I agree that the five paragraph essay has many faults, but it should not be replaced. The five paragraph essay has faults because as the writer claims, the five paragraph essay diminishes the student’s ability to become a skilled writer. This happens as a result of the five paragraph essay because the set structure diminishes the creativity of the student as well as the ability for the student to really practice their writing (and allow their writing to become better through practice). However, the five paragraph essay should not be replaced because otherwise it would be too hard to teach writing. Since writing is such a subjective field you really need a framework to help people get started with writing. The five paragraph essay provides this framework and allows people to practice their writing while also having the ability to follow some guidelines (at least at the start).
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Interesting point Jonah. You present the five paragraph structure as a way to deal with the subjectivity of writing. In other words, if I grade based on this five paragraph rubric, I won’t be able to grade based on my political preferences, etc. What if I were to design another rubric? One that involves attention to critical thinking? I wonder if I’d be able to remain objective when grading writing then.
DW