Beginning, middle, and ending is so important in teaching kids to write that I created an acronym for it: BME. Clearly, I\u2019m not trying to be creative with that acronym. I just use the term so often that I need an acronym for it.<\/p>\n
Over the centuries, humans have come up with numerous writing terms that refer to aspects of beginning, middle, and ending: e.g., introduction, body, conclusion, greeting, closing, topic sentence, details, concluding sentence, sentence opener, subject\/verb\/object, ending punctuation, exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, denouement, etc.<\/p>\n
The list goes on. In short, everything that relates to structure in writing relates to the beginning, middle, and ending (BME). Beginning, middle, and ending is so universal in writing that students must understand it.<\/p>\n
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Let\u2019s keep things simple. As we move forward, let\u2019s consider just two sets of two topics:<\/p>\n
Set 1:<\/span>\u00a0 narrative story vs. expository text<\/p>\n Set 2:<\/span>\u00a0 whole composition and paragraphs<\/p>\n For students to master these four topics, they will need to master two levels of beginning, middle, and ending:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0 Beginning, middle, and ending in paragraphs.<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0 Beginning, middle, and ending in whole composition.<\/p>\n The tricky part of mastering these two levels of BME is that they work together and are intimately interconnected and interrelated. The belief that a paragraph is a building block is only half right. This building-block theory of paragraphs is founded on the belief that a paragraph is a whole<\/em>. The reality is that a paragraph is both a whole<\/em> and a part of a whole composition<\/em>. This is part of the reason why dictionaries list the word paragraph<\/em> as both a noun and a verb.<\/p>\n Mastery over these two levels of BME is the foundation of student writing success! Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span> is the fastest, most effective way to create this foundation! Be sure to check out the program on the homepage!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n My goal is to help my students become organized and natural paragraph and multi-paragraph writers across the curriculum. Students won\u2019t reach this goal until they master two levels of beginning, middle, and ending (BME), and Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span> is the fastest, most effective way to get there!<\/p>\n But in addition to using the program, teachers need to understand the truth about paragraphs and multi-paragraph writing. To understand this truth, teachers should open up a few different magazines, newspapers, textbooks, encyclopedias, picture books, chapter books, and popular novels and compare what they see. They should do it for a few different audiences and age groups. In short, we find the truth of paragraph and multi-paragraph structure on the page<\/em> of professionally edited and professionally published texts.<\/p>\n The one nearly universal trait of structure is beginning, middle, and ending. Of course, as you examine different types of writing for different audiences, you see that beginning, middle, and ending is not a formula.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Beginning, middle, and ending (BME) has been one of the most important concepts in story writing for over 2,000 years! In Poetics<\/em> (c.333 BC), Aristotle said that a story must have a plot, and the plot must have a beginning, middle, and ending. This beginning, middle, and ending forms a complete whole and is \u201cthe first and most important thing\u201d in a story.<\/p>\n Thousands of years later, Steven Spielberg knows the importance of beginning, middle, and ending. When I think of my favorite Steven Spielberg movies, I clearly remember the beginning, the middle, and the ending. He definitely knows how to tell a good story!<\/p>\n Unfortunately for audiences everywhere, many modern storytellers are neglecting Aristotle\u2019s time-tested wisdom. In fact, Spielberg recently complained, \u201cPeople have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don\u2019t have a middle or an end anymore. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n Teachers need to bring BME to life! Initially, students aren\u2019t seriously interested in beginning, middle, and ending. It\u2019s boring. It doesn\u2019t pique their interest. And they don\u2019t see what\u2019s so important about it. In contrast, kids love the idea of flashbacks, flash-forwards, foreshadowing, red herrings, and creating suspense or curiosity by holding back information. All of that\u2019s interesting to them.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s difficult for students to understand all of those concepts if they don\u2019t have a solid understanding of BME. Those advanced techniques assume that a reader and a writer grasp that the plot has a BME. Both the reader and writer must be able to sort through all of those distractions and see the plot\u2019s beginning, middle, and ending.<\/p>\n Finally, we must not forget what the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard said about BME: \u201cA story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end but not necessarily in that order.\u201d And Seneca said, \u201cEvery new beginning comes from some other beginning\u2019s end.