the Essay Engineering Curriculum – for primary school, secondary school, and university
Essay Engineering redefines the essential endeavor of humanistic study.
“Reading” is redefined as Meaning Reconstruction oriented to textual evidence and empirical reality, which constitutes First-Order Thinking (1OT).
“Writing” is redefined as Meaning Patterns oriented to Formal Qualities (a conceptual “version” of reality), which constitute Second-Order Thinking (2OT)
First-Order and Second-Order Thinking are complemented by two ‘Thought Structures’ which are content-oriented frameworks for empirical reality. The two ‘Thought Structures’ are: Human Vector Causality and Perspective Variance.
These foundational methodologies inform all thought and analysis. Any non-quantifiable aspect of human experience is understood with First-Order and Second-Order Thinking. These topics are described in detail in the following sections.
The Fundamentals of Humanistic Thought – First-Order & Second-Order Thinking
First-Order Thinking (1OT) – “Reading” is redefined as Meaning Reconstruction of the Textual Layer
The EE tool of Meaning Reconstruction at sentence, paragraph, and chapter level (First-Order Thinking of Module A, B) addresses the problem of passive reading, which means simply that when students sit down to write an essay, they do not have a thorough, comprehensive understanding of the book they have read. Typically, students can say very little about what they have read. To state the obvious – if a student does not understand what a book says, it is no wonder she or he has difficulty writing an essay.
“Reading” is not the desired skill – with EE, students learn how to do Independent Meaning Reconstruction of the textual layer. Students learn to transform the linguistic symbols (i.e. the book) into an intuitive understanding of a reconstituted reality (i.e. a written synopsis, and the accompanying mental grasp of the major elements of the book). Words have meaning not as a symbol of language, but as the prompt for a student to have an intuitive grasp of a reality, or an idea about reality.
Second-Order Thinking (2OT) – “Writing” is redefined as the creation of Meaning Patterns with Formal Quality Analysis
The EE tool of the Four-Step Process of Formal Quality Analysis (Second-Order Thinking of Module C) addresses the situation of the missing process and skills, which means simply that when students sit down to write an essay, they have received no instruction in how to write an essay.
“Writing” is not the desired skill – with EE, students learn the process of Formal Quality Analysis which applies induction to the higher-level meaning types (interior, universal) that constitute the non-material constitution of individuals and reality. This analysis results in an understanding of the values and purpose of individuals expressed as extrapolated categories, and within the framework of Perspective Variance and Causality. The skill of writing has myriad applications from the mundane grocery list to the intimate personal letter. In the EE curriculum, we use the term essay composition to specifiy that there is a very specific purpose to our writing: the application of thought structures to a textual layer, with the result of an analytical arrangement of symbols.
The Formal Quality Analysis of Second-Order Thinking (2OT) is a natural continuation of the Meaning Reconstruction of First-Order Thinking (1OT).
Meaning Reconstruction consists of a simple representation of a material-physical reality (i.e. what happened), while the Meaning Pattern represents a different version of reality. The Meaning Pattern is an alternate, non-material account of reality – it is the analysis at the higher plane of the Formal Pattern (i.e. why and how did this happen?). The literary work consists of a representation of a material-physical reality – while the purpose of thinking is to create a map of symbols, an exposition of reality that isolates the most significant elements and creates categories to classify and explicate these aspects of reality.
The material-physical reality is the territory (the exterior meaning of actions, speech, outcomes); the analysis consists of the map (interior meaning of sentiments, purpose; universal meaning of values, motives). Reality consists of the chaos of a sequence of unexplained events; the analysis consists of an organized set of underlying forces.
At first glance, the EE curriculum might not seem to be easy, accessible, and intuitive (which students always find it is) – but if you’ve been counting on your fingers all your life, then solving a polynomial equation might not appear easy, accessible, and intuitive.
Two ‘Thought Structures’ – the Frameworks of Causality and Perspective Variance
Human Vector Causality
The Framework of Human Vector Causality organizes the relative importance of the meaning types according to their role in the unfolding of reality. The material-physical reality of exterior meaning is where the ultimate outcome (individual fate) of the story transpires. But the causal source of this (i.e. the animating force of reality) is the individual subjective state (i.e. interior meaning). The purpose of the formal pattern is to describe the causal mechanism by extrapolating the complete individual subjective state (interior meaning) and to restate this in the abstracted form of general principles and category definitions (universal meaning). This is similar to Aristotle’s notion of the formal cause.
