Writing Assesment

Every year the school district I'm from gives it's students a writing assesment, the PWA. In the students English class the teacher will show them two (generally unpopular) prompts. The student then has to write a "five paragraph essay" which introduces the prompt at hand, three paragraphs that provide a reason for the student's stance, three sub reasons withing each of those paragraphs, and a closing paragraph that's supposed to say something like, "In conclusion ___ is so because [reason 1], [reason 2] [reason 3].

I heard a story about one year where the prompt said something like "argue whether the world is getting better or worse," and some took the side of 'worse' and one of his three reasons was the way we do these writing assesment, what would really make my day is if I found out that he wasn't even trying to be funny.

If you look at Newsweek or other publications; persuasive writing is very common, but it's nothing like this. The opening paragraph will try to grab your attention, the closing paragraph will try feel conclusive, and throughout the text the authur will give reasons as well as support for those reasons, but the writer isn't going to be held to a mechanical format where his or her three -No more no less- paragraphs necesaraly begin with "another reason..." or "in addition..." And the thing that really bugs me is a legit writer would never close by saying, "in case you didn't read my article or get my point let me tell you what I said all over again."

I don't think I'd say I'm 100% against it. It might be a bad way to write but it still might be a sufficient way of measuring how well a student can write. But a student has to write a persuasive essay for a practical purpose, such as a college application, and they think they must do the 'five paragraph format' then the schools' teaching of writing is almost counter productive.