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Why the Five-Paragraph Essay is a Problem Now—and Later

Belief #1: The five-paragraph essay is a problem now

Current common approaches for teaching writing are simultaneously too punishing and not nearly challenging enough. Part of the problem is how “rigor” is viewed in education. “Rigor” means “strictness” and “severity.” It is an artifact of a different time and a different mentality toward schooling. It remains popular mostly as a way to invoke days of yore that are supposedly better than today. . . . When students say a class was “hard,” they often mean “confusing” or “arbitrary,” rather than stimulating and challenging. (2018, 142)

We would add the following to the list of arbitrary and confusing approaches to teaching writing: rules that demand paragraphs will contain five (or nine or whatever) sentences; the topic sentence will always be first in each paragraph; and the thesis or claim must always be directly stated in the introduction. These rules do not represent excellence in writing. On the contrary: in many cases, adhering to them wrings the goodness out of writing. The writer is punished by being shoehorned into a form. Peter Elbow, noted writing researcher, argues that “the five-paragraph essay tends to function as an anti-perplexity machine” (2012, 308). Katherine Bomer agrees, adding, “There is no room for the untidiness of inquiry or complexity and therefore no energy in the writing” (2016, xi). Not only is energy drained from the writing when students practice mechanized thinking, but students also lose the valuable practice of generating and organizing ideas. When the form is predetermined, much of the writer’s important decision-making has already been stripped, which is one reason Penny is now encountering so many college students who believe they cannot solve their own writing problems.

We agree with John Warner’s notion that approaches taken by writing teachers are “not nearly challenging enough” (2018, 142). The form does the thinking for the student, and the student simply plugs in and follows. Without an understanding of options, students can’t imagine how a different form might better engage an audience or how changing the structure might better communicate their ideas. Teachers in high school rarely (if ever) meet across content areas to consider how often students are writing the exact same formulaic essays. The teachers at our schools never met to have these discussions. Students need numerous opportunities to study the various forms an essay can take, and they need repeated practice experimenting. This is not our only objection, however. The lack of student decision-making and agency is compounded when students are constrained by the teacher’s choice of subject and the lack of an authentic audience for their writing. We like how novelist Lily King explains the problems with standardized essays about books:

While you’re reading [the book] rubs off on you and your mind starts working like that for a while. I love that. That reverberation for me is what is most important about literature. . . . I would want kids to talk and write about how the book makes them feel, what it reminded them of, if it changed their thoughts about anything. . . . Questions like [man versus nature] are designed to pull you completely out of the story. . . . Why would you want to pull kids out of the story? You want to push them further in, so they can feel everything the author tried so hard to create for them. (2020, 271)

Night has fallen and is swirling and twirling around me. Gold chains hang across his neckline like trophies against a prize. The fine oil paintings and white pillars line sunken walls. It is a life filled with artificial riches, swishing like change in a pocket of hope. And the noises it made rustled in our dreams.

Abby writes with verve and authenticity. Jillian, the same age, is sitting in a first-year college classroom without the skill set to make the decisions expected of her. And we know this: students get to Abby’s level of essay writing when they’ve experienced a lot of practice in struggling with generating ideas and organizing their thinking. The road to excellence is rife with trial and error. It is up to us to entrust our young writers to wrestle with their decisions. Doing so matters now. And later.

Penny Kittle teaches freshman composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She was a teacher and literacy coach in public schools for 34 years, 21 of those spent at Kennett High School in North Conway. She is the co-author (with Kelly Gallagher) of   Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency , as well as the bestselling  180 Days .

Penny is the author of  Book Love  and  Write Beside Them , which won the NCTE James Britton award. She also co-authored two books with her mentor, Don Graves, and co-edited (with Tom Newkirk) a collection of Graves’ work,  Children Want to Write .  She is the president of the Book Love Foundation and was given the Exemplary Leader Award from NCTE’s Conference on English Leadership. In the summer Penny teaches graduate students at the University of New Hampshire Literacy Institutes.  Throughout the year, she travels across the U.S. and Canada (and once in awhile quite a bit farther) speaking to teachers about empowering students through independence in literacy. She believes in curiosity, engagement, and deep thinking in schools for both students and their teachers. Penny stands on the shoulders of her mentors, the Dons (Murray & Graves), and the Toms (Newkirk & Romano), in her belief that intentional teaching in a reading and writing workshop brings the greatest student investment and learning in a classroom.

Learn more about Penny Kittle on her websites,   pennykittle.net   and   booklovefoundation.org , or follow her on   twitter .

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Unmasking the Mythical Narrative Surrounding the Five-Paragraph Essay

NCTE 11.10.21 Writing Instruction

This post was written by NCTE member Anastasia Gustafson.

During my first year  of college, I was sitting in my ENG 122 class when I ran into a problem.

“Mrs. P,” I began, “If I follow these revision suggestions, I will probably go over five paragraphs. Is that okay?” My professor gave me a funny look and told me that of course that was okay. Her expression seemed to ask,  Why would that not be okay? I sat there equally confused by her reaction and awkwardly got back to my revision work. And then, for the first time in my collegiate and professional writing career, I crafted a literary argument that extended beyond five paragraphs. This was also the first time I started to realize that something might be wrong in the way I conceptualized collegiate and professional writing.

Ask any high school student in the United States and you will probably find that they have a pretty solid (and grim) understanding of “formal” writing. They know it as “the five-paragraph essay.” And they will certainly be able to tell you all sorts of things about it. They can tell you that it has an intro, a thesis, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. They will most likely know that it does not have contractions, and that students are forbidden from using I, me, or we statements. High schoolers might also note that this kind of writing does not allow for paragraphs under three sentences. In short, a proper five-paragraph essay comes packing a myriad of rules, regulations, and restrictions.

It might then come as a surprise to some to hear an argument that, on its own, the five-paragraph essay is not inherently bad. In fact, it might be a good place to start emerging writers. However, what becomes a problem is that the idea has somehow become ingrained in our students that the five-paragraph essay is the only way to write—not only in high school and college but also in professional writing careers. Instead of teaching the five-paragraph essay as an option within the world of formal writing, we teach it as the standard, or worse, as the only option.

With all this in mind, there is still room to discuss the positive aspects of the five-paragraph essay. In defense of the format, this essay type can function as a strong foundation for emerging writers. According to a Writing Center resource page from the Jackson State Community College, “when it comes to writing essays in college, we all need a place to start. Think of the five-paragraph essay as just that. . . . Five-paragraph essays are incredibly useful in two situations—when writers are just starting out and when a writing assignment is timed.”

The methods used to compose a five-paragraph essay are formulaic, reliable, and easy to remember. This means that this format can help students who need to write quickly or can support students beginning the process of learning how to write well. Further, author Zachary M. Schrag explains in this Inside Higher Ed op-ed that “short essays—800 to 1,200 words—are essential tools of communication. Whether they take the form of op-eds, blog posts, executive summaries, or business pitches, they are just long enough to provide some evidence for one’s claims while still attracting busy readers.”

There are real-world applications for the five-paragraph essay, and therefore, it might be beneficial for students to learn how to wield it.