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n When it comes to paragraph and whole-composition structure, stories and expository texts have a great deal in common. However, they also contain differences. As a rule, if you compare a popular novel to an encyclopedia, the paragraphing will look quite different. Here is one way to think of BME in our students\u2019 writing:<\/p>\n \u00bb Expository Texts:<\/span> Have two clear levels of beginning, middle, and ending (BME).<\/p>\n \u00bb Stories:<\/span> Have the feeling of two or more levels of beginning, middle, and ending (BME).<\/p>\n The Truth:<\/span> What we teach students about the traditional paragraph and multi-paragraph structure works better with expository text as compared to stories. But if we don\u2019t teach students this kind of formal structure, many students will NEVER write in an organized or coherent way.<\/p>\n One easy-to-remedy consequence of teaching this formal structure is that beginning multi-paragraph story writers often create stories that are informational or episodic. For this reason, students need additional instruction on story structure, story elements, and story techniques. But with a little practice, students do become \u201cOrganized and Natural\u201d multi-paragraph story writers. With Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span> as the foundation and framework, it\u2019s guaranteed!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n If you read the Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery<\/a><\/strong>, you will see that I call Stage 9<\/em> (the second-highest stage) the Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em>. When I looked over high-scoring released student writing samples from state writing assessments<\/a><\/strong>, it was clear that many of the best student writers write in a Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em>. These students just get it!<\/p>\n In everything from newspapers to novels to children\u2019s stories to magazine articles to the internet to presidential letters\u2014the Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em> is ubiquitous. It\u2019s more than just common; it\u2019s truly ubiquitous! No one likes to read long paragraphs! That\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n To be clear, the Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em> is not appropriate for academic writing. However, if a writer can\u2019t write in the Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em>, they don\u2019t understand writing.<\/p>\n The Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/em> is built on the feeling of beginning, middle, and ending. Put simply, short paragraphs do not need to follow a paragraph formula as long as the indents are in the right place. What does that mean? It means that readers feel beginning, middle, and ending as they read.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n BME is a feeling. If you don\u2019t believe me, try this experiment: Go to a party or get-together, and at some random point, just walk out and leave. Even if no one notices, it\u2019s going to feel really weird.<\/p>\n You may have heard of the pop psychology term \u201cneeding closure,\u201d but have you heard of the Zeigarnik Effect? Both of these terms refer to needing an ending. Although I\u2019m sure there is some debate over if these two concepts are scientifically valid, they frequently feel valid.<\/p>\n The Zeigarnik Effect holds that people remember unfinished activities better than completed activities. Is this true? Well, I once began reading a book, and I didn\u2019t really like it. I ended up getting busy and never finished the final 30 pages. Ten years later, I was still thinking about how I had not finished that book. I finally went to the library and checked it out so that I could finish it. This was for a book that I did not like! In short, it was easier for me to complete the book than to continue thinking about it for another ten years!<\/p>\n I know that in this complex world, I have put systems in place to bring an end to things that I don\u2019t want to continue with. As an example, I am merciless with TV shows. I don\u2019t have the time to watch anything that I\u2019m not enthralled with. To solve this problem, I created a QUIT list on my computer so I can mark TV shows as \u201cQUIT.\u201d Once a show goes on that list, it\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n In storytelling, there is a technique called an \u201cOpen Ending.\u201d It\u2019s exactly what it sounds like. It\u2019s an ending that is not finished or left open to interpretation. You are probably aware of a TV show or movie that has one of these open endings<\/em>. Sometimes these open endings<\/em> make the national news because people are so livid. To invest time in something and not get a great ending\u2014that makes people mad.<\/p>\n Personally, if I love the story, I\u2019m okay with these endings because they get me thinking about the deeper meaning of the story. However, I have also created a way to put an end to things. The ending is clearly what I think it is. The ending is my interpretation of things. And that\u2019s final!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\nOrganized and Natural Writing<\/span><\/h3>\n
Narrative Stories: Beginning, Middle, and Ending (BME)<\/span><\/h3>\n
Story vs. Expository: Beginning, Middle, and Ending (BME)<\/span><\/h3>\n
The Short and Lively Paragraph Style<\/span><\/h3>\n
Closure and the Zeigarnik Effect: The Scientific Need for Beginning, Middle, and Ending (BME)<\/span><\/h3>\n