(The extrapolation of interior meaning is necessary because the 1OT representation of reality contains only fragments of interior meaning. The induction and extrapolation thus results in extra-textual meaning which is speculative; this is the 2OT equivalent of the implicit meaning found in the textual layer of 1OT. One way to think of the continuity between 1OT and 2OT is the extrapolation of non-explicit meaning on different planes of understanding.)
The essence of essay composition is analytical thinking, which creates a “map” of symbols (formal qualities) which describe the formal pattern as the animating force of reality – i.e. the interior meaning that is the cause of the ultimate outcome (the fate of exterior meaning).
Perspective Variance
The Framework of Perspective Variance is a second major “tool” for the natural, stage-wise progression from: i) the first-person perspective of 1OT (the biased subjective experience), ii) the third-person perspective of 2OT (the unbiased subjective experience), iii) the category of general principles of 2OT (quasi-objective truths).
The Formal Pattern thus operates on two different planes: the higher-level interior meaning (unbiased subjective experience) and universal meaning (general principle). These two planes are the “maps” which explicate the lower-level interior meaning (biased subjective experience) which the 1OT representation of reality contains in fragmentary, concealed, garbled form.
(1OT is the representation of physical-material reality; 2OT is the representation of subjective-formal reality)
Within the Formal Pattern, the interior and universal meaning are semantically identical – the first plane describes the individual subjective experience, the second plane states the equivalent category and general principle.
General principles in the humanities are the rough equivalent of the conceptual truths of natural sciences. But there is a major difference in that the “concept” of natural science derives a universal truth which explains all of material-physical reality. Thus the chemical formula for water explains the essential constitution of every single molecule of water in the universe – the snow on top of a mountain, the coffee in your mug, the vapor above a natural hot spring.
By contrast the “principle” of humanistic knowledge is always only a reflection of a single, specific circumstance – thus knowledge of the principle of love must produce one principle that applies to the story of Romeo and Juliet, and a second, distinct principle that applies to the story of Antigone. For there is no single concept of love, there is no single truth which explains every single specific circumstance of love. Each instance of love is unique and requires its own general principle.
Likewise, in the study of history – one principle of revolution explains the particular instance the Russian Revolution (1917), and a second, distinct principle explains the particular instance of the French Revolution (1789). But there is no single principle of revolution which encompasses all political revolution with perfect knowledge (as the chemical formula for water) – each political revolution is unique and requires its own general principle. (There is a general definition of revolution as a violent uprising that defeats the status quo ruling party and establishes a new government. But this dictionary definition is only the barest departure point for the study of history. It can be productive to compare different principles of revolution, but to do this one must first generate the distinct principle for each separate instance.)
Defining the EE Fundamentals
First-Order Thinking (1OT) works with the textual layer that consists of a representation of reality – this is the skill of meaning reconstruction. (Modules A, B.)
Second-Order Thinking (2OT) works with the formal qualities that constitute an analysis of reality – this is skill of creating meaning patterns by extrapolation of a general principle from a limited representation of reality, i.e. induction. (Module C.) The Formal Quality is the general term for interior meaning and universal meaning as discussed in the video lessons on the home page.
The Formal Quality Analysis is understood as and expressed by a different term for each field. In the field of literature, the formal quality consists of interior meaning (feelings, sentiments, purpose) as the expression of universal meaning (the categories of value, motive which classify the interior meaning). In the field of history, the formal quality consists of ‘political-economic’, ‘social’, or ‘religious/intellectual’ elements. In all instances the Formal Quality is the ‘non-material constitution’ of the entity in question.
“The goal of teaching should not be to help the students learn how to memorize and spit out information under academic pressure. The purpose of teaching is to inspire the desire for learning in them and make them able to think, understand, and question.” (Richard Feynman.)
A brief note on the apparent complexity of the curriculum
If the terminology and conceptual apparatus appear to be strikingly advanced – one must put this in the context of the entire primary and secondary school curriculum. Summarizing this humanities curriculum is the equivalent of summarizing the entire mathematics curriculum for grades 1-12. Even the most succinct, compact exposition of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and calculus can appear daunting, and many a parent might wonder how on earth the seven-year old child who struggles to tie her shoelaces could ever manage the dizzyingly complex intellectual task. But manage it they do – and often very well and to most constructive and practical effect.
The reader should also bear in mind that each level of the curriculum (beginner, intermediate, etc) is taught over a three year period.
On a related note – adults often underestimate the capacity of young students to understand complex ideas. One reason adults make this miscalculation is that the ability to convey sophisticated thought to children is a challenging task. A complex idea can be easily presented in a rudimentary fashion – so long as the adult is able to communicate the idea at the child’s linguistic level.
