I see what you mean. In the books we write there's what Writers Digest called the 5 ingredients to storytelling (orientation, crisi, discovery, and the two others I can't remember off-hand). I never really thought about it that way. This is probably why there are many books that are rather predictable. This formula can lead to dry plot. But in academic writing I'm sure it's both helpful to students and teachers. Otherwise, I would think teachers would have a hard time grading and students would have a hard time knowing how to write something that's worth a good grade. Great post!