4 ms·

I went through hight school and university without using that pattern (not that I wrote many essays, and when I did I made a point of writing against the topic)

I went through hight school and university without using that pattern (not that I wrote many essays, and when I did I made a point of writing against the topic) and was only introduced to it in ESL class I took after immigrating to canada. I'm not a very creative person -- I rather like rigid structures and perfect formatting of my code -- but I hated this immediately. It is probably just me, but somehow the idea of making an "essay" according to the rules of making essays as defined just highlights the utter pointlessness of the process and saps all energy and dispels any delusions about making meaningful arguments I might have had...

R_Edward 14y ago
While it is somewhat arbitrary and specious to presume that any given argument can be boiled down to an arguable thesis, three supporting points, and a restatement, I think the value of the exercise of writing a formal essay is not so much in slavishly adhering to the form, but in using the form to help you build your case. If I only had one or two points in support of my thesis, I recognized that I was not yet fully prepared to write the essay: either I needed to dig out more distinct points in support of my position, or find a way to split a point into two, or simply devise a new thesis. If I had more than three points, this could mean that my thesis was too broad, or that I was digging too deeply into the material, and needed to find a level of abstraction that worked better. And, occasionally, I assumed the risk of writing an essay that did not observe convention. Sometimes you only need two really strong points to support an argument, and adding a weaker point just for the sake of the formalism detracts from the argument. Sometimes you have four points, and simply cannot remove any one of them without feeling like you've weakened your argument considerably. So you roll the dice, go with what you have, and trust that your grader will honor your choices.
wccrawford 14y ago
Depends on what your goals are. If I wanted to write a good essay, I certainly wouldn't slavishly obey the rules. If I want to get an A, obeying the rules was absolutely perfect and worked every time. If I also managed a good essay at the same time, that was a bonus. School was never about writing good essays. It was about learning the rules and proving you could follow them.
psykotic 14y ago
My wife is going through an intensive one-year college ESL course with an emphasis on writing. This was my first encounter with the rigid structure of American college essays. Initially I found it silly and counterproductive, but I have since softened my stance. My wife, despite having a degree from a top university in her country, had hardly any practice writing essays even in her native language. Because of that, she has had her hands full just worrying about her ideas and how to express them in correct and idiomatic English, so the fixed structure has been invaluable for her--it helps organize her thoughts and removes one whole class of tricky decisions from the writing process. Think of it as training wheels. Once you don't need the formal structure anymore, you can and probably should stop using it.
btilly 14y ago
You are not alone. http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html describes a way to write far more interesting essays.

R_Edward 14y ago

While it is somewhat arbitrary and specious to presume that any given argument can be boiled down to an arguable thesis, three supporting points, and a restatement, I think the value of the exercise of writing a formal essay is not so much in slavishly adhering to the form, but in using the form to help you build your case. If I only had one or two points in support of my thesis, I recognized that I was not yet fully prepared to write the essay: either I needed to dig out more distinct points in support of my position, or find a way to split a point into two, or simply devise a new thesis. If I had more than three points, this could mean that my thesis was too broad, or that I was digging too deeply into the material, and needed to find a level of abstraction that worked better. And, occasionally, I assumed the risk of writing an essay that did not observe convention. Sometimes you only need two really strong points to support an argument, and adding a weaker point just for the sake of the formalism detracts from the argument. Sometimes you have four points, and simply cannot remove any one of them without feeling like you've weakened your argument considerably. So you roll the dice, go with what you have, and trust that your grader will honor your choices.

wccrawford 14y ago

Depends on what your goals are. If I wanted to write a good essay, I certainly wouldn't slavishly obey the rules. If I want to get an A, obeying the rules was absolutely perfect and worked every time. If I also managed a good essay at the same time, that was a bonus. School was never about writing good essays. It was about learning the rules and proving you could follow them.

psykotic 14y ago

My wife is going through an intensive one-year college ESL course with an emphasis on writing. This was my first encounter with the rigid structure of American college essays. Initially I found it silly and counterproductive, but I have since softened my stance. My wife, despite having a degree from a top university in her country, had hardly any practice writing essays even in her native language. Because of that, she has had her hands full just worrying about her ideas and how to express them in correct and idiomatic English, so the fixed structure has been invaluable for her--it helps organize her thoughts and removes one whole class of tricky decisions from the writing process. Think of it as training wheels. Once you don't need the formal structure anymore, you can and probably should stop using it.

btilly 14y ago

You are not alone. http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html describes a way to write far more interesting essays.