What is good writing?

MY SON returned from school the other day, distraught. An essay he had written, one which his parents had assured him was well done, had received a poor grade from his English teacher.
It lacked an introduction and a conclusion, the teacher had told him. 'You must have an introduction that sets forth your thesis,' the teacher had said. 'And you must have a conclusion that summarises how you have proven your thesis'.....
....
My son's essay, the one that got a poor grade, did have a 'thesis statement' - only, it came at the end, when he finally arrived at the point he had been working to get to from the beginning. The piece did have a conclusion - only, my son had aimed for it from the start. They were all there - thesis, proof and conclusion - but as an entirety, the essay as a whole. That is as it should be.

Ha, what the teacher said sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it? Guess I must have repeated that myself a million times. And I remember how many of you claim that your creativity is stifled because of this 'template'. (But the nagging must have worked 'cos by the end of 2 yrs, most of you can rattle off this template from the top of your head...though some pp still don't know what a 'thesis statement' is! Sigh...)

Came across this article in the Straits Times arguing that writing should not be so formulaic. I agree with the writer, but I guess this template works best for the GP exam. But do know that although this method works best for GP essays, there are many other styles of writing. If you are allowed to be a little more creative, especially in uni, do explore different ways to argue your case (but must be logical!). Don't become like the students mentioned below ok...

...there was this from a committed young university teacher: 'I often give my students more room for creativity than say their JC teachers would allow them. Initially, I thought this would be much appreciated, but I was wrong. They didn't quite know what to do...and repeatedly insisted: 'Can you tell us what the question is?' There was no question per se because the point of the assignment was to encourage them to form their own questions, and explore the implications and possibilities in the process of writing.'

Read the full articles here. The 2nd article is the writer's response to readers' comments on his original article.