Hot take: I believe formulaic writing has its place.

I used to think…. formulaic writing was the death of student creativity. I thought we were keeping writers from “finding their voice.” I even believed sentence stems were on the risky side.

Now, I think… I confused formulaic writing (fill in the blanks) for templates.

Because… I’ve been thinking about emails I send. For example, I’m required to send an email to families when a student has failed a progress report and/or report card. I used to waste so much time crafting a perfectly worded, professionally written communication to alert families about the failing grade, potential causes that led to failing, and ways for the student to remedy the situation (e.g., attend tutorials, redo an assignment). When I realized how redundant the task was, I began collecting my notices of failing grades and modifying according to each appropriate grading period or student or class or assignment.

So… If there’s a time and a place for me to use a template and modify what I need in order to work more efficiently, then shouldn’t I teach students to do the same?