Do Writing Templates Crush Creativity?
Do writing templates crush creativity?
When teaching writing, there is always a tension between mastering the form of a given genre and being able to express that something special that will elevate one's writing beyond the mundane and into the truly exceptional.
What are Writing Templates?
Templates and other writing guides, therefore, run the risk of being overly prescriptive and stomping on creativity or the expression of individuality and talent, which are the elements that underpin truly great writing.
For example, a sonnet is a poem with 14 lines and a certain rhyme scheme. There are other types of poems out there, but if it has 25 lines or 3 lines, it's not a sonnet.
Prose writing - like academic essays in class settings - are similar in that there are expectations for where information should be found.
Readers of English writing have certain expectations for where they will find the main point of the argument, or where the evidence to support that main point will be found. An academic essay differs, for instance, from a mystery story.
In a mystery, one of the aims is to keep the reader guessing what's happening, to confuse the reader, and to throw the reader off track. A persuasive or argumentative essay, however, shouldn't keep a reader guessing, but lay out a case simply and straightforwardly.
And just as a poet demonstrates his or her mastery over the sonnet form by working within the confines of that structure, an essayist truly shows his or her powers over the craft of writing by demonstrating mastery within the form of the essay.
In this way, essay writing templates - or guides - do not stifle creativity, but rather they set the parameters within with the writer can play and demonstrate creativity.
Why are Writing Templates Helpful?
For only when a writer knows the boundaries can you break those boundaries. Part of being a student means first learning these rules of writing, the unwritten expectations of where and how to say things in a way that conforms with the genre of academic prose.
Some students will master these rules, be competent writers, and move on to do something else with their lives. Some students will master these rules, begin to experiment and break these rules, and move on to be life-long writers.
But what should never happen is that students should never wander around in the dark corridors of writing, not knowing where the walls and steps and pitfalls lie, blundering in the darkness, making mistakes, and falling down, never to get up again.
The rules, guidelines, and templates are there to light the way. In the fully lighted way, then, you can choose to run, dance, climb the walls, and cartwheel in unique, creative, and exciting ways with your writing.
In my opinion as someone who has spent decades teaching writing, good writing instruction - be it online or in person - should help to illuminate the rules with enough flexibility to allow students to shine.
Study with Us
The help you need to get the grades you want.
Previous Blog
What Are High Yield MCAT Topics?
Next Blog