It all started with hamburgers in kindergarten. “Now kids, the intro is like the bun, the meat is in the middle. Those are the details on your topic. The bottom bun is the conclusion. The hamburger will help you form your paragraphs.”
Like it or not, writing format has followed us students all through our schooling. From the Jane Schaffer method, to the 5-paragraph style, we have always had some kind of structure to direct us in our writing.
This can be both a blessing and a curse.
Structure can be very helpful for writing. It definitely helps to channel the thought process. When writers are taught to pick out the most important ideas and focus on them in produces very effective and coherent writing. Not to mention the logical progression is easy for a reader to follow. One solution for a struggling writer could be to write freely on the topic assigned, and then formulate and organize the thoughts later. This can allow the writer to get ‘the best of both worlds.’ They will have the benefit of getting all their thoughts out and their mind flowing, but also the clean, formatted product at the end.
However, as Professor Allbaugh of my Freshman Writing Seminar from Azusa Pacific University mentioned in his book Pretexts for Writing, this can create limitations as well. What if the form requires no more than 3 body paragraphs and the writer has more to say than that allows? This dwarfs one’s ability to express everything they want to. Similarly, what if a writer is using Jane Schaffer method, which dictates individual sentences? Professor Allbaugh pointed out that when the format requires a commentary on a quote used, the teacher might be forcing the student to make an addition that does not provide insight or benefit the paper in any way.
So 5-paragraph form, as with all writing structure, can be advantageous to the writer in certain situations and detrimental in others.
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