Why The Page Count?

One page. Single Spaced. Times New Roman. 10 is the smallest font size. Half inch margins.

This is what stood out to me in a writing prompt I got in grad school. It was bizarre. It amounted to about 1000 or so words, which, for an English graduate student expected to spew an analysis every time they’re asked a question, is hard. Why write three pages when I could write five, or fifteen?

I encountered a similar issue as an instructor. Each essay was required to have a minimum number of pages. No students confronted me about it, but I'm sure they wondered why they needed to have an exact number of pages filled, then I started noticing something. Those that turned in shorter essays, even if it was just a half page or so short, never wrote as detailed as they were supposed to. There were also those that were long enough or longer that still rambled, but I cannot remember a single essay that came beneath the minimum and did everything that it was supposed to. I've even assigned essays that were too short – a horde of 3 page essays that were never quite up to par while the few 4 pages ones were. I'm not going to fault my students for a mistake that I made, but it taught me an interesting lesson: required page lengths are anything but arbitrary.

An experienced instructor will have a strong enough grasp of the requirements and expectations. They know how much writing will meet those requirements. I had another professor who required a 15 page essay. 14 wouldn't cut it. 16 was too long. The assignment had other parameters, but most of all, could we, as grad students, write an essay that met the research, intellectual, and structural requirements and keep it all within 15 pages. It was hard for me. Just like the one page, single spaced one mentioned above.

Reflecting on both these assignments, I learned the same lessons: be detailed enough to meet the rigor and detail required, and be economical enough to say it as clearly and succinctly as possible.

There are other factors that go into it as well, especially as you move into the professional world. Maybe a magazine or newspaper won't take your 10 page treatise because they only have 30 pages that they can fill and have a dozen contributors that they have to put in there. But then why 30 pages? Why not 40? Costs of printing, distribution, and storage can lead to that number. Somewhere in every major publishing house there's an accountant who knows by heart how much every page costs at every phase of production, distribution, and marketing.

For every page length specification given, there are numerous factors – educational, practical, financial – that were taken into consideration before that number was given. If 2 pages will do, you'll be assigned 2 pages. If the work requires 5 pages of material, and the research and exploration that it entails, then you'll be assigned 5 pages.

As a last note, don't expect meeting, or exceeding, the page length of any assignment will guarantee a great score. I've seen six pages when five were assigned and thought “You could have cut this down.” You can always fill pages with building slippage or even repeat yourself. The point isn't to fill the pages, after all: it is to express yourself as well as you can, in enough detail, and to a sufficient extent. Rarely is the page length truly the minimum: it's an optimum.

Writing Exercise: The Literacy Narrative

My first foray into fiction writing was in fourth grade when my teacher gave us creative writing assignments. Fostered by a childhood of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and story-centered video games, I took to creative writing. It was a constant in my life through the unpleasant times in middle-school and high school, and it prompted an interest in stories that turned me to literature and film studies and finally into English education. The decisions of my life have been shaped by that one teacher allowing a class to write creatively. Sure I could have done something else with more prestige than being a teacher, but I love what I do. I love writing, I love literature, I love composition, and I love my life.

That's a (very short) Literacy Narrative. Most people encounter writing assignments in composition and English courses like this, and they force you to evaluate your relationship with literacy, words, and reading and writing. Not everybody gets involved in the classics like Dickens, Melville, Gilman, or Derrida; but most people have some relationship with reading and writing, regardless of skill level. The Literacy Narrative is a way to get beyond the basic premise of “I love/hate/am good at/enjoy writing/reading” and explore the reasons and the history behind it: why do you have this relationship with words?

For me, it was a fourth grade teacher's assignment, a favorite author, and a small collection of video games, most of which were my brother's. The right cocktail of instruction, books, and visuals pointed me towards story. It's never as simple as “I was always good at it” nor “I’ve always hated it.” I'd rather have a student tell me their laundry list of bad experiences with English teachers or they can never seem to figure out writing than have someone say “I love to write!” and then have nothing else except a proud grin.

Ask yourself, why is writing important to you – what shaped your relationship with it? What prepubescent events led you to or away from shelves packed with books, or made your endorphins rush or your happiness fade when you find a pen in hand and a blank page before you.

If you have a negative relationship with writing, then writing can be a cathartic way to help resolve tension or anxiety and help you move forward. 

