Megan's+2.4+Post

Since I haven’t had a session since Monday, March 29th, I want to write about an extremely interesting chapter I read for 219, which is definitely applicable to the ideas of this class. //Rhetorical Theory and Practice// has given me TONS of strategies that I can use not only in my future classroom but in the writing center as well. Two of the chapters I’ve read, “Teaching Paragraphing” and “Shaping Discourse” have helped me tremendously: both of these chapters contain the idea of the five-paragraph theme, a concept with which I know we were all familiar. According to this chapter, the five-paragraph theme probably comes allllll the way from Quintilian, who, as I researched, was born around 35 BC in modern-day Spain. Anyway, all my English-teachery fascination aside, the chapter continues with the idea that the five-paragraph theme is only helpful on a theoretical level, not actually in practice. Teachers teach it so that students can learn about the concept of form, but the five-paragraph teaches them a model, a formula of boxes into which they plug their information, instead of teaching them how to shape their meaning into sentences and paragraphs.

I have yet to see a student in the writing center whose ideas have been plugged into this model, but I’ve seen remnants of it all over the place. Many of the introductions I’ve seen have been basic, with one or two sentences (yes, those sentences that start with “Historically…” or “Throughout the years,” – though I’ve yet to see a “Webster’s Dictionary defines ____ as…”) and then a very explicit thesis. I’ve seen paragraphs that were s strategically created that they are organized as – topic sentence, point one, support one, support two, support three, point two, supports one-three, and point three, followed by supports one-three. And I’ve seen conclusions that ramble because there isn’t as much of a set formula for conclusions as there is for the introduction and body paragraphs. I think that as consultants, we need to help these students understand that writing isn’t something that you plug into a formula. It’s supposed to flow, but it doesn’t have to be rigid like that in a five-paragraph essay – you can use coordination and subordination to create flow, not a model.

Questions:

1. Were you taught the five-paragraph theme format in your K-12 schooling? How have you broken out of that? 2. Have any of you seen writing that has been influenced by the five-paragraph theme in your sessions?