How interesting to have written about the hole, when it was the bagel that needed explicating. I am referring to my article in the last issue of Viewpoints, which addressed the 500 word theme; for I was informed and on reflection agree, that what I wrote, chasing as it did philosophy rather than an essential academic commonplace, may have left the impression that I was banning the 500 word theme from the pantry.
Actually, I don’t feel terribly embarrassed about this, as one cannot have a bagel without a hole; nevertheless, because I was asked, here is what I think about the 500 word theme as an instrument in classroom practice: I think it is a recipe written by a kindly author who really wants to see the novice achieve success as soon as possible. It’s cooking by numbers for those who wish to produce a meal but aren’t sure how.
A digression about recipes: I love them. I collect them. Almost always I follow them precisely the first time I try a new one. I like the order and the promise of the finished product matching my expectation or the surprise when it doesn’t. I never substitute ingredients when trying a new recipe. But once finished, the dish becomes part of and adds to what I know about cooking. At that point the recipe begins to collect margin notes and is never cooked exactly the same way again. In fact, it may never be cooked again at all but may join any number of other no longer used recipes as markers for variation and technique.
The 500 word theme may start off as a concrete structure but it’s really an emblem. “The 500 word theme” as described by Lee J. Martin (1968) is this: introduction, with the thesis at the end, usually followed by three supporting reasons. Developmental paragraphs with the topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph. One or two sentences of conclusion. The 500 word theme is the basic ham sandwich described by Barbara Spadaro in her essay on composition in the last issue of Viewpoints. It's a simple recipe, though far from simple-minded. Just ask any student.
Do I assign the 500 word theme? Yes. Would it look like the one described above? Depends. In 097 and 098 the first couple of formal essay assignments are highly structured and prescriptive, the assignments tailored to the form. I’m trying to accustom my students to working around a hot stove. In English 101, I teach the form, but then I take off the toque, break out the wok, and begin to talk about ingredients. The instruction is stir fry, but each dish is different. By semester’s end a few students are experimenting with regional sauces. Some, unfortunately, remain careless about the order of ingredients.
The 500 word theme is only an emblem and a rather poor one at that, given its limitations. Maybe we should stop talking about the 500 word theme and talk about composition, for whether it’s 097, 098, or English 101, composition is about the arrangement of ideas using a beginning middle end format. Cultural diversity notwithstanding, Freshman Composition is Aristotelian. I wrote in the last issue that I was perplexed about the nature but not the purpose of Freshman Composition. I continue to believe that its purpose is to help students learn how to think and that the essay is the concrete representation that the thinking has occurred. This would appear evident from our grading practices, as two papers on the same theme may be judged equally competent with regard to grammar and syntax but receive different grades based on the quality of thought. Critics of the 500 word theme, perhaps thinking of the basic recipe above, rightly argue that it is highly unlikely that much learning will occur if the student never gets beyond cooking a two egg omelet. But it certainly cannot be the intention of English 097, 098 or 101 that students become masters of the unadorned two egg omelet and nothing else.
A digression on 27 years of practice: Actually, the digression focuses on the first and last periods. When I first joined the English Department, the standard text in English 101 was Martin’s 500 Word Theme. I have often thought that this was really in the service of newly hired instructors fresh out of their James Joyce seminars and equipped with little more than the logic of beginning, middle and end as their starting point for teaching composition. It was also a time when the “canon” was toppling ungracefully from its academic station and students were being encouraged to write about their personal experiences, which the Martin model actually fits quite nicely. If the term “academic discourse” was anywhere employed, it was done so in whispers so low that I never heard them.
In the last number of years, initially due to the efforts of those both formally and loosely associated with the Transfer Opportunity Program, the term “academic discourse” has become a way of talking about what the collegiate experience should be. This has been a healthy reinvigoration of the academic climate and offers important challenges to our students, though as revolutions are bound to go, this one has spawned its share of excess. Nevertheless, when the history of the College is written, the faculty who initiated and sustained TOP should find themselves roundly congratulated. That history should also show a confusion that seems to have set up an inevitable though ultimately unnecessary dichotomy in the CCP composition world.
