The Jane Schaffer Writing Program is a method of writing essays, usauly off of a book. It consists of a "formula", which is best summarized as: T,CD,CM,CM,CD,CM,CM,SC. Following, is an explanation of each of the "Variables" making up the essay.
- T: Stands for "Topic Sentence". You start all of your paragraphs with one of these. The topic sentenced should contain two or more "feeling”, “emotional", or connotative words. These will be very helpful in the components to come, so choose well. When writing this sentence, it is best (and easier) to highlight your two or more words described above.
- CD: This one stands for "Concrete Detail". This comes strait from the text, which you are supporting. You may make a direct quote, paraphrase, or summarize the text out of your book. After your sentence, before the period, in parentheses, write the page where you acquired the text, and the original authors name.{e.g.: (Shakespeare, 147)} This gives credit, where credit is due. After your acknowledgments, you may now put a period. On to the next sentence...
- CM: This one is a little trickier. CM stands for "Commentary", and is used right after the Concrete Detail. In this you, in your own words, explain the text you used in your "CM". A good strategy involves using the words you highlighted in your topic sentence, and "branching off” to form new words. For example, if you used the word "Clique" in your topic sentence, you may want to include words like "Gossip", "Exclusion", "Separations", etc... Some people state that begining your commentary with words like "This shows that...", "You can see by this that...", and "You again notice how...", is a bad idea, and in correct, however, this idea is ridicules, and thus should be ignored. After this sentence, do one more CM. The ratio should be two Cm's for every CD you use.
- SC: "Concluding Sentence" is the name of this one(and please, don't ask me why). This sums up your paragraph, summarizing all you have said (Wrote) previously. You can close up all your thoughts, and give insight to the next paragraph. Again, it is a good idea to use as many (at least two) feeling, emotional, or connotative words as possible.
This just makes up one paragraph in an essay. Each paragraph in the Jane Schaffer Writing Program, should consist of a "T", a "CD", two "CM's", another "CD", two "CM's" and lastly, an "SC". A typical "Jane Schaffer" paragraph has eight sentences. There can be more, keeping the same ratio of two CM's to every CD.
This Writing method is good for starters, yet can be a damper on more advanced writers. You will hit a barrier on your writing real fast, and will probably move on to something else. This method should, on average, guaranty you a "B" on an essay. I had a teacher that made me use this, and I absolutely hated it, but, I did do well on essays. More info on The Jane Schaffer Program can be found at www.janeschaffer.com.