Campbell's Five-Viewpoints

Scores of composition instructors agree that writing should be taught as a recursive process, rather than a liner process, and they also agree that most writers employ certain writing strategies as they produce drafts. Sandra Perl’s article, Understanding Composing” shares these beliefs because she states: “writing does appear to be recursive, yet the parts that recur seem to vary from writer to writer and from topic to topic” (142). Perl explains that throughout the writing process, writers employ a “forward-moving action that exists by virtue of

In New York State, the finals are called Regents. For many Regents exams, students are required to write an essay. Most teachers teach the “five paragraph essay” method: an introduction paragraph, with last sentence in tbeing the thesis statement with three reasons, then three body paragraphs that discuss each of the reasons, and a conclusion paragraph which students will reiterate the thesis statement one last time. Teachers work hard with students so they can receive full credit on these essays. There is never enough time in the class to begin with and having to teach how not to write a five paragraph essay with creative ideas, is a new

Throughout White’s essay, it was apparent that the use of many strategies was used to persuade the reader. Among these strategies, I was able to conclude that his essay was intended to the mass majority of the population. White’s method, in his belief, is highly successful towards many teachers. He says, “ A lot of teachers actually like the five-paragraph theme as much as I do.” This statement shows us that White may have intended to stand with the bandwagon on this topic. Even though he believes that many teachers are fond of the five-paragraph theme, he also states, “I don’t know why some teachers seem to dislike it so much.” This shows us that he can present both sides of the argument, which can open many solutions to the reader.

Unteaching The Five- Paragraph essay by Marie Foley is a light hearted but argumentive piece focusing on the way most school aged children are taught to write. Foley's main point comes down to the very first words in the essay; “The five-paragraph formula confuses and alienates students and undermines our most basic goals as writing instructors." Foley believes that by teaching children to write in a formulated manner we are not letting them explore and learn through their own writing. We are instead giving them the freedom to discontinue the thought process once they feel that the essay they have produced meets the formula standards they have been kept to, and refuse to part with.

Warren’s reasoning also backs his claims quite well. Evidence, appeals, assumptions, and reasonings make an argumentative essay, without them the writing has little strength and credibility. Smith fails to adequately present her argument. She uses little evidence as to why she defends the five-paragraph essay, drags out her personal experiences for two out of the five paragraphs in her writing, and has little credible reasoning. At one point in her article, she states many professors do not care about the organization and would be happy “if they could write well.” Organization, planning, and content are all important to creating quality and strong essays. Stating professors do not care about organization of an essay, Smith claims professors do not want appropriate college-level

In an excerpt of Unteaching the Five-Paragraph Essay," Marie Foley reveals how the Five-Paragraph Essay formula contradicts writing instructor's most basic goals. Foley shows that the formula deters from generating individual thinking. In today's society, essays are used by millions of people in order to express their different ideas. The Five-Paragraph Essay formula was originally developed to help retain the efficiency and clarity of the essay. Foley, however, believes that this process eventually separates the student from his or her written expression and should be used only as a first step tool for beginning student writers. Foley insists that the formula blocks discovery, squelches authenticity and undermines the reader's need for

Three topic paragraphs, one sentence long are scattered throughout the essay providing transition from introduction, to summarizing, and closing parts of his paper. They serve to give emphasis to the main points, first, teaching honesty, second, how this teaching is failing, and thirdly, how civilization requires honesty. Overall the sentences are sometimes complex providing variety, and allowing flow that keeps the reading from becoming monotonous. Paragraph lengths are short, consisting of the one sentence paragraphs to relatively few sentences, often just four, that appear undeveloped, but the complexity of the sentences allow the thoughts that are expressed to be complete.

All through this course, I have taken in various systems for composing different sorts of essays. This class has truly enhanced my written work abilities; I can now effectively think of enough words, which was a major issue for me before this class. I couldn't have done these without the inside and out rules gave all through this class from the instructor's assignments and lecture notes.

In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for

Among my many lessons learned throughout this year, I’m sure we’re all thankful that as much as I love to complain about structured writing, I can now acknowledge there are some benefits in learning how to properly execute a standard five paragraph essay. In my first essay of the year, Talking About Silence, I abandoned the five paragraph structure completely. This resulted in the ultimate failure, an awkward, choppy and frankly depth-lacking essay. While I still recoil at the sight of it, it serves as a good reminder that “artistic license” is not always

Even though Lomott help with the complications of the first draft, I have another issue I have to over come. When I was in high school, my teachers always had the students write five paragraph essays. The first paragraph essay routine did not bother me until I got into college where essays were way longer than five paragraphs. When I attended Summer Bridge, a college program during the summer, I was told our essays had to be three pages long. I was terrified because I knew that I was use to writing five paragraph essays and sometimes five paragraphs only made two pages and sometimes, if lucky, two pages and a half. In the article, “Unteaching the Five-Paragraph Essay,” by Marie Foley, she believes that the five paragraph strategy restricts the students from their ideas and

There are five elements to the paper and each normally is weighted equally. These include the four elements in the learning style model and a fifth element that takes into account the introduction, integration, synthesis and general quality of writing in the PAA. The score given in each element depends upon how effectively the student has met all the criteria listed for that section of the paper. For the instructor's part, we believe that instructors need to provide specific feedback as quickly as possible to students on why they were awarded points in each area and, more importantly, what they need to do to improve. To achieve these objectives the same summary sheet that guides the grading is provided to the student as feedback. This sheet is attached at the end of this handout.

Mrs. Mishler taught me that writing wasn’t just a list of rules that had to be followed. She always commented, “Most of the rules of writing are just made up to teach young kids how to write.” She encouraged me to create my own style of writing. The thesis didn’t necessarily have to be in the introduction paragraph. I didn’t have to follow the five-paragraph essay format. The word

In short, this type of format is usually for only one idea then splits into three examples with one in each paragraph. This is a problem because it is just a basic structure to where a student cannot fully expand much on the concepts they are writing about. Personally, I have been taught to write with the five paragraph method ever since I entered the public education system from K-12. But, I was also taught a variety of other ways to write an essay over the years. In my opinion, teachers that just follow their teaching process, and it can improve through introducing other writing styles. Most teachers adopt and teach the five paragraph method because they may find this easier, or because this has been the writing style norm being taught for a long

In the article “Unteaching the five-paragraph Essay”, Foley Marie, disputes that the five-paragraph formula does not allow students to think in a critical way and prevents them from discovering new information. According to Foley “the prefabricated structure invites students to fill the five sots with what they already know, thus often depriving them of the pleasure of discovering new ideas”. The reason why the five-paragraph formula continues to be taught to students because its easier for teachers to teach it the class rather then teaching individually. Although students feel nervous when writing, they hardly create something theirs. The author believes the formula its useful for beginner students writers “it helps them to overcome writers