Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

by John Warner

Using a problem-solution format allows students to take charge and lead with their own argument, rather than defer to their sources, as they’re often tempted to do when confronted with a “research paper.” If there is time, I give them a short, ungraded assignment that asks them first to “rant” about their subject, where they’re encouraged to rhetorically let loose. Following the rant they usually recognize the limits of unhinged complaints in persuading others, and they adjust to making an argument that appropriately employs ethos, pathos, and logos, the base material of academic argument. Also, it’s fun to write rants. The solution then becomes a way for students to work with sources in combination with their ideas without too much deference to those sources. When students use their own experience to solve writing-related problems the results are simply better, and even when the writing artifacts themselves aren’t as good as one might wish, students are still learning. They’re building their writing practices, they’re learning skills that will transfer to other writing tasks, and there