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The Jane Schaffer method is a formula for essay writing that is taught in some U.S. middle schools and high schools. Developed by a San Diego teacher named Jane Schaffer, who started offering training and a 45-day curriculum in 1995, it is intended to help students who struggle with structuring essays by providing a framework. [1] [2] Originally developed for personal narratives and essays about literature, the curriculum now also covers expository and argument essays. [3]
The essay is to consist of an introduction three or more sentences long and containing a thesis statement, a conclusion incorporating all the writer's commentary and bringing the essay to a close, and two or three body paragraphs; Schaffer herself preferred to teach a four-paragraph essay rather than the traditional five-paragraph essay. [1]
Each body paragraph should consist of eight sentences: a topic sentence (T) followed by two "chunks" made up of a sentence presenting a concrete detail (CD) such as a fact, quotation, plot point, or example, followed by two sentences of commentary on that material (CM), and then by a concluding sentence (CS). [1] [4] [5] To help students internalize this formula, teachers use methods including colored pens [3] and writing "fact, opinion, opinion, fact, opinion, opinion" in the margin. [6] Longer body paragraphs are possible but must maintain the same 1:2 ratio of CD to CM in the "chunks". [7]
Commentary sentences often start with a transition such as the following:
Conclusion sentences usually start with one of the following:
Mark Wiley, coordinator of the composition program at California State University, Long Beach, evaluated the Schaffer method in 2000 as providing a valuable guide to the basics of academic writing, but not conducive to students' exploring their own responses to complex ideas and best taught as a possible strategy. [1]
The Schaffer method has been studied in several master's theses in education. In 2002, Heather McClelland sought to evaluate the effect of teaching formulaic strategies in order to assist teachers. [8] In 2012, Richard Roybal taught the method to a group of 60 8th-grade students and reviewed their success in stating a thesis and formulating three supporting topic sentences in an essay about a work of literature; 40% had three topic sentences, but 62% had two. [9] In 2015, Patricia Solomon related instruction in scientific writing for a high school course in biology to the students' Schaffer method instruction in writing about literature; she found little evidence of transfer of learning to the new field. [10]