Having gone through SAT prep this last year, I can safely say that such programs robotically prepare teenagers through one-size-fits-all formulas: your essay must include two literary examples and one personal example.
Sontag's essay did not invent the formula, of course.
But he also stated clearly, as early as in 1945, six years after the essay in which the (in famous formula was written: "But are the differences not in the ratio between elements more than in their nature?
All but three of the essays in the ten triads begin with an incipit "Our Master Mozi states...," a formula used throughout the essays to introduce key doctrinal statements.
There is a standard test-prep formula for writing an essay: Topic sentence; three sentences that give examples to support the thesis, one from literature, one from current events, and one from personal experience; concluding sentence.
An editor's or compiler's hand is readily apparent in places, such as when semi-independent passages are integrated into a longer essay by repeating a brief concluding formula after each.
Like alchemists, financial officials write lengthy newspaper essays, trying to divine a magic monetary formula that will turn recession into resurrection.
Ruby, the current Essay Girl, has cannily figured out the winning formula: "First of all, you had to say that Cornelius Bunning was great..
Gury Sudakov had submitted a longer essay and summed it up in a simple formula: "Russia for me - and I for Russia".
Still, it's worth remembering that the essay has its own inescapable conventions, its own formulas, too.
Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation," the most famous example of the "Against [X]" formula, exemplifies the appeal of this type of essay.