If you already have a positive relationship, have you ever felt like the oddity or wondered why other people don't feel that creative rush? Give this a try.

I'm not going to say a Literacy Narrative will turn everyone into great writers or make words their passion, but it is, if nothing else, a helpful bit of introspective and a little self-exploration.

The Writing Process? Your Writing Process

I remember when a film professor told me I could use two introductory paragraphs (it was about a 7 page essay), and when a literature professor said to pick a single statement or event from a book to write about, and even when a fellow writing instructor recommended using the Six Journalistic Questions to teach about thesis. A recent discussion about an essay of mine revealed to me that sometimes I give way too much background information before giving my thesis. These experiences all prove one thing: writing is not taught but learned. I was never taught how to write. For me, it was a coalescing of experiences, rather than a single instance, experience, or class. That may sound extremely counter intuitive coming from a composition instructor but consider the following…..

I can teach about all sorts of things and all sorts of tips and guidelines, but not everything I teach will work well for everyone’s writing.

For example, when I teach about brainstorming, I usually take a few minutes and tell my students about mind mapping, or writing a “web.” The result is usually a constellation of nodes, each identifying a different topic, all linked to a central point and one another by forking paths. This is a popular form of brainstorming and outlining. Most of my students remember it from previous classes so teaching it in college composition courses is a refresher.

Personally, I never mind map. I have no image files or pieces of paper repurposed to reflect a kind of pen and paper content colonization.

So, if I don't do it, then why teach it? 

Simple. 

It works for some people. 

I'm sure there are people, from elementary school student to tenured professor, from poet to novelist, across genre and expertise, who do it. That's great for them. It just isn't for me.

If you have a teacher who advocates a single way to write, be cautious, or get out of the class. They're just going to teach you a way that either works for them or is outlined in a book they teach from; and you’re not your teacher. You have to find an approach that works best for you, and that involves experimentation. Maybe you haven't ever mind mapped. Give it a try and see if it works. If you find that writing comes easier or you are better able to organize and structure your thoughts, then you've struck on something good for you. If not, scrap it.

Now, having said all that, there are still many steps or phases you have to take into account: You will need to brainstorm, outline, edit, revise, organize, so on and so forth. You have to find the way that is best for you. Take advice and lessons to heart, but be flexible and remember that you will discover the process that works best for you.

Friend or Foe Part 2: What’s Good About the Five Paragraph Essay

Part 2: What’s Good About the Five Paragraph Essay.

As I said in my last post, I've seen the Five Paragraph Essay taught/learned as a process, resulting in intellectual constipation. But it is good for something.

The Five Paragraph Essay is a model. It gives meaning, structure, and form. It’s an example of what an essay should eventually look like, emphasis on like. I tell my students that if you've just got two or three pages then five paragraphs would be okay on the final product. That’s for two or three pages. I vividly remember receiving a five page essay, however, with particularly long paragraphs. Suspiciously long, as each one conveniently ended with the page. The student had written a Five Paragraph essay for a five page essay. 

It wasn’t a very well written essay. Had it been better, I probably wouldn't have noticed the paragraph to page alignment. But it seemed like the student was cramming enough information into each paragraph to make them long enough for five paragraphs in spite of the number of pages. In my feedback, I pointed this out. I don't know if s/he was trying to have exactly five paragraphs, but s/he did. I advised the student about this and reminded s/he there didn't need to be five paragraphs, especially in a five page essay.

I like telling this story in class because It lets my students know that five isn’t a magic number. There's nothing wrong with more paragraphs and there's nothing wrong with fewer, nor is there anything wrong with just five. Circumstances determine what's best.

No matter what, an essay must have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion; and each body paragraph needs to cover a different but related topic that develops ideas brought up in the introduction. This is what the Five Paragraph Essay is good for. It reminds writers of the form that their final product should resemble. Get out a book or a newspaper or a magazine and look at how those pieces of writing are broken up into paragraphs, and with more than five much of the time. Then look closer and you'll find that some of these larger publications have entire chapters entitled "Introduction" and "Conclusion." Essays have introductions and conclusions. Books have them. Blog posts have them. You'll be hard pressed to have a serious publication without introductions and conclusions in one form or another.

Just don't think that the introduction has to be the first thing written and the conclusion has to be the last.