In British Columbia, students have to write provincial exams in key subjects to graduate from high school. The English 12 final when I wrote it consisted of multiple choice grammar questions, some basic reading comprehension, and the much-dreaded 500 word "composition". From Grade 9 onwards, we had it drummed into our heads that a good essay followed the structure of the basic five-paragraph thesis/support:
Para. 1: Thesis, and intro to your three main supporting arguments
Para. 2: Support 1, state it and provide evidence for how it supports your thesis
Para. 3: Support 2, as above
Para. 4: Support 3, as above
Para. 5: Conclusion - summarize your three supports and restate thesis.
This structure was supposedly developed for high-school because back in the 70s, students were getting too creative, and then bombing out in university because their papers lacked structure and/or logical reasoning. So the five-paragraph "thesis-support" essay was born and taught ad nauseam across the province. This led to some incredibly boring essays (of which I wrote a great many), and made essay-writing easy when the subject was along the lines of "Why the Amazon rainforest should be saved", but painful when writing an essay comparing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness with Coppola's film, Apocalypse Now.
By the time I wrote my grade 12 exam in 1994, the pendulum was starting to swing the other way, with markers tired of rigid structure and the boring essays it engendered. On the day of the final, I opened the exam booklet to see the topic, "Beauty can be found in simple things,"** with instructions to write a 500-word composition. Although the topic was both bland and stupid, it was pretty easy and rife with possibility.
I had heard rumours that markers were getting more lenient with structure requirements, and since it distinctly read "composition" rather than "essay", I went out on a limb (out of character for me) and consciously chose not to write a thesis-support essay. Instead, I wrote a first-person treacly free-flowing cliche-ridden stream of consciousness about running naked in a dew-drenched meadow on a sunny spring morning. I am not kidding.
Somehow, I wound up with a mark of 98%. The pendulum had apparently swung way in my direction. Either that or some poor English teacher earning extra money by marking provincial finals read my composition after hundreds of painful thesis-support essays and promptly burst into laughter. S/he gave me a good mark in thanks.
I would pay money to get a copy of that composition. I would read it, laugh, and then burn it.
** Consider the inanity of more recent topics available on the practice exams at the BC government website: "Certain experiences can mark the beginnings of maturity", "Our journey into the future begins in the past," and a personal favourite, "Role models influence our lives".
posted by Tina on 4/04/2006 | 0 comments | #