Forming and Meaning: Writing the Counterpoint Essay.
Although many composition teachers talk about the need to find "or ganic" forms in composing, students are often content to organize their writing in formulaic ways, frequently resorting to the five-paragraph theme?an introduction followed by three or four supporting points and a summary conclusion. Most students have internalized this form to such a degree that it has become the "default drive" for expository writing. When teachers ignore the form that student writing will take, they are not necessarily allowing students to produce organic structures but are generally encourag ing conformity to standard patterns of exposition. Much of our resistance to discussing form with students comes from a romantic view of composition that posits form as a product of inspiration and suggests that specifying a form for composition, therefore, inevitably limits a writer's individual genius. In other words, form is often associated with conformity?, with rigid rules and "boiler plate" prose. However, as students become aware of different options for organizing discourse, they are not simply learning alternative methods of arrangement; they are learning new ways of thinking about their subject. A growing recognition that form serves a generative purpose in writing, that it liberates rather than limits many student writers, is evident in the scholarship of such writers as Chris Anderson, Richard Coe, Frank D'Angelo, Keith Fort, and Ross Winterowd. Further, Ann Berthoff argues that form is the creative force behind composition:
Form, Authority, and the Critical Essay.
PEOPLE IN LITERARY STUDIES generally pride themselves on their liberality. Teachers give A's to diverse interpretations. Editors accept works with opposing conclusions. But while freedom is permitted in content, formal conformity is rigidly demanded. This contradiction is symbolized by the statement so often made to students: "Sure, almost any interpretation is okay if you prove it." In the implications of "prove" are found not only an insistence on logic but also a required attitude towards literature that results in papers with a prescribed structure.
The status of FAO and codex alimentarius developments on vegetable proteins
The FAO is interested in increasing world protein supplies both by advising and assisting developing countries to increase their production of staple foods and by encouraging the development of technology to produce protein concentrates both from vegetable and animal sources to supplement diets which are low in protein content. Recent revisions of the amount of protein required in the diet in relation to total per capita energy requirements and the difficulties encountered in introducing novel foods into established dietary patterns has led FAO to concentrate on increased agricultural productions in developing countries as the primary means of combatting malnutrition. In the meantime, in North America and Europe, advances in the technology of processing vegetable proteins has given highly acceptable products simulating meats which are being used as meat extenders and meat analogues. The consequent increase in vegetable protein production has revealed a need for international, agreement on standardization, and it has been agreed that this will be undertaken by the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards’ Programme. The program operates chiefly through the Codex Alimentarius, Commission, an international governmental body, the purpose of which is to protect consumers against health hazard in food and against fraud. The Commission, which has 116 member governments, controls an intensive program of work covering the composition, labeling, additives, contaminants, pesticide residues, hygiene, sampling and analysis aspects of foods and has established a procedure which allows member governments ample opportunity to reach agreement on food standards and to accept them for incorporation into national legislation. The Codex Commission, at its 12th session, decided to establish a Committee on Vegetable Proteins with the following terms of references: “to elaborate definitions and world-wide standards for vegetable protein products deriving from soybeams, cottonseed, groundnuts, cereals and from other vegetable sources as they come into use for human consumption, and to elaborate guidelines on utilization of such vegetable protein products in the food supply system, on nutritional requirements and safety on labeling and on other aspects as may seem appropriate.” The question of which country will host the Committee is still under discussion.