In the interest of full disclosure,
I must tell you that I have corrected and/or edited thousands of essays and
research papers, as well as a number of dissertations, in addition to having
written a number of essays of my own, and not one of the aforementioned
writings employs the current writing style espoused by the common core
supporters. In addition, the current method, which asserts that the writer must
provide a rebuttal in the introduction or at the beginning of the essay, makes
no sense because you don’t rebut anything until there’s been some point that
contrasts the point you are making.
The idea that an essay must contain a “rebuttal” makes no sense to me.
First of all, if you were to look up the elements of an essay, you would not
find a rebuttal listed as one of its elements, nor would you find it in a
definition of the word essay. In fact, rebuttals are elements found in debates
and in reference to speeches, (e.g. The State of the Union Address by the
President).
In fact, if common core supporters are correct as it pertains to the
value and importance of current essay writing techniques, that would argue that
the style and methods and techniques of essayist such as Thomas Pain, Voltaire,
Emerson, Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr., just to name a few, were not
methods and techniques worthy of the esteem, reverence and acclaim that generations
have bestowed upon them.
In point of fact, the purpose of an essay is to advance a point or idea
and then provide reasons- proof, facts-that show your reader your point has
substance, (even if your reader is not persuaded by your point). For me, the
most important job of any essay is not to persuade the reader, but to clearly
identify the point you want to make and then to defend it with proof- facts,
reasons and logic.
The ability to cogently make a point and strongly defend it is the most
important skill students need to develop and hone in order to become better
thinkers, better speakers and better writers. In fact, ensuring their ability
to this would make the act of writing the persuasive or argumentative essay much
easier. The problem is today’s “experts” are conflating the ability to clearly
advance your point with being persuasive. You don’t learn the crossover dribble
before you learn to dribble, you don’t learn division before you learn
multiplication, you don’t learn to run before you can walk, and you don’t learn
to persuade others before you have learned to clearly advance and support your
own point!
My essays have been read, discussed and published. With the occasional
exception in which I intentionally juxtapose a contrasting point against my
point in order to underscore or emphasize the absurdity of the contrasting
point, my essays identify the point I want the reader to “walk away with” and
provide the reasons I am advancing this particular point.
I teach people, “If you can talk, you can write.” This means if you can
organize your ideas enough to clearly express yourself in speech, you can
clearly express yourself in the written form as well. Any successful speaker or
writer must be able to clearly identify his/her point and support that point
with reasons that show that point has value or substance. After all, if you are
thinking “I hate milk”, how would you express that in speech or in writing? Wouldn’t
you say and write, “I hate milk”?
The current method of teaching writing makes writing far more difficult
than it has to be. Essay writing didn’t start today or with the methods and
techniques of the current experts. Essay writing has existed for centuries and
produced essays that made cogent, logical, intellectual and edifying points,
long before the supporters and experts themselves or today’s essay writing
methods ever existed. This point asserts that, like many of the current
educational theories and methods, the decision to obliterate what has existed
and been successful before as meaningless and without value, is at best
misguided or just flat out wrong.
Successfully writing an essay is not some inscrutable algorithm. It does
not require some exacting, intricate calculus. Successful writing is the sum
total of a clear understanding of the point you want to make, and the ability
to provide the reasons, facts, or proof to support that point.
It’s really just that simple. Really.
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