While writing college essays, you will need a starting point. A typical essay writing assignment is supposed to be a five-paragraph essay. You can consider a 5 paragraph essay to be exactly that. By the end of this article, be sure to have mastered the art of writing a five-paragraph essay.
What is a 5-page paragraph essay?
Before delving deeper into a 5-page essay, it is vital first to understand what a 5-page essay is. The most typical essay structure a student will encounter is the five-paragraph essay.
The name is a derivative of the five-paragraph format, which consists of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This kind of essay is sometimes referred to as a hamburger essay due to its layered structure.
A 5 paragraph essay is a straightforward style for writing a whole paper because it condenses the essential elements into just five paragraphs. Therefore, it is safe to say a 5-paragraph essay format effectively assists students and academics in writing simple papers, even though it doesn’t have much room for depth.
How many words should a 5-paragraph essay contain?
When thinking of writing a perfect 5 paragraph essay, how many words should be in your mind? They typically range from 250 to 500 words. The format’s adaptability lets learners try out different essay-writing techniques.
This structure can be useful when writing argumentative, narrative essay topics, persuasive, expository, and cause-and-effect essays.
Standard types of 5 paragraph essay
Before writing your 5 paragraph essay, start by answering the question, what is the type of the essay? Since the topic and the thesis may significantly impact the type of the essay.
The seven essay types include;
- Narrative
- Descriptive
- Definition
- Persuasive and argumentative
- Compare and contrast
- Cause and effects
- Literary analysis
Descriptive: It gives as many examples of the research issue as you can
Narrative: Narrates a tale using dramatic instances
Definition: A definition essay adds a second meaning to the term or phrase in addition to the official one taken from the dictionary and then paraphrased
Persuasive and argumentative: In a persuasive essay, it’s crucial to support your claims and persuade readers that what you’re saying is true. While an argumentative essay requires a student to briefly state and justify their viewpoint on the analyzed issue
Compare and contrast: It demonstrates the differences and similarities among many subjects
Cause and effects: This essay explains why something happened and what happened as a result of these activities
Literary analysis: It identifies a specific literary work, such as an essay or poem, and reviews or critiques it
While an answer to a question may be sufficient in some circumstances, a student may also need to pursue further study and provide other responses to the issues raised.
Beginning a 5-paragraph essay
As with any essay, understanding your thesis or major topic is necessary before you start writing a five-paragraph essay. The three middle paragraphs of your essay will defend, verify, or expound on your thesis, which is the notion you will argue or further develop throughout the paper.
Naturally, you must first decide what to write about before you can start writing. Choose a topic that contains enough information for debate, or at least enough to cover five paragraphs, if your thesis isn’t specified in the assignment.
The thesis statement, which appears in the first paragraph and informs the reader of the topic of the essay, is often where you clarify the thesis. However, it’s not necessary to do this first, but framing the subject in a single line might help you grasp it, give it focus, and, if necessary, modify it.
After selecting a topic, you can write, paying attention to the 5-Paragraph structure as explained below.
5 Paragraph essay structure
An essay outline helps you understand what to discuss at different stages of your essay. In other words, your 5 paragraph essay outline is like a pattern that allows you to organize and plan your essay precisely in advance, saving time on revising.
A 5 Paragraph essay consists of three main parts; Introduction, body, and conclusion.
1. Introduction
The opening paragraph is very important. It not only establishes the tone for the entire essay but also gives the reader a brief overview of the essay so they understand what to anticipate. Fortunately, most essay guidelines still hold well for a 5 paragraph essay introduction.
Your thesis statement should be in the opening paragraph. This line sums up the entire essay, comprising your opinion or supporting evidence, if any, in a clear and concise manner.
If you want to start with something more attention-getting, like a teaser, feel free to move the thesis statement back. A teaser is a technique used in writing to draw the reader in, such as intrigue, excitement, or good days fashioned drama.
How your introduction should appear
- 3-5 sentences
Your introduction should consist of 3-5 sentences. For a good introduction, you can use 1 to 2 hook sentences (it can be a joke, anecdote, metaphor, rhetorical question, a famous person saying, a static, a fact, or a literary quote). However, you need to verify the source of the information.
- Thesis statement
The thesis statement summarizes your argument and is a crucial component of the entire essay. The majority of your article will be based on this argument.
You can include any background information about your topic in your introduction paragraph. Although, you can still use the introduction to provide valuable information that your readership might not be familiar with. The most important content should be reserved for the body.
Your opening paragraph should, therefore, like an outline, briefly touch on each point stated in the following paragraphs. A quick mention of what you’ll discuss in the next paragraph is all that should be revealed in the first paragraph. You can preserve the facts for the paragraphs that follow when you go into more detail.