The Five-Paragraph Format as the Only Way

As a format, the five-paragraph essay is not inherently a bad thing for students to learn. What becomes problematic, however, is the way that we teach it.

In the minds of current and recently graduated high school writers, the five-paragraph essay is often seen as the only way to approach collegiate and professional writing. In a Get It Write article, professional writing consultant Nancy Tuten  writes about the “pernicious myth . . . that writers should always employ the five-paragraph essay template,” and how this ideology often restricts writers from taking their ideas and producing high-quality content.

A majority of students believe that when they are asked to write in any English class, the five-paragraph essay is “what the teacher is looking for” rather than the format that will help them best communicate their ideas. And this problematic context did not happen without cause. Author John Warner, in his book Why They Can’t Write: Killing The Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities, argues that “the ubiquity of the five-paragraph essay is a primary sign of bad incentives and dysfunctional practices. . . . [A]t its inception, the five-paragraph essay was a tool of convenience and standardization.”

There is a problematic focus in the American education system to put an incredible amount of pressure on students and teachers to score well on standardized exams and assessments as a means to measure not only the quality of the education received, but to measure the academic achievement of the students themselves. Rather than using the five-paragraph essay as simply one of many methods to write, the five-paragraph essay has been pigeon-holed into the only way students are expected to write because it fits within the tidy and streamlined narrative of a standardized education.

These motivations have led to some pretty severe consequences in regard to the quality of student writing. In Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators, author Jennifer Fletcher argues,

The actual writing that goes on in typical classrooms across the United States remains dominated by tasks in which the reader does all the composing, and the students are left only to fill in missing information, whether copying directly from a teacher’s presentation, completing worksheets and chapter summaries, replicating highly formulaic essay structures, . . .  or writing to “show they know” the particular information the teacher is seeking.

The circumstances surrounding why students write in school facilitate a kind of writing that is not conducive to fostering passionate, authentic, or meaningful work. This often means that the writing itself is not very good. According to Warner in Why They Can’t Write , “much of the writing students are asked to do in school is not writing so much as it is an imitation of writing, creating an artifact resembling writing which is not, in fact, the product of a robust, flexible writing process.”

If students are told that writing is a space that exists only for them to “fill in the blanks” of already curated knowledge, if students think that they need to rely on the teacher to understand exactly what to say and what to do, and if they also believe that writing is not is a creative endeavor where new ideas are forged, then how could anyone expect student writing to be any good at all?

When the education system standardizes writing, it also negates the thinking processes that are responsible for producing original, passionate, and high-quality writing. In the NCTE blog post “ If Not the Five-Paragraph Essay, Then What ,” David Slomp keenly explains that, “over the long term, teaching kids how to master particular structures doesn’t help them.” To borrow from an old adage, he says, “Give students a structure and you enable them for a day; teach students to analyze and you enable them for a lifetime.”

If teachers want to begin the process of fostering stronger writers in our classrooms, we have to first foster stronger thinkers . No kind of template, format, rubric, or standard can ever generate writing as good as the writing that comes from robust, collaborative, and generative thinking. This, as teachers, is what we should be striving to cultivate.

Giving Students More Agency

So, if teachers know what they must do, they must also figure out how to do it. Luckily, many educators and scholars have been working out a viable solution. Writer and professor of education, P. L. Thomas, argues in his Radical Eyes For Equity blog post that,

Instead of templates and prompts, I invite students to investigate and interrogate a wide variety of texts, to read like writers. With each text, we try to determine the type of writing, developing genre awareness and building a toolbox of names for types of writing. Next, we identify the conventions that define that type of writing before asking how the writer both conforms to and also writes against those conventions. We stress that writing is about purposeful decisions—not rules, or templates. We also begin to highlight what modes (narration, description, exposition, persuasion) the writer incorporates, where and why. We also identify the focus of the piece (I do not use “thesis”) and explore how the writer’s craft accomplishes that. Instead of introduction, body, and conclusion, we analyze openings and closings as well as claims, evidence, elaboration (explanation, synthesis/connection, transition). And again, we are building the students’ writer’s toolbox—but I do not do the writer’s work for the student in the reductive ways the five-paragraph essay does.

Thomas offers some very constructive methods for how teachers might invite students into the world of writing. Instead of seeing a linear, formulaic path to the creation of writing, Thomas suggests that teachers broaden the scaffolds of the writing process and that we give students more agency in how they craft their work.

Further, as outlined in this Edutopia article by Brian Sztabnik, teachers might consider supplementing the traditional five-paragraph essay with other, more authentic writing-based artifacts such as, “blogs, multigenre research papers, infographics, debates, or parodies/satire,” in order to broaden the scope of how students view professional and collegiate writing. There are a multitude of ways to teach writing in a way that offers the praxis dignity and depth. By moving beyond the five-paragraph essay within the English language arts classrooms, teachers acknowledge that students need to know a variety of writing methods and that there are multiple valid ways to write that diverge from the status quo. It is imperative that ELA teachers move away from the current ubiquitous five-paragraph essay methodology so that our students may begin to conceptualize in a way that is both broad and helpful to them in their journeys as writers.

The Teaching of Writing as Synonymous with the Teaching of Thinking

It is far past time to address the mythical methodology surrounding the five-paragraph essay in English classrooms across America. Overwhelmingly, students all over the country struggle to write—and it’s not their fault. As it stands, standardized writing instruction is more inhibitive of producing high-quality writers than it is successful at facilitating student growth. To begin to dismantle these harmful educational structures, we need to start thinking about the teaching of writing as synonymous with the teaching of thinking; then, we need to broaden the ways we invite students to think and write.

If English language arts teachers begin to address these problematic pedagogical approaches, students may soon begin to improve not only their opinions on writing as a subject, but  may also find themselves growing as writers.

It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.

Should We Teach the Five-Paragraph Essay?

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Headline: As Children’s Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity. Biggest decline? Creative elaboration--expanding on ideas in novel and creative ways. Have we done this to children, with “eminently gradable” assignments? Josh Boldt, who teaches writing at the University of Georgia in Athens, shares his thoughts:

College writing teachers hate the five-paragraph essay. According to Writing Analytically, the writing guide used by my first year composition department, a faculty survey conducted prior to publication indicated a consensus among college writing professors that “students are coming [to college] prepared to do five-paragraph themes and arguments but [are] radically unprepared in thinking analytically.”

The writing guide takes a sharp stance against the five-paragraph essay, claiming that its “rigid, arbitrary, and mechanical organizational scheme values structure over just about everything else, especially in-depth thinking” (7). The text completely dismisses the form, arguing that any value it holds as a helpful learning strategy is negated by its damaging long-term effects on creative thought. The writers, David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephens, argue that the format “handicaps” young writers by teaching them a method that “runs counter to virtually all of the values and attitudes that they need in order to grow as writers and thinkers--such as respect for complexity, tolerance of

uncertainty, and the willingness to test and complicate rather than just assert ideas” (8). Of all the writing handbooks I’ve read and taught, Writing Analytically is unquestionably the most excoriative of the five-paragraph form. Is its critique too harsh?

