The Writing Recipe

Hjortshoj, Keith. “Footstools and Furniture.” The Transition to College Writing: Second Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 107-130. Print.

In the chapter “Footstools and Furniture” from The Transition to College Writing, Hjortshoj is explaining what is wrong with writings that are based off of a format. He states, “Teachers want you to use writing as a way of thinking and conveying your thoughts about a subject, not as a demonstration that you can follow a simple recipe”. Hjortshoj is referring this “simple recipe” to the format that students often use to write. Most high school students were taught this format to use during standardized tests. He compares essays to show differences in writers that use this format and writers that actually think about the topic before and while they’re writing. Therefore, it is evident the writers that divide their papers into three parts using this format.

Hjortshoj examples encourage me to think back to my previous English classes and I remember always being taught the same format year after year to writing an essay. It has always been the key to succeeding in standardized tests. After reading this chapter I now wonder, did we actually ever learn from writing these essays? Most students that are given an outline just complete them to get a good grade and to complete the assignment as quickly as possible. This is considered the “simple recipe” that Hjortshoj discussed. It’s the easy way out of thinking and learning from writing an essay. A student that receives a topic and has to write about it with no other further instructions will have to think more critically about the topic and will learn more information than a student that has half of the work done for them. To succeed in college writing, Hjortshoj states that students need to break away from this format and learn to write freely about their thoughts. Therefore, his points are important because writing with a set format will not help students learn to improve their writing skills, and also will not allow them to share their thoughts with the teacher. Hjortshoj simply wants society to understand the importance of conveying their own personal thoughts have on writing.