1. Body paragraphs
The 3-body paragraphs are the core of your 5 paragraph essay. Here, you discuss details, present proof, explain your thinking, and otherwise support your thesis.
Each paragraph needs to support your thesis with a distinct, stand-alone argument. So, let’s explore how to introduce a body paragraph. The opening body should be the strongest, even though all are equally important because it could contain the most convincing argument.
Each paragraph should begin with a topic line, which acts similar to a thesis statement but only discusses the subject of that particular paragraph. The topic line highlights the main idea of the paragraph while leaving the details to the words that follow.
If the topic change from the preceding paragraph is too dramatic, don’t hesitate to include a transitional word in the topic sentence.
- Transitional words
The transition from one paragraph to another in an essay is one of the most challenging parts of writing a 5 paragraph essay. As mentioned above, do you know what transitional words are? Or how to apply them?
If your paragraph transitions are sudden or abrupt, readers will become disconnected from the rhythm and lose ground or even desire. Good writing is effortless and fluent.
Using transitional words like “although,” “similarly,” “on the other hand,” “therefore,” however, and “additionally” can help you can go logically from one idea to the next.
Sometimes connecting a paragraph to the one before it and keeping the audience on track only requires adding one word at the beginning of the paragraph.
The contents that follow the thesis statement should complete the paragraph. These can be solid arguments, factual information, quotes from reliable sources, or simple logic. Remember, a 5 paragraph essay is designed to be concise. Therefore, you can include important information; make sure to avoid any words that are irrelevant or unconnected.
The final sentence needs to be contrary to the opening one. In other words, you summarize your point rather than introduce it before moving on to the next one.
2. Concluding paragraph
The last part of your essay should be a concluding paragraph. The final paragraph should not include any new arguments or explanations. Instead, it should reiterate and connect the ideas from the previous sentences. A writer affirms the thesis in this section and summarizes the three body paragraphs’ main arguments for the audience.
A 5 paragraph essay conclusion might also contain a call to action if the objective of your writing is to persuade the reader to take action. For example, your call to action may ask the reader to subscribe to a project or shift their behaviour.
The general guidelines for writing an essay conclusion also apply to five-paragraph essays. For instance, the concluding paragraph is a perfect opportunity to discuss why this subject is necessary or to include your own stance.
Giving your readers something to ponder after reading by concluding with an initially assumed statement, such as a debatable statement, is also beneficial.
How to approach your conclusion
A typical conclusion can contain 3 to 5 sentences
Rephrase the key ideas you made in each of your body paragraphs’ supporting arguments, one sentence at a time. But what if some of the arguments are related, you ask? To maintain a suitable sentence structure, combine them into one.
A fantastic technique to startle the audience at the end of an essay is to take an unexpected action. Make another hook. This time, the hook should be a perfect summary of the argument; rhetorical questions work well.
General essay rubrics
Most colleges and universities around the world apply various grading rubrics. However, the standard one for a 5 paragraph essay rubric is a five-point style. This style can be categorized into organization, focus, conventions, content, and style.
- Organization
The organization is mainly about the readability of the essay, transitions between one paragraph to another, and the structure. You can explore more on a 5 paragraph essay graphic organizer at proscholarly.com to understand how to use it to organize your essay.
- Focus
Does your essay revolve around supporting your thesis? Did you achieve the objective?
- Conventions
Did you commit too many mistakes? Did you include unrelated words?
- Content
Did you support your reasoning convincingly? Were your statements reliable and authentic?
- Style
Did you use complex vocabulary? How original and unique were your sentence structures?
The best essay topics
You should first consider the topic when figuring out what to write in a 5 paragraph essay. A good topic will enable you to achieve your writing potential fast. If you don’t know which topics to go for, here are 5 paragraph essay topics to give you a head start.
- Is it possible to get life lessons from experiences one does not have?
- Rich countries should donate things to underdeveloped nations
- Should all students have access to free education?
- Discrimination against female workers in the workplace.
- Is a total abolition of the death penalty necessary?
- Male and female pupils attend different classes.
- The value of financial support for space exploration
- Existing in a lawless society
- Should same-sex unions be permitted?
- The contribution of cutting-edge technology to education
These are just but topic insights; however, you can search for more 5 paragraph essay examples to learn more. Remember, you should strive to create a catchy title before deciding on a topic and beginning the writing process in order to capture the audience’s interest right away.
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Bottom line
Hopefully, this article has provided you with a cheat sheet when writing a 5 paragraph essay. It is regarded as a standard writing assignment; therefore, you need to perfect your skills to become an expert essay writer. Once you master how to craft it, be sure to handle any essay, regardless of its complexity. If you do not feel like writing this assignment, visit proscholarly.com. Our professional writers will write you an errorless essay at an affordable price.