My practical observations of freshman comp pedagogy confirm the assertions of Rosenwasser and Stephens. I often hear college writing teachers bemoaning the five-paragraph essay for its tendency to restrict creativity and to encourage a tunnel vision approach to essay writing. Many of my colleagues make it a personal mission to “unteach” the habits students bring to the classroom during their first year of college.

Personally, I don’t consider my role to be quite so extreme. But, I have seen the negative effects of the form firsthand. I’ve had students ask which points should be cut in order to trim the body paragraphs down to the requisite three. I’ve also seen many page-long paragraphs jammed full of topics, a clear sign that the student is trying to force the information into the proper formulaic structure. When students think the five-paragraph form is the only acceptable way to write an essay, it can be paralyzing and creatively-stifling, which leads me to my primary concern with the form.

The worst offense of the five-paragraph essay is its ignorance of the fact that good writing must also be interesting. Professional writers shirk the format in favor of a looser and more creative style that engages readers rather than lecturing to them, as the five-paragraph form often does. On this point, I agree with the Writing Analytically denouncement. Creativity and voice take a backseat to structure. I want to see a voice in my students’ writing, and the structural limitations of the five-paragraph form inhibit the development of a unique writing process.

The antipathy ultimately comes down to our encounters with students who have become imprisoned by the method and have lost the ability to write and think creatively (or maybe never developed it). Nobody wants that. What began as a good thing becomes a crutch that students are reluctant to give up for fear of falling. I believe this is a big part of why the format is so widely criticized in freshman writing courses.

The five-paragraph essay isn’t all bad. The value lies in its usefulness as a teaching tool and as an entry-level organizational strategy for young writers. It works great as a foundation upon which students can later build. Incorporating outside research, crafting topic sentences, and using transitions are all strengths of the format. Thomas E. Nunnally has also explored the merits of the form even as he critiques them in his essay “Breaking the Five-Paragraph Theme Barrier.” As Nunnally notes “students learn to do one thing at a time, such as form a thesis statement, before putting all the parts together, and their progress can be monitored and evaluated piecemeal,” which makes the form “practical to teach and eminently gradable” (68). When composition pedagogy isolates these independent steps and teaches them as a function of the writing process, the structure of the five-paragraph essay can be immensely valuable.

Bottom line: the five-paragraph essay’s inherent prioritization of structure over style can have long-term damaging effects on students who never learn to move beyond it, but teaching the form provides a foundation upon which students can scaffold their writing as they grow intellectually. It allows teachers to emphasize the role of research and support, and it also provides a convenient framework for teaching basic writing skills like the use of transitions and topic sentences. College writing teachers and handbooks pick on the form and, to a certain extent, the criticism is deserved. Despite the controversy though, the five-paragraph essay isn’t all bad--as long as teachers remember that it works best as a method of teaching other skills rather than as a system of writing in and of itself.

What are your thoughts on the five-paragraph essay?

The opinions expressed in Teacher in a Strange Land are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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By Quentin Vieregge

The five-paragraph essay (5PE) doesn’t have many vocal defenders in Departments of English in higher education, but for some instructors, the 5PE remains a useful tool in the pedagogi cal kit. Most college writing instructors have eschewed the 5PE, contending that it limits what writing can be, constricts writers’ roles, and even arbitrarily shapes writers’ thoughts. Yet, defenders of the 5PE counter that beginning writers need the guidance and structure that it affords. It works, they say, and it gives writers a place from which to start.

Reflect as You Read

Why does the reader begin by discussing the viewpoints of people who might be proponents of the 5PE? How does starting with acknowledging the validity of the form affect his argument?

The 5PE may sound familiar. In its most basic form, it is an introduction, three points, and a conclusion. Students are often given a topic to discuss, a passage to respond to, or a question to answer. The introduction and body paragraphs typically follow prescribed conventions regardless of content. For instance, the introduction has an attention-getter and explains what others have said about the topic, and the thesis usually comes close to the end of the paragraph. Each of the body paragraphs has a topic sentence that makes a claim that can be backed up with evidence and that refers back to the thesis. Each topic sentence is followed by sentences that provide evidence and reinforce the thesis. The body paragraphs end with a wrap-up sentence. The conclusion reminds the reader of the main idea, summarizes the main points, and might even leave the reader with one lasting impression. If all that sounds familiar, then it might be because you were taught the 5PE. Defenders of the 5PE can sometimes be found in high schools or two-year colleges, where they might work with students who struggle with writing or are learning English as a second language. One such teacher, David Gugin, writes about how the five-paragraph model benefits students learning English as a second language. Like many proponents of the 5PE, he assumes that the main impediment to expressing an idea is knowing how to organize it. As he puts it, “Once they have the vessel, so to speak, they can start thinking more about what to fill it with.”

This type of metaphor abounds. Byung-In Seo compares writing to building a house: One builds a basic structure and the individ ual spark comes from personalizing the details, either decorating the house or the content of the essay. She refers particularly to her experience with at-risk students, usually meaning students who come into college without the writing skills needed to immediately dive into college-level work. Similarly, Susanna L. Benko describes the 5PE as scaffolding that can either enhance or hinder student learning. A scaffold can be useful as construction workers move about when working on a building, but it should be removed when the building can stand on its own; the problem, as Benko observes, is when neither teacher nor student tears down the scaffold.

Here is the thing, though: When writers (and critics) talk about the 5PE, they’re not really talking about five paragraphs any more than critics or proponents of fast-food restaurants are talking about McDonald’s. Most defenders of the 5PE will either explic itly or implicitly see the sentence, the paragraph, and the essay as reflections of each other. Just as an essay has a thesis, a paragraph has a topic sentence; just as a paper has evidence to support it, a paragraph has detail. An essay has a beginning, middle, and end; so does a paragraph. To quote a line from William Blake, to be a defender of the 5PE is “To see a World in a Grain of Sand.” There are circles within circles within circles from this perspective. If you take this approach to writing, form is paramount. Once you under stand the form, you can say anything within it.

This focus on form first (and on the use of the 5PE) is a hall mark of what composition scholars call the current-traditional approach to writing instruction. The current-traditional approach is traceable to the late 19 th century, but still persists today in the 5PE and in writing assignments and textbooks organized around a priori modes of writing (the modes being definition, argument, exposition, and narrative). Current-traditional rhetoric valorizes form, structure, and arrangement over discovering and developing ideas. In current-traditional pedagogy, knowledge does not need to be interpreted or analyzed, but merely apprehended. Writing processes are mostly about narrowing and defining ideas and about applying style as external dressing to a finished idea.

The article focuses on a distinction between writing for form or structure and writing for the rhetorical situation. Which of these have you done before?

