We would research a topic or person and write about them. Once again we were not allowed to be unique in our writing or to think creatively or critically. This is when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray's article, the five-paragraph essay is harmful to student writing. This writing format is harmful because it does not allow students to express their ideas about a topic. It doesn't allow for any creativity or uniqueness in an item. In 10th grade I wrote a lot of assignments for my English class, but I never got an A. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I couldn't relate to what I was writing about. I had no emotional connection to the research papers I had to write and this made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up unable to think critically and, therefore, my high school homework lacked creativity and depth