Robert Butler

In my classroom, students are required to write ESSAYS, not just a paragraph or two which spits back information that they have read in novel, short story, or some textbook. An ESSAY is an organized set of thoughts which convey ideas and the student’s interpretations of the facts and situations presented in their assignments.

learn to organize their thoughts.

You could probably ask a hundred English teachers and get that many definitions.

The form becomes more important than the content. That is not the point of writing.

An ESSAY is at least three paragraphs: introductory, supporting (at least one), and concluding.

In the state of Louisiana, at least, ninth graders are supposed to learn the basic three-paragraph essay form by the end of the school year.

Sophomores are writing a five-paragraph essay by the end of that school year.

Juniors and seniors are writing term papers and essays of varying lengths for various classes by the time that they graduate so that they are prepared for college writing

The state of Louisiana now requires all graduates to write an essay, but unfortunately the exam doesn’t specify this type of organization.

Students need a definite structure to work with until they are well-practiced and begin to automatically think in an organized manner. This is one of the keys to good thinking and the synthesis of ideas. Any other type of writing is, or should be, classified as simple composition.