Detractors of the 5PE claim that it all but guarantees that writing will be a chore. What fun is it to write when you have no choices, when the shape of your words and thoughts are controlled by an impersonal model that everyone uses, but only in school? Teaching the 5PE is like turning students into Charlie Chaplin’s character from Modern Times , stuck in the gears of writing. The 5PE allegedly dehumanizes people. A number of writing special ists from University of North Carolina–Charlotte wrote an arti cle called, “The Five-Paragraph Essay and the Deficit Model of Education.” One of their critiques is that this model means that students aren’t taught to think and feel fully; rather they’re taught to learn their place as future workers in an assembly line econ omy: topic sentence, support, transition, repeat. Finally, as several writing instructors have observed, the 5PE doesn’t comport with reality. Who actually writes this way? Who actually reads this way? Does anyone care if an essay in The Atlantic or David Sedaris’s non-fiction collection Me Talk Pretty One Day doesn’t follow some prescriptive model? If the model doesn’t connect to how people actually write when given a choice, then how useful can it be?

Well, as it happens, formulaic writing has some support. Two such people who support it are Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, coauthors of one of a celebrated writing textbook, They Say/I Say . Graff and Birkenstein’s book rests on the assumption that all writers—especially skilled writers—use templates, which they’ve learned over time. For instance, there are templates for thesis sentences, templates for counterarguments, templates for rebut tals, templates for introducing quotes, and templates for explaining what quotations mean. One example from their book is this: “While they rarely admit as much, __________ often take for granted that _______,” which is a template students might use to begin writ ing their paper. Students are supposed to plug their own thoughts into the blanks to help them express their thoughts. Graff and Birkenstein tackle the issue of whether templates inhibit creativ ity. They make several of the same arguments that proponents of the 5PE make: Skilled writers use templates all the time; they actually enhance creativity; and they’re meant to guide and inspire rather than limit. This doesn’t mean Graff and Birkenstein love the 5PE, though. In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education , they contend that templates are an accurate reflection of how people write because templates are dialogic, but the 5PE is not.

Formulas, including templates, can be effective, and arbitrary formulas can be useful under the right circumstances too. They can be useful if they are used as a point-of-inquiry, meaning if writers use them as a starting place rather than a destination when writing. In what ways does the five-paragraph model work for this partic ular assignment? How should I deviate from it? Should I have an implied thesis rather than an explicit one?

Now, you might be thinking, that’s well and good for begin ning students, but what about advanced students or professionals? They never use formulas. Well, when my proposal for this piece was accepted, the two editors sent me explicit instructions about how to organize the essay. They divided their instructions into “first paragraph,” “middle paragraphs,” and “later paragraphs,” and then instructions about what comes after the essay. Within each part, they gave specific directions; everything was spelled out. I had a problem; I planned to argue in favor of the five-paragraph essay, so I couldn’t use their formula, which presupposed I would argue against the bad idea.

Hmm. That conundrum required me to ask myself questions, to inquire. How should I innovate from the model? How should I not? Their prescriptive advice was a point-of-inquiry for me that forced me to think rhetorically and creatively. Maybe the five-para graph model can be a point-of-inquiry—a way to start asking ques tions about rhetoric and writing. When I wrote this piece, I asked myself, “Why do the editors want me to write using a specific format?” And I then asked, “In what ways does this format prevent or enable me from making my point?” Finally, I asked, “In what ways can I exploit the tension between what they want me to do and what I feel I must do?” Asking these questions forced me to think about audience and purpose. But, perhaps more crucially, I was forced to think of the editors’ purpose, not just my own. By understanding their purpose, the format was more than an arbi trary requirement but an artifact indicating a dynamic rhetorical context that I, too, played a role in.

Once I understood the purpose behind the format for this essay, I could restructure it in purposeful and creative ways. The 5PE follows the same logic. Teachers often, mistakenly, think of it as an arbitrary format, but it’s only arbitrary if students and teachers don’t converse and reflect on its purpose. Once students consider their teacher’s purpose in assigning it, then the format becomes contextualized in consideration of audience, purpose, and context, and students are able to negotiate the expectations of the model with their own authorial wishes.

Reflect on Your Reading

• Where does Vieregge’s argument agree with the one made in “The Five Paragraph Essay Transmits Knowledge”? Where does Vieregge disagree?
• Who do you think the audience is for this essay? Think about which audience might need this information or be already thinking about this topic? What context clues in the essay support your answer?
• How can asking questions and analyzing a writing task help you apply the knowledge you already have?

Further Reading For more information about the connection between the five-paragraph essay and current-traditional rhetoric, you might read Michelle Tremmel’s “What to Make of the Five-Paragraph Theme: History of the Genre and Implications.” For a critique of the 5PE, you might read Lil Brannon et al.’s “The Five-Paragraph Essay and the Deficit Model of Education.” If you’re interested in reading defenses for the 5PE, you might start with Byung-In Seo’s “Defending the Five-Paragraph Essay.” A longer more formal argument in favor of the 5PE can be found in David Gugin’s “A Paragraph-First Approach to the Teaching of Academic Writing.” In the essay, “In Teaching Composition, ‘Formulaic’ Is Not a 4-Letter Word,” Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff criticize the 5PE but defend writing formulas done in more rhetorically effective ways.

Defenses of the five-paragraph theme often frame the genre as a scaffolding device. Susanna Benko’s essay, “Scaffolding: An Ongoing Process to Support Adolescent Writing Development,” explains the importance of scaffolding and how that technique can be misapplied. Though her essay only partially addresses the 5PE, her argument can be applied to the genre’s potential advantages and disadvantages.

Keywords basic writing, current-traditional rhetoric, discursive writing, five-paragraph essay (or theme), prescriptivism

Author Bio Quentin Vieregge is a faculty member in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin–Barron County, a two-year liberal arts college. He teaches first-year composition, advanced composition, business writing, literature, and film courses. He can be followed on Twitter at @Vieregge. His website is quentin vieregge.com.

To the extent possible under law, Lisa Dunick has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Readings for Writing , except where otherwise noted.

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The pros and cons of the five-paragraph essay

The five-paragraph essay is a writing structure typically taught in high school. Structurally, it consists of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This clear structure helps students connect points into a succinct argument. It’s a great introductory structure, but only using this writing formula has its limitations.

What is a five-paragraph essay?

Outside of the self-titled structure, the five-paragraph essay has additional rules. To start, your introductory paragraph should include a hook to captivate your audience. It should also introduce your thesis , or the argument you are proving. The thesis should be one sentence, conclude your introductory paragraph, and include supporting points. These points will become the body of your essay. The body paragraphs should introduce a specific point, include examples and supporting information, and then conclude. This process is repeated until you reach the fifth concluding paragraph, in which you summarize your essay.

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The benefits of a five-paragraph essay

• Your ideas are clear. Presenting your ideas in a succinct, organized manner makes them easy to understand and the five-paragraph essay is designed for that. It provides a clear outline to follow. And most importantly, it’s organized around the thesis, so the argument can be traced from the beginning of the essay to its conclusion. When learning how to write essays, losing track of your thesis can be a common mistake. By using this structure, it’s harder to go on tangents. Each of your points are condensed into a single paragraph. If you struggle presenting your ideas, following this structure might be your best bet.
• It’s simple. Creating an essay structure takes additional brainpower and time to craft. If an essay is timed in an exam, relying on this method is helpful. You can quickly convey your ideas so you can spend more time writing and less structuring your essay.
• It helps build your writing skills. If you’re new to writing essays, this is a great tool. Since the structure is taken care of, you can practice writing and build your skills. Learn more writing tips to improve your essays.

