Hi, this is Dan Sato.
This video is for teachers.
If you're a student writer, this is going to be boring and you can
move on to the actual videos,
"Alternative Ways to Organize Your Essay," parts 1 and 2.
Here's the URL for the first one.
OK, fellow teachers, I've taught English for approximately 150 years,
so I've taught the 5 paragraph essay for a long time,
and learned the form myself from my English teachers when
I was a student.
I even made a popular video explaining how to write one.
But in recent years, some forward- thinking teachers have pointed out
that it is a rigid form that exists only in schools,
not in real world writing found in books or magazines
or websites or other forms of published writing.
According to this writing teacher at the University of Georgia, college --
-- wait, that's not him.
There we go.
He says college writing teachers hate it.
He says college teachers say the form stifles creativity, is boring to read,
and encourages tunnel-vision thinking.
In its defense, and in the defense of teachers like me who have taught it,
I'll say that the 5 paragraph essay has value
in that it teaches students to take a position, support
that assertion with evidence and reasoning, and then to urge the reader
to give that position serious consideration.
BUT, those forward-thinking teachers are correct.
If you've read a lot of these essays, like I have, you know that it has a definite
paint-by-the-numbers quality to it.
It's stiff and artificial, and most importantly, doesn't give writers a way
to express themselves in a naturally- occurring structure that
evolves logically from what is being expressed.
The 5-paragraph form, in fact, inhibits complexity and authenticity with
the limitations of its iron-bound structure.
Just for the heck of it, one year, I experimented by telling student writers
to "let your form follow your function!"
Forget the 5-paragraph form!
Let the organization of your essay come out of whatever it is you have to say.
All right, go to it!
As you can probably guess, most of them froze in their tracks,
as if I'd suddenly started speaking Aramaic.
They're beginners to this kind of writing and need scaffolding.
It would be like giving me some ingredients and telling me cook a meal
without first teaching me about slicing and chopping, boiling and braising,
the difference between sauces, soups, and side dishes.
I need to be taught the basic moves.
I need to know what some of my choices are.
And I could probably use a few recipes to get started.
In the same way, students benefit from and want templates like the ones in
They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Berkenstein.
Wonderful book.
They need a wide variety of kinds of things to say and ways to connect them
to other kinds of things to say.
You know those modular construction toys kids have, like Tinkertoy or Brio trains
or those software design toys where kids design their own apps.
The kids mix-and-match different kinds of pieces that serve different functions
and are sometimes given connectors to make the different parts fit.
I think that's the intermediate step they need between the lockstep
5-paragraph template on one hand,
and the paralyzing, terrifying, total freedom to structure their writing
in whatever way best serves their purpose on the other.
So, that's the purpose of my video, "Alternative Ways to Organize Your Essay,"
which is split into two parts.
I put my comments to you, the teacher, here in this introductory video
The text in that video is directed towards the student, who rightfully
couldn't care less about the evolving pedagogy of composition.
This video is a first draft.
Even while making the video, I could see ways the models could be better.
But it's my contribution to the conversation.
As my thinking evolves, I may take down the videos and revise them
at some point. So, I'm really interested
in hearing your thoughts on the video, maybe get some
ideas about how I can improve it.
Please leave comments in the comment section or reach out to me on Twitter.
In the meantime, I hope you and your students can get some benefit from it.