Maybe we need some examples of these too! Because I have one more question for you, Andrew.
In these first essays my students are reorganizing the grammatical structure of their proofs every time they write them. In many of their essays, their introductions, proofs, and conclusions are each worded a little differently; I think they're trying to be creative by varying their sentence structure.
I thought it was important that they keep the structure of each reason consistent throughout the paper. But I'm seeing that consistency so little that I'm beginning to wonder if it's supposed to be there!
Is it important in this first, structure-baring essay that the students keep each phrase in each reason/support identical in all three places - the introduction, the body, and the conclusion?
Yes, it is important so to do, and the reason is because, as you aptly put it, this is a "structure baring" essay. Sentence variation is simply not boring enough.
And note what has happened: they are now prepared for parallelism, because they clearly were not practicing it.
Achilles' anger was not justified for three reasons: He lost his best friend, Agamemnon was his king, and Hector was a nice guy. The first reason Achilles' anger was not justified is that he lost his best friend. The second reason Achilles' anger was not justified is that Agamemnon was his king. The third reason Achilles' anger was not justified is that Hector was a nice guy. Achilles' anger was not justified becuase he lost his best friend, Agamemon was his king, and Hector was a nice guy.
And I like the way you put it that "sentence variation is simply not boring enough". That helps me understand how to explain that point to my students. I told them to bore me and they haven't! I look forward to tomorrow's classes....thanks again.