The cons of writing a five-paragraph essay

• The structure is rigid. Depending on its usage, the structure and convention of the five paragraphs can make creating an essay easier to understand and write. However, for writing outside of a traditional high school essay, this format can be limiting. To illustrate points creatively, you might want to create a different structure to illustrate your argument.
• Writing becomes repetitive. This format quickly becomes repetitive. Moving from body-to-body paragraph using the same rules and format creates a predictable rhythm. Reading this predictable format can become dull. And if you’re writing for a college professor, they will want you to showcase creativity in your writing. Try using a different essay structure to make your writing more interesting
• Lack of transitions. Quickly moving through ideas in a five-paragraph structure essay doesn’t always leave room for transitions. The structure is too succinct. Each paragraph only leaves enough space for a writer to broadly delve into an idea and then move onto the next. In longer essays, you can use additional paragraphs to connect ideas. Without transitions, essays in this format can feel choppy, as each point is detached from the previous one
• Its rules can feel unnecessary. Breaking your essay into three body paragraphs keeps it concise. But is three the perfect number of body paragraphs? Some arguments might need more support than three points to substantiate them. Limiting your argument to three points can weaken its credibility and can feel arbitrary for a writer to stick to.

Creating essays using the five-paragraph structure is situational. Use your best judgement to decide when to take advantage of this essay formula. If you’re writing on a computer with Microsoft Word , try using Microsoft Editor to edit your essay.

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Steven D. Krause

Writer, Professor, and Everything Else

More than three reasons why the five paragraph essay is bad

From Household Opera comes this good discussion about the five paragraph essay. For anyone invested in composition and rhetoric theory and practice, this isn’t exactly a news flash, but this discussion and the many links Amanda has here suggests to me that it is becoming the conventional wisdom for all kinds of folks outside of composition studies, too.

My favorite critique of the five paragraph essay is in Jasper Neel’s book Plato, Derrida, and Writing; he argues the five paragraph essay comes from Plato’s notions of the way rhetoric and arguments work, and Neel convincingly explains why the five paragraph essay is “anti-writing.” A very worthwhile read.

In my own mind, learning how to write a five paragraph essay is the same as learning how to fill out a form. Filling out a form is obviously not the same as writing, though people do need to learn how to fill out forms, and the five paragraph essay does have its uses. For example, the five paragraph form works well for any sort of timed writing like an essay test. But the five paragraph form becomes a problem for students when they learn it is the only tool they will ever need to write anything, sort of like using a hammer to bake a pie.

Yet, as easy as it is to note how wrong the five paragraph essay is, we do see its form in all sorts of different kinds of writing and settings. Ultimately, it is an embodiment of the “holy trinity”– a beginning and an end, sure, but also a division of everything into three mysterious parts, a father, a son, a holy spirit/ghost. This division of three is everywhere– small, medium, large, etc. And most dissertations (including mine) are divided into… five chapters…

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The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay

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• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

A five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows a prescribed format of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph, and is typically taught during primary English education and applied on standardized testing throughout schooling.

Learning to write a high-quality five-paragraph essay is an essential skill for students in early English classes as it allows them to express certain ideas, claims, or concepts in an organized manner, complete with evidence that supports each of these notions. Later, though, students may decide to stray from the standard five-paragraph format and venture into writing an  exploratory essay  instead.

Still, teaching students to organize essays into the five-paragraph format is an easy way to introduce them to writing literary criticism, which will be tested time and again throughout their primary, secondary, and further education.

Writing a Good Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph in your essay, and it should accomplish a few specific goals: capture the reader's interest, introduce the topic, and make a claim or express an opinion in a thesis statement.

It's a good idea to start your essay with a hook (fascinating statement) to pique the reader's interest, though this can also be accomplished by using descriptive words, an anecdote, an intriguing question, or an interesting fact. Students can practice with creative writing prompts to get some ideas for interesting ways to start an essay.

The next few sentences should explain your first statement, and prepare the reader for your thesis statement, which is typically the last sentence in the introduction. Your  thesis sentence  should provide your specific assertion and convey a clear point of view, which is typically divided into three distinct arguments that support this assertation, which will each serve as central themes for the body paragraphs.

Writing Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay will include three body paragraphs in a five-paragraph essay format, each limited to one main idea that supports your thesis.

To correctly write each of these three body paragraphs, you should state your supporting idea, your topic sentence, then back it up with two or three sentences of evidence. Use examples that validate the claim before concluding the paragraph and using transition words to lead to the paragraph that follows — meaning that all of your body paragraphs should follow the pattern of "statement, supporting ideas, transition statement."

Words to use as you transition from one paragraph to another include: moreover, in fact, on the whole, furthermore, as a result, simply put, for this reason, similarly, likewise, it follows that, naturally, by comparison, surely, and yet.

Writing a Conclusion

The final paragraph will summarize your main points and re-assert your main claim (from your thesis sentence). It should point out your main points, but should not repeat specific examples, and should, as always, leave a lasting impression on the reader.

The first sentence of the conclusion, therefore, should be used to restate the supporting claims argued in the body paragraphs as they relate to the thesis statement, then the next few sentences should be used to explain how the essay's main points can lead outward, perhaps to further thought on the topic. Ending the conclusion with a question, anecdote, or final pondering is a great way to leave a lasting impact.

Once you complete the first draft of your essay, it's a good idea to re-visit the thesis statement in your first paragraph. Read your essay to see if it flows well, and you might find that the supporting paragraphs are strong, but they don't address the exact focus of your thesis. Simply re-write your thesis sentence to fit your body and summary more exactly, and adjust the conclusion to wrap it all up nicely.

Practice Writing a Five-Paragraph Essay

Students can use the following steps to write a standard essay on any given topic. First, choose a topic, or ask your students to choose their topic, then allow them to form a basic five-paragraph by following these steps:

• Decide on your  basic thesis , your idea of a topic to discuss.
• Decide on three pieces of supporting evidence you will use to prove your thesis.
• Write an introductory paragraph, including your thesis and evidence (in order of strength).
• Write your first body paragraph, starting with restating your thesis and focusing on your first piece of supporting evidence.
• End your first paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to the next body paragraph.
• Write paragraph two of the body focussing on your second piece of evidence. Once again make the connection between your thesis and this piece of evidence.
• End your second paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to paragraph number three.
• Repeat step 6 using your third piece of evidence.
• Begin your concluding paragraph by restating your thesis. Include the three points you've used to prove your thesis.
• End with a punch, a question, an anecdote, or an entertaining thought that will stay with the reader.

Once a student can master these 10 simple steps, writing a basic five-paragraph essay will be a piece of cake, so long as the student does so correctly and includes enough supporting information in each paragraph that all relate to the same centralized main idea, the thesis of the essay.

