I think that teaching students the essay is still highly relevant. Contrary to what seems to be an increasingly popular belief, I know that the essay is a powerful, convincing, and entertaining literary medium. I think that students should learn it because I think learning it empowers them to communicate and think more effectively, not only as scholars or professionals but as citizens and neighbours.
The way I consider it, the essay is defined more by structure than by anything else; it is its structure more than anything else that makes it a distinct form of writing. The structure of essays is predicated on an organization around the natural flow of a clear, convincing argument, with an introduction, the arguments, and a conclusion. Showing students that introducing, arguing, and concluding an argument may seem repetitive, but in fact works, might be the best way to get them "on board" with learning what at times can feel like Latin. It is important to show them how this structure mirrors many other literary forms they may be more familiar with, like a movie, and also show how when deployed well (i.e. a good clip of a lawyer closing a case from a movie) this form can be helpful to them in far more than just their summative writing exercise.
The essay may be defined by structure, but I think that other key elements of the essay are important for students to learn. Teaching them about choosing and preserving an appropriate voice is really important. Voice in essays should cultivate and convey a clear sense of the author, one that derives directly from their chosen relationship to the audience. Voice is itself defined largely by dichotomies: formal/informal, academic/personal, past/present, historical/literary, emotional/detached, etc. When teaching voice, a clip like this one from Taylor Mali (http://youtu.be/OEBZkWkkdZA) can help introduce the importance of this idea. Teaching students to be aware of their voice when writing and speaking has ramifications well beyond the essay.
Teaching the essay is by no means easy. It brings together much of what is taught in English classes from k-12 into a single written exercise that begins with a blank page and demands that students produce a product that reflects structured, well thought-out (in advance) work. Introducing them to it slowly via scaffolding, and more importantly showing them why it is important to learn to write an essay are key components of successful essay-teaching.
Wow - lots of fabulous resources here. The Taylor Mali piece is powerful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, two teachers influenced my writing: a history teacher, who insisted that our reports be a max one page handwritten; and an English teacher, who hammered us with the essay format. These lessons were invaluable in later university and career efforts to write concisely and clearly.
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