VOA慢速英語:Thinking Outside the Five-Paragraph Essay

[ti:Thinking Outside the Five-Paragraph Essay] [ar:Jim Tedder] [al:Education Report] [by:www.chinavoa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Education Report. [00:04.79]Millions of students have been taught a formula [00:08.72]that has nothing to do with chemistry. [00:11.65]The formula is for writing a five-paragraph essay. [00:18.05]First, write an introductory paragraph [00:21.90]to state the argument. [00:23.86]Then, add three paragraphs of evidence. [00:28.09]Finally, write a conclusion. [00:31.58]Linda Bergmann is director of the Writing Lab [00:35.26]at Purdue University in Indiana. [00:38.27]Her job is to help students, [00:40.77]including international students, improve their writing. [00:45.11]Professor Bergmann has worked with many students [00:48.74]who learned this traditional five-paragraph formula. [00:53.10]LINDA BERGMANN: "It is kind of like, [00:54.23]'A is true because one, two, three.' [00:56.95]The second paragraph is the first reason, [01:01.06]next paragraph the second reason. [01:02.20]The next paragraph is the final reason, [01:04.89]and then the last paragraph is, ' [01:08.43]So we can see that this is true.'" [01:11.13]Professor Bergmann says international students [01:14.23]sometimes have difficulty with this formula [01:17.81]if they learned a different writing structure. [01:21.00]But just knowing how to write a five-paragraph essay [01:25.57]is not going to be enough for a college student [01:29.08]who has to write a longer academic paper. [01:32.66]As Professor Bergmann points out, [01:35.46]the formula is too simple to deal with subjects [01:39.21]that require deeper thought and investigation. [01:42.90]LINDA BERGMANN: "Essentially, it is way too simplistic [01:45.84]to handle more intellectually sophisticated topics [01:51.25]which involve actual inquiry." [01:54.09]Karen Gocsik is executive director of courses [01:57.82]in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric [02:00.76]at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. [02:03.20]The institute has an extensive library [02:06.24]of online writing materials on its website. [02:09.88]So what are the qualities that make up good writing? [02:14.66]Ms. Gocsik says there are no simple answers [02:18.86]-- except maybe for one. [02:21.26]That is, there is no formula that students [02:24.89]can follow to guarantee a well-written paper. [02:28.90]KAREN GOCSIK: "What we try to teach students in college [02:31.65]is to listen to their ideas, [02:33.19]and that the idea should be able [02:37.13]to tell you what form it needs to take." [02:39.68]She says moving from secondary-school writing [02:43.58]to college-level writing can be difficult, [02:47.03]but students should not be afraid. [02:49.97]KAREN GOCSIK: "The thinking that you are doing, [02:51.81]and the purpose that you have [02:53.26]and the audience you are writing to [02:54.78]-- all of these things you will mix up together [02:56.58]and you will come up with, [02:58.57]we hope, an excellent college paper." [03:01.11]In some cultures, students organize their paragraphs [03:05.04]to build toward the main idea at the end of the paper. [03:08.78]American college students are usually expected [03:12.67]to state their thesis at the beginning. [03:15.60]And, while students in some cultures use lots of descriptive words, [03:20.98]American professors generally want shorter sentences. [03:26.07]And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, [03:31.08]written by Jerilyn Watson. [03:33.52]Tell us about your own experience with academic writing. [03:37.76]Go to chinavoa.com and share your stories. [03:43.73]And before you write that next paper, [03:46.87]check out two links on our website. [03:50.31]One is for the Online Writing Lab at Purdue. [03:54.14]The other is for the Institute for Writing [03:57.18]and Rhetoric at Dartmouth. [03:59.48]I'm Jim Tedder.

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