Schaffer method

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]

Essay structure

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]

Body paragraph structure

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:

• This (also) shows that
• This is (important) because
• In addition
• Furthermore
• Therefore
• Also
• For example

Conclusion sentences usually start with one of the following:

• Finally
• In a word
• In brief, Briefly
• In conclusion, To conclude
• In the end
• In the final analysis
• On the whole
• Thus, to conclude
• To summarize, In sum, To sum up, In summary
• Mostly
• As a result
• Therefore

Critical analysis

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 tested it with 60 8th-grade students, finding that while 40% wrote three supporting topic sentences, 62% included at least 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]