For example – interior and exterior meaning might sound far too sophisticated for a third-grader. But in fact the distinction between an object and the individual experience of the object is entirely natural and intuitive. Young children experience this every day. And the second-grade student can very easily recognize the difference between the exterior realm of physical, material object (a dog; a plate of broccoli or an ice cream cone) – and the interior realm of feelings, motive, purpose (being happy to see a dog; not liking a plate of broccoli, enjoying an ice cream cone.)
Starting with this basic example of the concept, the student gradually develops an understanding of more sophisticated situations.
Primary School, Middle School, High School, University – the Natural Progression of the EE Curriculum
(N.B. for students beginning with Essay Engineering in either middle school or high school, the Beginner and Intermediate Curricula are combined in a single stage.)
Beginner Curriculum (grades 2-4): “Textual Detective: Collecting Clues & Evidence”
To make the idea of the textual layer accessible, the metaphor of the “textual detective” is employed. The detective examines a scene where something happened in the past. Reading a book is just the same, since the words are only clues (symbols) to a reality that the detective (reader) has to discover for herself or himself. This is an important clarification – it rejects the conventional wisdom, which holds that the meaning of a book is self-evident and the reality it represents is immediately available.
As a further metaphor the Tsunami Hazard Zone sign is used to explain that language is only a set of symbols – and any person who “reads” the sign must transform these symbols into a “story” about reality. The danger of passive reading is that one identifies the words (i.e. symbols for big wave, human, mountain), but fails to synthesize these to create a reconstituted reality (“If there is an earthquake, go to high ground inland, because a huge wave will destroy the coastal area.”) The words in a book cannot tell a story until the words are transformed into a reconstituted reality.
These concepts provide the introduction to the first emphasis of the Beginner Curriculum: mastery of Module A, the skill of micro-level meaning reconstruction, and the basic elements of working with the textual layer. The student practices sentence-level and paragraph-level reconstruction of the representation of reality. It is not enough to take reading notes – students must learn to check their reading notes for accuracy and completeness.
The mechanical literacy of the standard humanities curriculum teaches students to synthesize letters into words and derive a superficial understanding of sentence and paragraph. But the textual layer must be understood from the point of view of a representation of reality – understanding this constitutes the semantic literacy (i.e. meaning reconstruction of Module A & B), where the individual parts of sentences are resolved into a higher-level semantic content, and where an overarching whole is seen to contain myriad facets of reality and convey an intricate set of circumstances.
The second emphasis of the Beginner Curriculum is mastery of Module B, the skill of macro-level meaning reconstruction. Seeing the major points as an organic whole is an essential skill in transforming the textual layer into a reconstituted reality. This work entails also the skill of identifying formal qualities, through distinguishing exterior and interior meaning types.
To this end (macro-level meaning reconstruction), the beginner student also learns to identify which paragraphs make a major point (some paragraphs make only a minor point), and collect these major points in a chapter-level synopsis (1OT). But collecting significant clues is not the end of the detective’s work – the detective must also synthesize single meaning points into a coherent overview of the entire reality. In this way, the student learns to examine the interconnection of the interior meaning in multiple, separate passages which are not obviously related.
Together, Modules A and B constitute the fundamentals of 1OT.
At the end of the Beginner Curriculum, the student has achieved a strong understanding of 1OT fundamentals, which consist of Module A (sentence-level and paragraph-level reading notes) and Module B (chapter-level synopsis). The 1OT skills are thus fully established – and with the intermediate and advanced curriculum, the student learns to apply these skills to more sophisticated readings.
In preparation for Module C, the beginner student studies the completed work flow items of the Four-Step Process of 2OT i) category identification, ii) category organization, iii) proto-outline of category development, iv) completed line of thought, or outline. Students understand how thought structures work by seeing how other thinkers create a line of thought.
Intermediate Curriculum (grades 5-8): “Apprentice Engineer: Line of Thought & Basic Essay”
The transitional curriculum stage solidifies grasp of 1OT (Modules A and B), while also teaching the basics of 2OT Fundamentals (Module C).
The chapter-level synopsis (Module B) is the basis for working with formal qualities (Module C), through the Four-Step Process of 2OT: i) identifying major categories/topics; ii) organizing them into a topic register; iii) developing selected categories with induction (aka “directed brainstorming”); iv) elucidating a complete category definition with a rigorous line of thought.