Limitations of the Five-Paragraph Essay

The five-paragraph essay is merely a starting point for students hoping to express their ideas in academic writing; there are some other forms and styles of writing that students should use to express their vocabulary in the written form.

According to Tory Young's "Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide":

"Although school students in the U.S. are examined on their ability to write a  five-paragraph essay , its  raison d'être  is purportedly to give practice in basic writing skills that will lead to future success in more varied forms. Detractors feel, however, that writing to rule in this way is more likely to discourage imaginative writing and thinking than enable it. . . . The five-paragraph essay is less aware of its  audience  and sets out only to present information, an account or a kind of story rather than explicitly to persuade the reader."

Students should instead be asked to write other forms, such as journal entries, blog posts, reviews of goods or services, multi-paragraph research papers, and freeform expository writing around a central theme. Although five-paragraph essays are the golden rule when writing for standardized tests, experimentation with expression should be encouraged throughout primary schooling to bolster students' abilities to utilize the English language fully.

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Teaching College English

the glory and the challenges

Is the 5-paragraph essay always bad?

I realize, quite well thank you, that the five-paragraph essay is not always good. Sometimes it is rote, formulaic, and poorly applied. Despite that, in my freshman composition courses, I teach the five-paragraph essay because my students don’t know how to write an essay at all.

Am I doing the wrong thing?

Community College Spotlight had a post that brought this question up for me again.

I particularly liked the response the author had to the article “Why Can’t Tiffany Write?”

When I was in high school, we did nothing but expository writing for four years. Our model was the 3-3-3 paragraph: One thesis sentence with a subject and an attitude supported by three topic sentences, each with a subject and attitude and each supported by three subtopic sentences, each with a subject and attitude and each supported by three “concrete and specific” details. It drove us nuts, but we learned to support our assertions. College writing was a snap.

I really like that idea. Even though it is even more formulaic. I think it could work for my students.

One thought on “Is the 5-paragraph essay always bad?”

I tried to leave a comment in the linked blog, but it wouldn’t let me. As a 9-12 teacher, I use the 5 paragraph essay with my lower grades and lower level students. It provides structure to their thinking, especially when they lack the experience to express themselves on literary topics.

With upper level grades or advanced students, we really focus on tight theses and support, not so much on format.

I think the reason that this is an issue with colleges is systemic to both the k-12 system and college system. While it is true that public schools often don’t push students to develop critical thinking skills, and therefore produce poor writers, it is also true that colleges are being run more and more as businesses, and accepting students of lower caliber.

I don’t believe that there has ever been a time in history where a society has attempted to educate, at such a high level, it’s entire populace. So, we have a systemic ‘problem’ that emerges as poorly literate college students, when really they’re highly literate elementary ones.

Our district is really undergoing growing pains as we develop a comprehensive k-12 literacy program. As a 13 year veteran, I’m basically relearning my craft. I don’t think it’s that high schools are necessarily producing less literate students, it’s just that more are choosing to go to college than ever before, and current research in literacy is exposing a gap that we’ve had for quite some time.

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Structuring the Five-Paragraph Essay: Examples of Five-Paragraph Essays

• Examples of Five-Paragraph Essays

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Sample of a Persuasive / Argumentative Five-Paragraph Essay

A cat is a man's best friend.

This model essay is a good example of an Argumentative (or Persuasive) Essay. 

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Should You Teach the Five-Paragraph Essay?

People have strong feelings about the five-paragraph essay. For the past several decades, educators have debated the benefits and consequences of teaching the five-paragraph essay. Apparently, it’s not just educators who have opinions about the five-paragraph essay. I recently came across these comments on another website:

In High School, I was “taught” to write five-paragraph essays (and when I say “taught,” I mean “forced.”) The five-paragraph essay was the only form allowed in Sophomore English class.

…my daughter hated it. She would have crying fits each and every time.

I understand when people get emotional over controversial topics—global warming, budget cuts, tax increases—but I was not aware that the five-paragraph essay fell into this category. What exactly is going on here? Let’s find out!

A Personal Five-Paragraph Essay Story

When taking the CBEST test to become a teacher, an experienced middle school science teacher told me, “Just write a five-paragraph essay. Don’t write about anything you care about. Just write an introduction, three paragraphs, and a conclusion—that’s it. Nothing more! You’ll be guaranteed to receive a passing grade.”

I thought that was strange advice, as I had never worried about getting a passing grade on a writing assignment. Looking back, I can only assume that this science teacher had worried.

Did I take the science teacher’s advice? No. But half way into the essay section of the test, those words of advice echoed in my mind, while I sat in frustration. I was lost. I hadn’t planned properly, and I was in over my head. I began to wonder, “What’s my point? Where am I headed? How am I going to finish this? What am I trying to say?”

Well, I got out of that jam, and I’m happy to say I received a high score. That being said, the science teacher’s five-paragraph essay advice stuck in my mind long after the CBEST test was over, and even influenced how I taught writing once I became a teacher. I realized that I had always been a naturally proficient writer, but I didn’t fully understand what I did. Is that what I wanted for my future students?

What I learned from that experience was that students, and all writers, need specific writing skills to fall back on, and by writing skills, I don’t mean just grammar. Real power and real confidence in writing comes from knowing what one is doing and knowing how one is doing it—and not just by being able to do it.

What is a Five Paragraph Essay?

Looking for the most generic definition of a five-paragraph essay I could find, I went to Wikipedia. Wikipedia describes the five-paragraph essay as this:

The five-paragraph essay is a form of written argument. It is a common requisite in assignments in middle school, high school, and university and sometimes elementary school. The format requires an essay to have five paragraphs: one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs with support and development, and one concluding paragraph. Because of this structure, it is also known as a hamburger essay or a three tier essay… The five-paragraph essay format is also applied to speech making, with some college classes teaching the five-paragraph format, along with an organized system of outlining and pre-writing the speech.

Should You Be For or Against the Five Paragraph Essay?

After reading that definition above, do you think people should be upset over the five-paragraph essay? But before you answer that question, please ask yourself these four questions:

1.   Are you against paragraph form? 2.   Are you against beginnings, middles and endings? 3.   Are you against introductions, bodies, and conclusions? 4.   Are you in favor of rambling and pointless essays?

Put simply, the five-paragraph essay should not be viewed as an end—because in reality—it is a means to an end. Teaching the five-paragraph essay teaches young students a variety of important skills. And I say young students, because if student master these skills when they are young, they won’t be an issue when they are old.  Here are a few facts:

1.   Students must write in paragraph form. 2.   Students must have a beginning, middle and ending. 3.   A beginning, middle and ending is essentially the same thing as an introduction, body, and conclusion. 4.   Students must understand that they cannot ramble. Students must be headed in a purposeful direction in their writing—and they must get there.

The five-paragraph essay is the easiest, fastest, and best way to teach all this. It teaches good thinking.

A Foundational Essay for Beginning Writers

The five-paragraph essay is a foundational essay. It’s an essay to be built upon. But a variety of questions remain:

1.   When should the five-paragraph essay be taught? 2.   How long or how often should students write in five-paragraph essay format? 3.   In what way should the five-paragraph essay be taught?

