Considering Constructs About Writing

Considering Constructs about Writing

Throughout the years, I have been taught how to write and how not to write. Each year of middle school and high school English class has brought forth its own rules and regulations on what is needed to make a perfect paper. However, after evaluating my past works and realizing that pretty decent assignments have been degraded by teachers due to their views on thesis development and essay length; I hold their rules and regulations to be unnecessary. I believe that good writing must be full of flow and reasoning, and not be bounded by the style that the thesis is written in nor by a standardized essay length.

Like many other students, I have been taught to develop a thesis that contains three points of reasoning to meet the standardized structure that has been widely accepted of an essay. The standardized structure consisting of one introductory paragraph, one concluding paragraph, and three middle paragraphs supporting the thesis. On the other hand, I consider that points of support and their paragraphs do not need to come in a specific number. The purpose of a thesis statement is to convey the main idea by suggesting the path a paper will take to prove or disprove an opinion. Whether a student decides to give two, three, or even four topics of reasoning, each should play its part in expressing the main point of the work. It is not needed to assign one paragraph to each supporting idea; in fact, there should be as many paragraphs as it takes to completely and thoroughly make an argument.

Another ongoing concern I have had with my writing is meeting the minimum required essay length. Year after year of English class, I earn a not so good grade either by successfully writing a well thought out essay, but missing the minimum page requirement; or by having the correct amount of pages without enough clarity in my wording. To fulfill the page standard in a paper, I, like many others, become a victim to filling up my essays with a bunch of unnecessary information. Obviously this information is nonsense which blocks the flow of good writing. This results in distraction of the reader and possibly frustration. So isn't it clear I would receive a bad grade? Absolutely. An essay that does deserve a good grade would be one that consists of information that works along the main idea in harmony. For this to successfully occur, superfluous details should be avoided