Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
Brody Jorgenson
Professor: Amy
Critical Reading and writing -100
Synthetic Essay Draft
March 20 2017
In the educational system today the five-paragraph essay template has become
mandated topic of learning to help young educators understand the basics of essay
writing. The five-paragraph essay in my personal view is a great way to learn the basics
of essay writing with the concepts of a beginning introduction then three supporting
topics as the middle and a conclusion to end the essay. The negative side of the
teachings of this concept is the academic side of students always looking for exact
answers in writing and forgetting to write with personality and creativity. I believe that
the five paragraph essay shouldn’t be taught in school and the focus should be more on
creativity and style in writing with helpful organization tips, not have entire essays focus
to be on the exact reading and the structure of writing.
The academic side of the five-paragraph essay shows student how to write a
basic essay fitting into a rubric your instructor has given. As young students are taught
to fit the rubric in writing to achieve the best possible grade. In the article by Jenkins he
says “experiences led me to conclude that, first, organization is a more important aspect
of writing than I had realized; second, few people are naturally good at organizing their
ideas in writing; and third, they're not going to magically become good at it over time,
even if they're highly intelligent and well educated.” Young students are taught this
academic template to learn and practice organization of writing. The practice of
organization in my experience of writing come more natural the more a person reads
and writes, because of how a well-organized piece if writing is easier to understand and
read unlike something unorganized its confuses and comes difficult to read. More
repetition the more familiar readers become with good organization and writing and
learn to include this in one's own writing.
Two of the essays have strong viewpoints against the five-paragraph essay and
how it stops student’s creative side as they worry too much about the organization and
filling in rubrics for good grades. Campbell article shows that the five-paragraph
template can reduce creativity and focus too much on organization and structure.
Reliance on the formula keeps students from developing the thinking and organ-
