Thank you Jan,

I was unaware of this preference for Chicago style; it strikes me as unusual. Our history teachers still require MLA (when they require anything). Is there a nationwide change going on?
 
I've heard rules expressed like this "specific number of sentences per paragraph" rule. I, too, like most of my colleagues, discourage such rigidity. Rules like this, I tell my students, create bad writing. I've heard some other bad ones, like "You can't start a sentence with 'because'," which we've talked about on this list before. They bug me no end!
 
The other rigidity I struggle with is the one of required length. My students always want to know, "How long does this paper have to be?" My knee jerk response is something like: "Long enough; no longer and no shorter." They hate having to use this response, but it's the truth. I hate saying things like "500 - 750 words." Students use empty filler when they have nothing to add or can't figure out how to elaborate or explain an idea. Others stop short because they don't want to go over the required length.
 
I'm curious how others deal with this last issue. I realize this is not a grammar topic, so please feel free to respond to me off the list.
 
Paul D.
Jan Kammert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I teach middle school, and until this year I taught MLA to my students.
This year I'm teaching Chicago style, which I had never heard of until
this year. The reason I made the change is because I teach both English
and history.

My students participate in the National History Day competition.
Apparently historians prefer Chicago style because of the more detailed
footnotes for citing sources.

I fight against the rule my students tell me: That there are always five
sentences in a paragraph. I point out paragraphs of varying sizes in the
reading they do for school to help prove to them that paragraphs don't have
to be five sentences. Still, they tell me even now, this far into the
year, that the paragraphs they write must be five sentences.

I'm writing in defense of all those public school teachers on this list!
Jan


On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, helene hoover wrote:

> Alison: I think your experience is the rule rather than the exception. The 
> people I have taught with in public schools appear never to have heard of 
> MLA style, so, of course, they do not teach it. They have these formalaic 
> rules, such as how many sentences go in a paragraph, how many paragraphs 
> make an essay, where the thesis statement goes (like you indicated), etc. I 
> find it all tedious and counterproductive...writing should be fun, creative, 
> ongoing, and across the curriculum. Unfortunately, most public school 
> teachers write very little; and when they do, it is stylized and 
> uninteresting if not downright poorly executed. Helene
> 
> 
> >From: Allison Rose 
> >Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar 
> >
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Rubric for Grammar for Education Majors
> >Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:11:20 -0500
> >
> >I didn't hear about MLA style until I got to college; to me, whatever
> >formats my English teacher gave me were the ones I used, and if s/he didn't
> >give me any, I used my own personal system. I felt a right dunce when I get
> >to college and realized everyone in the English dept. was using the same
> >style but me and that they all seemed to be experts in it. I really wish my
> >English courses in high school had better prepared me for what my college
> >professors expected and expect of me.
> >
> >I was also very surprised to find out (after my high school teachers 
> >finally
> >were through with me) that not all thesis statements come at the beginning
> >of the introduction; it actually makes more sense sometimes (gasp!) to put
> >them as the last sentence in the introduction. I was a bit disappointed in
> >my high school teachers, although I was introduced to some great 
> >literature.
> >
> >I would also see formatting errors as errors having to do with visual
> >aesthetics, where the title is placed, where other information such as the
> >student's name is placed, what font is used, what size font is used, etc.
> >
> >Allison
> >
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