Ending Up Where We Started...

I think Shannon really hit the nail on the head when she emphasized the fact that the 5-paragraph essay (and yes, I realize that this is just one of the many kinds of essays) is "just one way of doing things, not the best way, not the worst way." Maybe introducing this thought to students would actually be liberating for them (and for us), and prompt them to apply that so-rarely-used critical apparatus that we're constantly trying to get them to use.

Will I have my students write essays? Yes. But, like Shannon, I plan to introduce the essay as just one way to write. I have no idea what I'll be teaching in the near future, but hopefully I'll be designing my own first-year writing course, and I plan to take an audience-based approach for each writing assignment. The important question here will be: What is the most effective way to get your point across to [audience x]? For something like literary analysis, an essay with a thesis statement at the end of the intro paragraph, with three paragraphs of evidence/quotes, and a concluding paragraph, is perhaps the most effective/efficient way to get your point across. But maybe there are different ways to get there - maybe the process of writing essays can change. Instead of creating an assignment sheet with a prompt and throwing caution to the wind, maybe the research process can be more collaborative and productive than simply outlining (or, more likely, throwing a bunch of quotes and shallow analysis together the night before the paper is due). Something like a wiki, where students could introduce and respond to each other's potential arguments and pieces of evidence, might be useful here. I suppose we might run into issues of "borrowing" others' materials/ideas here, but at least the student wouldn't feel completely isolated when staring at the blinking cursor and the blank Microsoft Word page as she starts to write - because, in fact, she has already begun the writing process, albeit in another medium.

I have to admit that I feel like kind of a sell-out for having the end result be a (very) standard essay, but how the hell else are they supposed to write a sustained argument about literature? Is reinvigorating the process enough to reduce the alienation they feel when writing in this format? And do they really feel alienated (because they're presumably very familiar with this format...although sometimes their writing would indicate otherwise...)?