The five-paragraph essay is an essay for beginners. All students past a certain age should be able to write a five-paragraph essay quickly and easily. What is that certain age? Personally, I think the five-paragraph essay should be mastered in elementary school , but only because it CAN be mastered in elementary school. It definitely should not be an issue in high school for any student. Even struggling writers should be able to master the five-paragraph essay before leaving middle school.

I’ve mostly taught beginning writers and struggling writers, and I don’t teach a strict five-paragraph formula. However, I do work with five-paragraphs quite often because five paragraphs just happen to be the very best length to work with. Five paragraphs is the length that best helps students to develop the rhythm of beginning, middle, and ending in paragraphs, along with having a beginning, middle, and ending in the whole composition (two levels of beginning, middle, and ending).

I use the A, B, C Sentence ™ and the Secret A, B, C Sentence ™ to achieve this. It’s the fastest, most effective way to achieve this! It is also the most flexible and natural way to achieve this. Be sure to check out the Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay writing curriculum on the homepage. Personally, I don’t think teaching writing should ever be static or dogmatic. For me, teaching the five-paragraph essay is mostly about teaching fantastic paragraph form and logical construction.

Please note, other paragraph lengths are also of value. For instance, four paragraphs is the best length for teaching beginning writers and struggling writers the two-sided thought patterns: cause-effect, compare-contrast, pro-con etc. Always remember, five is just number, and so is four. Different numbers serve different purposes.

A Foundational Essay for Older Writers

Even though the five-paragraph essay is an essay for beginners, it is fine if there is still a strong emphasis put on it in high school and in college. But in high school and in college, it should be the equivalent of knowing one’s multiplication tables. The five-paragraph should be used as a tool that helps students access a variety of different types of essays and a variety of the different organizational patterns found in writing. Put simply, the five-paragraph essay is a tool. It is not an end in itself.

The greatest benefit that comes from being able to write the five-paragraph essay is the awareness of five-paragraph essay thinking. Five-paragraph essay thinking provides value for a lifetime. The same thinking that creates five-paragraph essays can be used to write four paragraphs, seven paragraphs, or fifteen paragraphs.

A word of warning: If teachers will only accept five paragraphs, nothing more or less, always and forever, their students will eventually feel as the people at the top of this page felt. I do not recommend this. The five-paragraph essay is a teaching tool, not an end result.

Revisiting the Science Teacher Who Writes Five-Paragraph Essays

I recently spoke with the science teacher who advised me to write the five-paragraph essay on the CBEST test so many years before. I asked him if he was still such a rabid fan of the five-paragraph essay. He was. He told me he uses it all the time to make the points he wants to make. With social media, everyone is an author. The science teacher posts comments on important issues, and also participates in several forums for several of his hobbies. He enjoys helping others and debating.

He explained that he is not particularly interested in writing, but that he has opinions and enjoys making points.  The five-paragraph essay lets him do that quickly and effortlessly. The science teacher says that the five-paragraph essay was not drilled into him, and that he only really discovered its benefits in college. It’s then that he became a fan.

The science teacher showed me a number of his posts, and they would not have jumped out at me as being five-paragraph essays. In fact, he wrote posts that were four, six, and eight paragraphs also. Apparently, the teacher likes five-paragraph thinking as much as he likes the five-paragraph essay. In short, he just likes to make points and provide proof that his points are valid. He considers the five-paragraph essay to be the backbone of his writing. He says that people take his comments and opinions seriously, and that he is even a trusted authority in some places he posts. It seems that his readers focus on the points he makes and not the fact that he is using five-paragraph thinking.

A Final Note

The first step in making a person love to write is to make the person a competent writer. That opens the door and the mind to more possibilities. As teachers our job is not just to teach the students who love to write, but also to teach the students who are afraid to write or who don’t like to write.

The five-paragraph essay is a teaching tool. Most criticism of the five-paragraph essay comes down to its overuse, along with a dogmatic approach to using it in the classroom. Personally, I agree with much of that criticism. The five-paragraph essay is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

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Guide on How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay Effortlessly

Defining What Is a 5 Paragraph Essay

Have you ever been assigned a five-paragraph essay and wondered what exactly it means? Don't worry; we all have been there. A five-paragraph essay is a standard academic writing format consisting of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

In the introduction, you present your thesis statement, which is the main idea or argument you will discuss in your essay. The three body paragraphs present a separate supporting argument, while the conclusion summarizes the main points and restates the thesis differently.

While the five-paragraph essay is a tried and true format for many academic assignments, it's important to note that it's not the only way to write an essay. In fact, some educators argue that strict adherence to this format can stifle creativity and limit the development of more complex ideas.

However, mastering the five-paragraph essay is a valuable skill for any student, as it teaches the importance of structure and organization in writing. Also, it enables you to communicate your thoughts clearly and eloquently, which is crucial for effective communication in any area. So the next time you're faced with a five-paragraph essay assignment, embrace the challenge and use it as an opportunity to hone your writing skills.

And if you find it difficult to put your ideas into 5 paragraphs, ask our professional service - 'please write my essay ,' or ' write my paragraph ' and consider it done.

How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay: General Tips

If you are struggling with how to write a 5 paragraph essay, don't worry! It's a common format that many students learn in their academic careers. Here are some tips from our admission essay writing service to help you write a successful five paragraph essay example:

• Start with a strong thesis statement : Among the 5 parts of essay, the thesis statement can be the most important. It presents the major topic you will debate throughout your essay while being explicit and simple.
• Use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph : The major idea you will address in each of the three body paragraphs should be established in a concise subject sentence.
• Use evidence to support your arguments : The evidence you present in your body paragraphs should back up your thesis. This can include facts, statistics, or examples from your research or personal experience.
• Include transitions: Use transitional words and phrases to make the flow of your essay easier. Words like 'although,' 'in addition,' and 'on the other hand' are examples of these.
• Write a strong conclusion: In addition to restating your thesis statement in a new way, your conclusion should highlight the key ideas of your essay. You might also leave the reader with a closing idea or query to reflect on.
• Edit and proofread: When you've completed writing your essay, thoroughly revise and proofread it. Make sure your thoughts are brief and clear and proofread your writing for grammatical and spelling mistakes.

By following these tips, you can write strong and effective five paragraph essays examples that will impress your teacher or professor.

5 Paragraph Essay Format

Let's readdress the five-paragraph essay format and explain it in more detail. So, as already mentioned, it is a widely-used writing structure taught in many schools and universities. A five-paragraph essay comprises an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion, each playing a significant role in creating a well-structured and coherent essay.

The introduction serves as the opening paragraph of the essay and sets the tone for the entire piece. It should captivate the reader's attention, provide relevant background information, and include a clear and concise thesis statement that presents the primary argument of the essay. For example, if the essay topic is about the benefits of exercise, the introduction may look something like this:

'Regular exercise provides numerous health benefits, including increased energy levels, improved mental health, and reduced risk of chronic diseases.'