That is, the student learns to first identify specific categories (formal qualities, or interior meaning), then to define each category as underlying the representation of reality (formal pattern, of interconnected meaning).
1OT is structured around the chronology of exterior reality, which is a chaotic sequence of events. Two major intellectual frameworks inform the 2OT analysis. First, analysis is structured around the causality of interior reality, where a formal quality effects a new, changed circumstance – that is, interior meaning is the cause of some ultimate exterior meaning. Secondly, Perspective variance (i.e. the divergent sentiments/values/purposes of different individuals) is the framework used for analyzing interior meaning as the underlying force that effects exterior outcomes.
The formal pattern of 2OT consists of universal meaning (which provides the primary category definition), and the interior meaning which is the supporting evidence for these inductive propositions & assertions.
The point of the formal pattern is that we must usually consider multiple formal qualities (i.e. interior meaning) – there is typically no single element or factor which alone determines outcomes or non-material constitution. There are rather multiple factors that must be considered, and these factors must be understood through the synthesis that sees their interplay and interconnection.
With the tools of the Four-Step Process of 2OT, students learn to structure and develop the line of thought that expresses a formal pattern in a short essay of two or three paragraphs (including thesis statement), which is the rudimentary form of the essay. The thesis statement expresses the overarching formal pattern, which explains the function and role of the formal qualities. Each body paragraph provides the category definition for a separate formal quality.
With a basic understanding of 2OT fundamentals, the student is capable of composing coherent, complete paragraphs, where each paragraph explicates a category definition – because the student has learned the preceding thought structures which treat categories/topics through the Four-Step Process of: identify, organize, develop, define.
The Framework of Perspective Variance ( ) operates in parallel to the Four-Step Process.
Mastery of Module A (sentence- and paragraph-level meaning reconstruction) and Module B (chapter-level synopsis) continues with the Intermediate Curriculum. Students work with more sophisticated, medium-length texts, which introduce the challenge of cultures distant in both time and place (e.g. Ovid’s Metamorphoses.). At the end of the Intermediate Curriculum, the two 1OT Modules are second nature.
A crucial learning tool is the study of previously completed examples of the category treatment (2OT). In preparation for completing Module C, intermediate students study the completed work flow items for more sophisticated category definitions.
Advanced Curriculum (grades 9-11): “Journeyman Engineer: Sophisticated Ideas & Accomplished Essay”
The study of 2OT Fundamentals progresses to working with complex ideas & sophisticated concepts, which represents the final stage of Module C.
Mastery of 2OT Fundamentals (the line of thought, which creates a sophisticated sequence of connected paragraphs) is developed through highly sophisticated and eloquently fluid expression of formal quality analysis (i.e. creating category definitions for interior meaning).
Students learn the main conventions of the introductory paragraph: i) placing the thesis in a broader cultural background; ii) stating the problem-framing (Problemstellung) which is the context for the categories discussed. Students also learn the conventions of the conclusion, which also serves as an introduction to 3OT.
With completion of the Advanced Curriculum, the student has mastered the toolbox of skills required to work with the thought structures that result in a complete essay, with introduction & conclusion.
Expert Curriculum (grade 12 & university): “Master Engineer: Pure Conceptual Thought”
The primary goal of the Secondary School Curriculum (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) is to teach mastery of 1OT and 2OT fundamentals.
The university-level curriculum teaches Third-Order Thinking (3OT), which is the higher-level application of 2OT in two modes of analysis: i) consideration of multiple theses, where the explication of a single text is not the primary purpose of the thesis; ii) applying a single thesis to a grouping of multiple representations of reality (i.e. multiple texts or historical events).
While 3OT is essentially unlimited in the scope of its analysis, 2OT is the method for developing a single thesis (formal pattern) that analyzes the representation of reality (1OT) contained in a single text.
Students in the Expert Curriculum can productively study Shakespeare, the most challenging author in the entire Western literary canon. (Selected passages from Shakespeare are taught in the final year of the Advanced Curriculum.)
Advantages of the EE Curriculum – students are allowed to learn evidence-based thinking gradually and step-wise.
This is similar to the secondary school mathematics curriculum, which builds naturally from primary school (arithmetic) to middle school (long division, algebra) to high school (geometry, pre-calculus, calculus)
The incremental advancing from simple to complex is the natural, intuitive way of learning the skills for academic success and mastery of a subject.
Who are the women in the colorful, flowing robes?
The fresco above depicts the Muses of Ancient Greece. It is by Botticelli, and is on display at the Louvre museum, Paris.