and creative forms of essay.
ReplyDeleteThe advanced writer can also use the 5-paragraph essay in certain situations. While the advanced writer would benefit more from using a different essay form for longer papers, when writing a short, 2-to-4 page paper, the 5-paragraph essay can be the most effective option. In these short papers, the writer doesn't have a whole lot of room to expand on his or her points. Therefore, it is beneficial for the writer to compose a compact 5-paragraph essay in order to effectively get his or her point across in the limited amount of space.
The five paragraph essay format is a great tool for beginner writers. It is also effective for the casual writer. Just like any subject, you need more than one tool in your toolbox. You should develop your writing technique with the further you advance in school and writing.
ReplyDeleteIn defense of the five paragraph format, it at least gives a basic structure for all to go by. It is simple and easy to follow. This is important because not all students, who are being taught to write, will enjoy writing or have a desire to write beyond the mandatory requirements. For the advance writers, they can adapt the basic format of the five paragraph to fit the style they are writing. It is very effective for writing papers all the way up to three to five pages. This will get you most of the way through your college courses.
There also valid complaints against the five paragraph format. Many students have a hard time moving past the structure of it to really be creative in their writing and writing style. This creates burden on the reader to become intrigue in the article that looks like many other articles. As for college classes, many teachers want a different style than what is being taught in high school.
Just like any teaching method, there are going to pros and con of it. I believe the benefits out weighs the downfalls of it. It is our job as teachers to help develop the five paragraph into more creative writing, so that the student can be more adaptive.
I think that the five-paragraph model is a good idea to start from in an English classroom. I think that in the beginning stages of developing a young student’s writing, it is a good thing. It can help students begin to understand what they need to accomplish in an essay. The five-paragraph model does this because it lays out how you can help support the ideas of the essay. It also helps in showing the students how an essay should be laid out. It does this because it gives a model for them to follow. I think that in younger and earlier levels of English, the five-paragraph model is good because students are just learning how to develop their writing into a collective piece of work. And the five-paragraph model gives them a starting point on how to develop their writing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that the five-paragraph model can be extremely limiting. I think that a lot of the time, teachers push that all essays should be in the five-paragraph model. But this is a bad thing because students get stuck in trying to format their essays to fit the model that they stress out and become turned off to writing. Also, the five-paragraph model is limiting because in many higher academic settings, many teachers and professors expect different models of writing. For example, my freshman year of college, one of my professors assigned a short response paper and he expected it to only be a page. Needless to say, it is hard to fit five-paragraphs into one page. It took a long time for me to understand that there are different and sometimes more effective ways to write essays.
I believe the 5-paragraph essay structure is essential to learning the basics of writing a good quality paper. While observing various high school classes and talking with teachers, I have found that the number of high school freshman who do not even know where to begin when asked to write an essay is astounding. Teachers tend to assume that students know the basics of writing a paper or essay when they enter high school. Unfortunately, this is not true. It is for this reason that I think teaching the basic 5-paragraph essay structure is essential for the 9th grade classroom, and in some cases even beyond freshman English classes. Teachers need to make sure that all of their students can correctly use this structure so that a starting point for improving writing skills can be established. Without this common starting point, teachers do not know for sure where each of their students stand or what they are capable of. They also risk finding negative results within their students' progress as the students may be behind in their writing skills from the beginning of the process. However, I do feel that once this structure is established, students should be encouraged to modify it for various types of writing, expanding upon the strength of their writing skills. Eventually, students within their senior year should be required to move beyond this structure, as this will be expected of them once they reach college. With the right amount of encouragement of creativity and challenging students to better their writing abilities across the students' English classes throughout their high school careers, I do not think this structure is harmful in any way. The problem would lie within the knowledge that not all English teachers will feel the same way, and therefore will not continue this teaching theory.
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