Subject: Essay Writing as a Teaching Tool: Larry, Robert Frost once said that writing free verse was like playing tennis with the net down. When it comes to composing a high school essay, Frost’s words also ring true: Writing a paper without a set structure can be very chaotic. Unlike seasoned college students with a background in writing, high schoolers often struggle to get their thoughts on paper. Unfortunately, teenage writers often have trouble thinking critically, and many can’t form a logical argument. Asking them to compose an essay in a vacuum is like holding an amateur tennis tournament without a net. You’re going to have tennis balls bouncing and flying everywhere. Essays start with content, not form, a young writer still needs a formula to draw this content from his brain. Which is why the required five paragraph essay is so useful at the high school level. Anyone who uses this format knows its primary function is to organize thinking, to keep a youngster’s wandering mind on point and help him produce a clear, logical, focused essay. The five paragraph essay is a real entity and does exist in the real world. When you set aside the arbitrary number five, you’ll find that the five paragraph essay has a lead (which introduces the topic), a body (which provides supporting details), and a conclusion (which brings closure to the piece). The last time I checked, George Will’s and David Broder’s essays all had leads, bodies and conclusions. And just for the record, you can produce something worth reading “off the cuff in just 40 minutes following a formula.” Many of the world’s greatest news writers use a format called the inverted pyramid to help them meet the pressure of impending deadlines. Some of the postings here on Gadfly do this quite well by the way. CP