Daily Log

Monday, September 29
Students turned in their ten CDs for the "Two Captivity Narratives" essay and we looked at one or three under the document camera. We then looked at the two basic choices for structuring a comparison -- overall or point-by-point (Everything about M, then everything about E versus a point about M, a point about E, then M, then E, etc.).

Next we reviewed the ways students have been taught to structure ANY essay on two levels: the two- or three-chunk essay, and the five-paragraph essay.

Mr. Potratz explained that our purpose in Junior year is to learn to use these guidelines in a more sophisticated way. These formulas are not to be used simplistically and mechanically. They are to help develop and organize your thoughts and to structure them into an essay. They are not to be used as a substitute for thought. They are to help you express what you want to say; they are not to determine what you should say by forcing your ideas into a predetermined mold. You should modify the formulas to accommodate your ideas, not change your ideas to fit the formulas. They are merely the skeleton -- the bones -- of your essay. They should not be visible; they should not stick out. And they are not to be confused with the living body of your essay.

In line with these ideas, Mr. Potratz added to the two formulas a further set of three Continuity Principles:
(1) Your essay should present a clear logical progression from the beginning to the conclusion;
(2) accordingly, you must have real transitions from one thought to the next to show how they are related; and
(3) your essay should build to its conclusion, not give equal weight to all its parts.