Embracing Structure

While discussing MLA and APA format guidelines with students recently, a student asked: Why do all these format rules even matter? She was obviously feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with the number of writing formats she's faced with in college writing. Why does format matter? Even the simplest of writing tasks follows some kind of format. For example, a recipe has a set format. When writing recipes, you list the ingredients before you give the cooking directions. Why is this format required? Because it makes sense to do it that way. We would quickly abandon a recipe that began with cooking directions before we even knew what ingredients we would need. The same is true for any writing. There is a sensible way to go about writing tasks in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. Whether you're writing a college essay or a poem, certain standards are expected of you. These standards, or formats, give structure to the writing so that readers recognize it, understand it, and respond to it. Without these standards, writing would be chaotic, confusing and ineffective. This applies even to creative writing. Out of the swirling soup of a writer's thoughts must come order that takes shape on the written page, and it is out of that order that the true magic of writing is born - the ability to move and change readers in unexpected ways. It is by embracing structure, format and standards that writers find the freedom to create their own voice, message and style, much as the skeleton provides the framework for the heart. Structure doesn't limit writers - it supports them.