If you look through any published essay collection, you won’t see a single piece that even remotely resembles what students are taught in high school. The notion of an introduction, three to five body paragraphs, and a conclusion is reduced to a barebones model, if not completely abandoned, by any writer with the slightest inkling of what constitutes “good” writing. This is not to say that there is no such thing as a compelling paper that follows this model, and papers that veer from this course are not all brilliant. Indeed, there is merit to teaching the formulaic “keyhole” method of writing essays. However, students will never be able to write well if that is the only style of writing they encounter in a classroom, and this is where English education at IHS falls short; students are not taught to write well, and it is costing them.
There are many different ways to integrate good writing into English curricula, aside from trashing the “keyhole” essay format as soon as possible. The best way to do this is to introduce students to successful essays. There is a reason why authors like David Foster Wallace and George Orwell are able to influence millions of people with their compositions. Exposing students to the best expositional writing and explaining what makes it exemplary is essential to engineering excellent essayists. In addition, there are key strategies that are often glossed over or not taught at all, such as the adage “show, not tell,” that should have a stronger presence at earlier stages in a student’s English education.
It is worth expounding the advantages of the current system, which mainly involves exposing students to the conventional essay format. Presenting essays, which can be daunting to many students, by breaking them down into their component parts makes writing them easier to learn. The importance of writing a strong thesis statement cannot be understated, and that is one of the things that the English Department does very well, drilling the three-part thesis statement ad nauseam. Additionally, exposing all students to a uniform template allows teachers to focus on other concepts, such as grammar and fluency, when editing students’ submissions. Finally, knowledge of the basic essay format is crucial in doing well on standardized tests—though this is not really an advantage, it is worth keeping in mind when discussing what the school can do about teaching writing.
However, the problem with the way teachers currently use the aforementioned structure is that it is never phased out, as it should be, because it is simply not good writing. No one is expected to write well in middle school, and that is one of the main reasons why the “keyhole” essay is a useful tool there. Nevertheless, it seems that many high schools—IHS included—do not emphasize good writing when choosing their curricula. Perhaps this is understandable; it is harder to teach good writing, and therefore there is no incentive for the system to change. At some point, though, it is necessary for teachers to shift strategies.
This is because writing is extremely important in all facets of life, and learning how to write well in high school bestows a great advantage upon every student. Writing is one of the only skills that transcends career paths entirely; while it may be obvious that future journalists and authors need a mastery of the English language, everyone else needs it as well. Aspiring business leaders must be able to write compellingly if they want that first internship, for example, and even engineers and researchers need to be able to write cogently to get grants, or simply communicate their ideas to others. This means that, when the high school fails to adequately teach students how to write well, they are failing the entire student body, forcing them to put in their own time in order to gain a basic life skill.
One particularly alarming side effect of this deficiency pertains to a task that almost all seniors have to suffer through: college applications. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of the entire application is the personal essay, coupled with supplements for many schools. An essay that follows the standards that may have earned an A in freshman year English class will absolutely not cut it for college apps. Admissions officers may read dozens of essays in a day. Therefore, it is the applicant’s task to write something interesting and engaging that will actually show the officer why you are a good fit for the college. Essays that follow the conventional format, especially with no added insight on what constitutes good writing, can hardly ever achieve these goals. Showing an interesting story or vignette, though, and using that as a vehicle to communicate certain values or personal strengths, is much more compelling than anything overly explicit. In all likelihood, the number of IHS students that get into top-tier colleges, or even just top-choice or “reach” schools, would surely increase if good writing were promoted to a greater extent.
The way writing is taught at IHS falls short of what should be expected of the student body, and what will be expected of students once they encounter the real world. The principal failure is the overemphasis of the formulaic essay, whether that manifest itself as the five-paragraph “keyhole” essay or a premade outline that students are forced to follow in order to receive a good grade on a paper. This hinders the exploration of examples of well-constructed essays in class, and distracts from many of the true goals of writing. Students cannot be expected to write successfully if they are not being given the whole picture of what comprises a well-written essay. On the other hand, schools should be expected to provide that picture to every student, and that means providing students with real-world examples of outstanding writing and relevant tips that can actually be applied outside of the Regents or Common Core.