Unteaching The Five Paragraph Essay By Marie Foley Analysis

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.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

On February 22, 2016 author John Warner published an article on Just Visiting entitled “Kill the 5-Paragraph Essay.” Warner creatively talks about how rudimentary of a structure this type of essay holds. Writers are locked inside a cage of regulations and guidelines making them unable to write the essay as they please, but rather having to piece together regulated sentences and paragraphs because that’s what they have been told would score high on certain test questions. The article targets people of all kinds, but is more directed towards early college aged students. The purpose behind this article is to get them to expand their horizon, disregard all the regulations they have been previously taught and start to write in a much more open-minded sense.

Ordinarily the catch method required much of the writing for children to be mostly directed towards self-expression and often times lacked any sort of formal writing instruction. Consequently, those students who could not catch the vital information to be a successful writer often seemed to be left in the dust. Tyre’s article as well provides a constructed argument held by those who oppose the full implementation of this new writing method used at New Dorp, where Kelly Gallagher expresses her concern when writing is fully focused on analytical writing, that creative expression of students may be diminished. I believe that the use of this opposing argument, though not too lengthy, helps readers to also consider the backlash of this implementation of writing, but also provides an insight into how the pros compare to the hypothetical cons in this situation.

Teaching the process of a five-paragraph essay seems to be a popular strategy when it comes to teaching new writers; however, not everyone agrees that five-paragraph essays are the best way to go about introducing the writing process. John Warner, author of “Kill the 5-Paragraph Essay” believes the process gives writers little freedom and is a “tool for the worst of teachers to hide amongst the good.” On the other hand, Kerri Smith, author of “In the Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay” claims “students who know the five-paragraph essay intimately are more prepared to take on the challenge of college-level writing.” Both first-year composition professors make great arguments; however, Warner’s article seems to argue his point effectively.

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

In the introduction of Marie Foley’s article content that teachers use the five paragraph essay formula because it has a sample and

In “Breaking the Five-Paragraph-Theme Barrier” professor Thomas Nunnally describes his experience teaching the popular writing tool. The five-paragraph theme requires an introductory paragraph, three middle paragraphs that each have their own ideas, and a concluding paragraph. Nunnally believes that this writing model should only be used as a writing tool and not the backbone to all essays (Nunnally). I agree with Nunnally’s stance, but also think that by the age of sixteen, students should no longer be given the opportunity to rely on the model for writing opportunities. **

Maria P. Rey's, Letter to West Port High School's English Department, was written for an assignment in her English Composition course at the University of Florida in late October of 2009. In Rey’s letter, she tries to entice her former teachers to re-evaluate how and what they are teaching to their students. Rey explains that her former instructors are not teaching their students a standard format, but that she actually received conflicting guidelines from different teachers. Rey continues with describing to professors the four rules that obstructed her ability to be a good writer. The first of these are the five paragraph essay model that is taught in most schools. Rey believes this method can inadvertently cause issues for a writer. One being

Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.

I have a strong belief that every writer thinks critically. In Marie’s “unteaching the five paragraphs she argues that the five-paragraph formula does not allow students to think in a critical way, and it prevents them from discovering new information. When I was scanning the document I had

One would think that high school English teachers prepare you for college English courses. However, Maria P. Rey disagrees with this in many ways. Rey announces early on in her letter that she wants high school teachers, "... to re-evaluate not only the method of teaching but more importantly the substance of what is taught."(Rey 2009) I agree with Rey in that teachers should reconsider the content of what is taught to students because my college experience has confirmed it. In college writing, I soon learned that I was not prepared for what was expected of me. On the other hand, the method of the five paragraph essay gave me a formula to begin my writing, but Rey contends that this method could keep writers "at a very elementary level of writing."(Rey

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

The III Effect of the Five Paragraph Theme article by Kimberly Wesley is more about persuading students to write other types of essays rather than just the common five paragraph essay that’s been taught for countless years. In my opinion, I prefer not to write my essays in the five paragraph theme because it isn’t remarkably conducive to not only high school students like me, but as well as other writers. As of my own experience in writing throughout my school years, there’s no doubt in confessing that I have had more than three main ideas for a certain essay, while on the other hand, there have been essays where I would struggle to come up with even two ideas! According to a college student (my sister), I have been told that the FPT is not

White's opinion on the five-paragraph-theme is a bit problematic. He thinks it works, while college professors dispose it out for students. For this case, White writes about how the formula has helped him with many writing pieces and other work skills. He thinks this format really focuses on his essay topics while professors do not agree.