FINDING THE BALANCE

I often find myself conflicted between two important aspects of writing: form and content. As an English major, I seem to think that I have found a balance. And yet, when I am blogging, it is quite impossible for me to ignore the "form" aspects of my writing. I cannot write without form; it is utterly painful to try to write without "form". It is impossible. Form is necessary because without it chaos would result. I have often argued adamantly that form precedes content; yet, if content is undeveloped, the writing is excrutiatingly boring. In return, I get papers that may have great "form," but the content is disconnected and undeveloped (much like Caroline's, and much like those example papers we read).

Three years ago, my campus decided to teach the Jane Shaffer format. Fabulous! A model that they can follow. This is the Detailed Paragraph format:

Topic Sentence
Support Sentence
Concrete Detail
Commentary
Commentary
Support Sentence
Concrete Detail
Commentary
Commentary
Closing Sentence.

Yes! It IS as exciting as it sounds!

No need for the Sandwich metaphor that worked. Two pieces of bread (Topic and Closing), plenty of meat (textual evidence/examples), and mayo, mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes to glue it altogether (transitions/explanations). It looked much like the Hourglass or I-shaped paragraph that Lindemann speaks of on page 161. In essence, these two paragraph formats are very much alike. However, what I found was that the metaphor allowed student to be a bit more creative in their writing. They chose where they would place everything(except for the bread), and find their own unity and balance. The Shaffer method seemed to be too rigid, which created rigid writing, and rigid students.

Three years later, the Detailed Paragraph haunts me. Some students have not lost their creativity, they get the idea of a model. The other 90% fill in the paragraph structure without thinking of unity or content. Fabulous! They are like robots filling in the needed elements of the paragraph. Fabulous! Now that I have them as juniors, I have asked them to veer from that form to create their own, and I am the monster! I have thrown a wrench in their finely tuned brains and they have shut down. And. It's. All. My. Fault. So, what am I to do? God forbid that I even mention a metaphor of a sandwich to confuse them all. NO. I will continue the detailed paragraph model in hope that they will figure it out. And...they will. We all did.

I do think that form is important, but I do agree with Lindemann that form should not precede content. However, in a day and age where standardized testing seems to dictate and determine all aspects of teaching, form is primary in the classroom. Readers of essays will not pass essays that have great content, but minimal form. This would constitute a 3 or below due to the essay being "poorly organized" and "lacks focus." We want 4's and we need 4's. How do we get it? We need essays with a "generally accurate understanding of the prompt in developing a sensible response," even if it "may treat the topic simplistically or repetitively," but as long as it is "adequately organize and developed, generally supporting ideas with reasons and examples," we should be OK. As a teacher, I am constantly seeking to find that balance within my classroom. I have no answers. I have no solutions. Unfortunately, if and when the scores come in and my kids are creatively out of form, I will definitely get an email to the principal's office. So, what are we to do?