A question raised by many instructors is, if the 500 word theme is a “blight,” as asserted by Evan Seymour in the last issue of Viewpoints, then what form should composition take? (This is usually with the “what” capitalized, italicized, and trailing a few asterisks, stars and swirls.) Their frustration is understandable, since the response, at least as I have heard it, mostly falls away from structure toward theory, and theory can be hard to digest when reading a stack of papers that want coherence. The issue is also inflamed, and here is the confusion, when colleagues with different instructional tasks talk as if their intentions are congruent. Developmental instruction is preparation for collegiate work. It addresses academic deficiency and when practiced well begins where that deficiency may best be remediated. Certainly, we work on developing thought in 097 and 098, but it is also certain that the overwhelming majority of students will need basic instruction in how to present that thought in essay form. For this, imposed structure for the finished product can be useful. Collegiate instruction, on the other hand, assumes (hopes for) a certain sophistication that allows for a somewhat higher order of intellectual development. If English 101 is an introduction to the nuances of a classical sauce, 098 is where students learn basic brown stock.
In my previous Viewpoints article, I asserted that the assignment should be the primary text in a composition course, whether developmental or college-level. I do so again because I believe whether we are talking about the “500 word theme” or composition theory we should do so in the context of our instructional purpose, and the place to see instructional purpose most clearly is in the assignments we construct.
Here’s an example of an assignment in, say, English 098 or maybe even in the beginning of English 101. The question is rooted in a pair of opposing articles as well as the usual classroom discussion that hopefully will develop into academic discourse as well as allow for the exercise of opinion. The instructor is looking for argument: Homosexual marriage is much in the news. Based on your understanding of the reading we have done, agree or disagree that homosexuals should be granted the right to marry. The essay is to be 500-750 words. Now, this assignment, as written, may be quite useful in 098 using the rules, if not the count, of a 500 word theme, given that a great many writing problems must be worked on simultaneously and the crutch of imposed structure would be welcome. But one would expect quite a bit more when the purpose of an assignment is to challenge a student to think beyond the simplistic and habitual, as should be the purpose of Freshman Composition. For instance, the same assignment could offer the student the option of expressing ambivalence. Additionally, if more texture was wanted, the distinction between civil union and legal marriage could be added, forcing the student to manipulate more than one idea. In both cases, the 500 word theme, as commonly described, would not be equal to the rhetorical task.
So here’s the whole bagel. I see nothing wrong with the 500 word theme as a recipe when the task is to work on a number of mechanical and rhetorical problems without the interference of structural complexity. Contrary to the expectations imposed on developmental education instructors, fourteen or twenty-eight weeks of instruction is hardly sufficient to remediate the deficiencies most of our students bring to the college. The Martin model, or a variation of it, provides an easily mastered structure that, at least initially, allows us to work on developing both writing skills and critical thought processes. In fact, the structure itself promotes a kind of logical approach to thinking. Nevertheless, as noted above, this can not be the full extent of composition instruction, whether as preparation for collegiate level work or at the college level. The quality of thinking we should rightfully expect of a person pursuing a college education (though please let us remember that the emphasis in Freshman Composition should be on the first word) and the written representation of that thinking must find a form appropriate to its purpose. To put it another way, there’s the basic two egg omelet, and then there’s the two egg omelet with chives, a bit of Twin Oaks Cheddar, some chopped morel and a dash of Frank’s Hot Sauce. It’s good to have control of the first before trying the second.
References
Martin, Lee J. (1968). The Five Hundred Word Theme. N. J.: Prentice-Hall.
Seymour, Evan. (2003 September). The 500 Word Theme: A Blight on the Profession, A Danger to Students. Viewpoints (vol. 5, no. 1), 2-3
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Maintained by Jay Howard,Apr 2004