Why I’m Opposed to the Teaching of the
Five Paragraph Theme,
Or a Funny Thing Happened after My Last Column

By Jim Cope

A funny thing happened after the last issue of Scribbles ‘n Bits; I received responses to my column.  That had never happened before.  Granted, the number of responses was small, but the opinions shared were mixed, to say the least.  Two high school English teachers I respect contacted me to defend the five paragraph theme (FPT).  They insist that it is the most efficient way to prepare low level writers for timed writing tests.  Neither would use it at all with advanced students or even as the primary tool with low-level writers, but both routinely use it to prepare their remedial students for state tests.  Both also pointed out that while the state training guide does disparage formulaic writing, the majority of the examples of good student writing it provides are in the five paragraph theme format.  Talk about mixed messages.

Another couple of teachers were ex-students who wrote to put me in my place.  Both let me know that I was clearly out of touch with the “real world,” and that the FPT is the only way to teach writing.  It gets students ready for state tests, it produces papers that are easy to read and grade, and teachers who use it are never in danger of being ostracized by their colleagues.  After I reflected on my failures as a teacher, I rebounded enough to ask them what they did after their students mastered the FPT.  How did they help students move beyond formulaic writing.  Not surprisingly, neither of them had an answer.  Another blow to my ego.

Finally, two more of the responses were from college English professors.  Both agree that the five paragraph theme produces poor writing and that its use by high school teachers is one of the primary reasons that most students enter college with weak writing skills. They feel that while the FPT may teach organization, it fails miserably in teaching students to develop other aspects of their writing.  In particular, they feel that students who have the FPT as their primary writing strategy have trouble developing their opinions and are often unable to use their writing to analyze in any depth. In short, they feel that the FPT is at best a starting point for young writers, but too often a dead end.

Having been a member of college English Departments for the last sixteen years, I was not surprised by these professors’ comments.  I’ve never met a composition scholar who thought that the FPT was a valid tool for improving students’ writing.  On the other hand, I have known several literature professors who used the FPT and other types of formulaic writing in their freshman composition classrooms. The differences in these professors’ instruction are due to training or lack thereof.  The literature professors had little to no training in composition instruction.  I think this is also the main reason so many high school teachers hang on to the FPT. 

Not writers themselves and facing the pressures of state writing exams, some teachers grab the FPT because it seems to offer an organized way to help students write on a basic level.  But our students deserve more.  Perhaps, if the state provides models of good-to-outstanding student writing in a variety of formats, if English teachers become as comfortable teaching writing as teaching literature, and if high school English departments stop pressuring beginning teachers to follow the safe, tried-and-not-true methodologies, Georgia students will get more. What do you think?