WRITING LESSON: Two Model 11-sentence Paragraphs

1.
FORMULA WRITING AND LeBRON JAMES

TS Some teachers say that teaching students to write with formulas stifles their creativity, but I would draw their attention to LeBron James, one of the most creative basketball players alive today. SD Like any basketball player, LeBron James has to play within a complicated and strict set of rules. CM If he expects to be a successful player in organized games, he can't just let his creativity go completely free. CM He must constantly be aware of the intricate rules of the game -- like the boundary lines of the court, the rules against fouling an opponent, and the regulations against traveling and double-dribbling. SD In addition, if James wants to be a truly successful basketball player, he must also follow the plans set up by his team. CM He can't simply ignore the plays his coach has designed and give his creativity free reign. CM He might have fun doing that, but he wouldn't become a genuine master of the game of basketball. SD In other words, LeBron James has to play by certain guidelines, or "formulas", but the wonderful truth is that, within those strict formulas, he has learned to release his creativity in incredible ways. CM Watching him on the court, you realize that the rules of the game, far from limiting his creativity, actually make it seem all the more astonishing. CM Anyone who can do what he does with a basketball within such confining restrictions deserves the name of magician and master. SD What I'm leading up to is that you, too, can show off your creativity precisely because you are writing within an orderly formula. CM You can say to the reader, "Watch the tricks I can do within this tightly-organized paragraph. Watch me deftly use gerunds and adverb clauses and appositives and FAST words and compound-complex sentences and infinitives. You will be AMAZED." CM Far from limiting you, writing within a formula can actually set your creative powers free. CS Challenge yourself this year: See if you can become a magician and master with words the way LeBron James is with a basketball.


2.
THE POWER OF ORGANIZING
(An 11-sentence paragraph from my teaching journal)

Thursday, September 25, 2008
TS Today I noticed one of the students carefully organizing his binder during class, and it got me thinking about whether learning to organize might be the chief goal of education. SD After all, so much of what I teach has to do, ultimately, with helping my students organize something. CM Occasionally it’s simply organizing a binder or a locker. CM These tasks may seem, at first glance, to be rather inconsequential, but actually they are fairly central to my students’ success. CM The students’ must do logical, tidy work on all their assignments, and it certainly helps if the tools and materials of their work are organized. SD But there’s another, far more important, kind of organizing that I am teaching my students – and that is the organizing of their thoughts. CM For many of us, thoughts fly around in our heads like unruly birds, and the major task of any person who wants to be educated is to bring those thoughts under control. CM Indeed, there is almost nothing more powerful in this world than a person who has brought a few good ideas into some kind of efficient orderliness. CM A person with jumbled thoughts will accomplish almost nothing large or life-changing, whereas someone who has managed to get his thoughts into line can actually put those thoughts to work on magnificent projects. SD Nearly everything we do in my classes—from re-reading a passage in Shakespeare six times to better understand it, to struggling to put an 11-sentence paragraph together in an analytical essay—is aimed at training my students to organize their thoughts. CM I guess I believe that a student who can manipulate his/her thoughts into an orderly, effective configuration (or blueprint, perhaps) can be an extremely successful person, no matter what life throws his way. CM Whether you're organizing your binder for English class or, years later, organizing an important meeting for your company, you are bringing your ideas under control and heading for success. CS1 And I guess I’m happy that I didn’t stop my student from organizing his binder while we were discussing commas. CS2 Some things are more important than others. (Of course, commas are all about organizing, too…but that’s for a later discussion!)