I think PG is missing something in his comparison of "list of N things" to "beginner" 5-paragraph essays: Cohesion matters.
Even if they cover the same points, a good essay is far more informative than a "list of N things" article / powerpoint presenation: An essay has to tie the points together, pointing out the connections and drawing conclusions. When I was in school, my English teachers often returned essays (but not mine!) to students with "a list is not an essay" (or similar words) written in red ink.
Sure, poorly written essays, in the limiting case, end up being simply a list of disconnected statements -- but students are asked to write essays in order to develop their ability to write cohesive essays, not in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the underlying facts, so PG's suggestion to 'let them write lists of n things like the pros, with numbers and no transitions or "conclusion"' utterly misses the point.
Essays are planned; papers are stream-of-consciousness. Readers can't follow the internal machinations of a particular writer's psyche; while you can have a revelatory essay, you still need to plan it.
My best example: Woolf reads like stream of consciousness, but she was a meticulous planner: she obsessed over every word - her daily output was a mere 75-150 words.
I think it's the opposite, isn't it? Essays are "tentative"; they're a written document of the writer's grappling with their subject, which is why you get so many ideas while writing them.
I think that's only sometimes true. There are a number of well-written proscriptive essays where the author chooses to ignore paths that proved fruitless during her time drafting the essay. Furthermore, even personal essays can leave out sidebars that prove to be meaningless distractions. If I used Etherpad, I'm sure I'd write three times as many words as there are in the finished product; I remove more than I write, and I think that's the case for most people who take the craft seriously (regardless of skill, of which I have little beyond passion).
On the process of writing, however, you're spot on.
Even if they cover the same points, a good essay is far more informative than a "list of N things" article / powerpoint presenation: An essay has to tie the points together, pointing out the connections and drawing conclusions. When I was in school, my English teachers often returned essays (but not mine!) to students with "a list is not an essay" (or similar words) written in red ink.
Sure, poorly written essays, in the limiting case, end up being simply a list of disconnected statements -- but students are asked to write essays in order to develop their ability to write cohesive essays, not in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the underlying facts, so PG's suggestion to 'let them write lists of n things like the pros, with numbers and no transitions or "conclusion"' utterly misses the point.