The body paragraphs are the meat of the essay and should provide evidence and examples to support the thesis statement. Each body paragraph should begin with a subject sentence that states the major idea of the paragraph. Then, the writer should provide evidence to support the topic sentence. This evidence can be in the form of statistics, facts, or examples. For instance, if the essay is discussing the health benefits of exercise, a body paragraph might look like this:

'One of the key benefits of exercise is improved mental health. Regular exercise has been demonstrated in studies to lessen depressive and anxious symptoms and enhance mood.'

The essay's final paragraph, the conclusion, should repeat the thesis statement and summarize the essay's important ideas. A concluding idea or query might be included to give the reader something to ponder. For example, a conclusion for an essay on the benefits of exercise might look like this:

'In conclusion, exercise provides numerous health benefits, from increased energy levels to reduced risk of chronic diseases. We may enhance both our physical and emotional health and enjoy happier, more satisfying lives by including exercise into our daily routines.'

Overall, the 5 paragraph essay format is useful for organizing thoughts and ideas clearly and concisely. By following this format, writers can present their arguments logically and effectively, which is easy for the reader to follow.

Types of 5 Paragraph Essay 

There are several types of five-paragraph essays, each with a slightly different focus or purpose. Here are some of the most common types of five-paragraph essays:

• Narrative essay : A narrative essay tells a story or recounts a personal experience. It typically includes a clear introductory paragraph, body sections that provide details about the story, and a conclusion that wraps up the narrative.
• Descriptive essay: A descriptive essay uses sensory language to describe a person, place, or thing. It often includes a clear thesis statement that identifies the subject of the description and body paragraphs that provide specific details to support the thesis.
• Expository essay: An expository essay offers details or clarifies a subject. It usually starts with a concise introduction that introduces the subject, is followed by body paragraphs that provide evidence and examples to back up the thesis, and ends with a summary of the key points.
• Persuasive essay: A persuasive essay argues for a particular viewpoint or position. It has a thesis statement that is clear, body paragraphs that give evidence and arguments in favor of it, and a conclusion that summarizes the important ideas and restates the thesis.
• Compare and contrast essay: An essay that compares and contrasts two or more subjects and looks at their similarities and differences. It usually starts out simply by introducing the topics being contrasted or compared, followed by body paragraphs that go into more depth on the similarities and differences, and a concluding paragraph that restates the important points.

Each type of five-paragraph essay has its own unique characteristics and requirements. When unsure how to write five paragraph essay, writers can choose the most appropriate structure for their topic by understanding the differences between these types.

5 Paragraph Essay Example Topics

Here are some potential topics for a 5 paragraph essay example. These essay topics are just a starting point and can be expanded upon to fit a wide range of writing essays and prompts.

• The Impact of Social Media on Teenage Communication Skills.
• How Daily Exercise Benefits Mental and Physical Health.
• The Importance of Learning a Second Language.
• The Effects of Global Warming on Marine Life.
• The Role of Technology in Modern Education.
• The Influence of Music on Youth Culture.
• The Pros and Cons of Uniform Policies in Schools.
• The Significance of Historical Monuments in Cultural Identity.
• The Growing Importance of Cybersecurity.
• The Evolution of the American Dream.
• The Impact of Diet on Cognitive Functioning.
• The Role of Art in Society.
• The Future of Renewable Energy Sources.
• The Effects of Urbanization on Wildlife.
• The Importance of Financial Literacy for Young Adults.
• The Influence of Advertising on Consumer Choices.
• The Role of Books in the Digital Age.\
• The Benefits and Challenges of Space Exploration.
• The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture.
• The Ethical Implications of Genetic Modification.

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General Grading Rubric for a 5 Paragraph Essay

The following is a general grading rubric that can be used to evaluate a five-paragraph essay:

Content (40%)

• A thesis statement is clear and specific
• The main points are well-developed and supported by evidence
• Ideas are organized logically and coherently
• Evidence and examples are relevant and support the main points
• The essay demonstrates a strong understanding of the topic

Organization (20%)

• The introduction effectively introduces the topic and thesis statement
• Body paragraphs are well-structured and have clear topic sentences
• Transitions between paragraphs are smooth and effective
• The concluding sentence effectively summarizes the main points and restates the thesis statement

Language and Style (20%)

• Writing is clear, concise, and easy to understand
• Language is appropriate for the audience and purpose
• Vocabulary is varied and appropriate
• Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct

Critical Thinking (20%)

• Student demonstrate an understanding of the topic beyond surface-level knowledge
• Student present a unique perspective or argument
• Student show evidence of critical thinking and analysis
• Students write well-supported conclusions

Considering the above, the paper should demonstrate a thorough understanding of the topic, clear organization, strong essay writing skills, and critical thinking. By using this grading rubric, the teacher can evaluate the essay holistically and provide detailed feedback to the student on areas of strength and areas for improvement.

Five Paragraph Essay Examples

Wrapping up: things to remember.

In conclusion, writing a five paragraph essay example can seem daunting at first, but it doesn't have to be a difficult task. Following these simple steps and tips, you can break down the process into manageable parts and create a clear, concise, and well-organized essay.

Remember to start with a strong thesis statement, use topic sentences to guide your paragraphs, and provide evidence and analysis to support your ideas. Don't forget to revise and proofread your work to make sure it is error-free and coherent. With time and practice, you'll be able to write a 5 paragraph essay with ease and assurance. Whether you're writing for school, work, or personal projects, these skills will serve you well and help you to communicate your ideas effectively.

Meanwhile, you can save time and reduce the stress associated with academic assignments by trusting our research paper writing services to handle the writing for you. So go ahead, buy an essay , and see how easy it can be to meet all of your professors' complex requirements!

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5.7: The Five-Paragraph Theme Teaches “Beyond the Test”

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• Cheryl E. Ball & Drew M. Loewe ed.
• West Virginia University via Digital Publishing Institute and West Virginia University Libraries

Author: Bruce Bowles, Jr., English, Texas A&M University–Central Texas

“Tell them what you are going to say, say it, tell them what you said.” I remember learning this strategy from my English teacher my senior year of high school. While mentioning this might seem like a cheap shot at a former teacher, it is quite the contrary—he was one of the best teachers I have ever had. This strategy was taught to us as a general format to follow, yet modify, for a variety of writing tasks. However, with the increase in high-stakes testing that education has seen over the last 10–15 years, this strategy frequently becomes a rather rigid, prescriptive formula: the five-paragraph theme (FPT).

Most of us are familiar with this structure, even if we do not refer to it as the five-paragraph theme. Traditionally, the FPT contains an introductory paragraph that moves from a general overview of a topic to an explicit thesis statement that highlights three main points. The three supporting paragraphs each take up one of these three main points, beginning with a topic sentence and then moving into more detailed description. Finally, the FPT ends with a standard conclusion that is, oftentimes, merely a restatement of the thesis statement and reiteration of the three main points. (Yes, this theme is referred to as a five-paragraph essay, FPE, elsewhere in this book, but the concept is exactly the same. That it goes by different names while having the same outcome shows its ubiquity in school-based writing situations.)

Advocates for the FPT contend that it is a phenomenal tool that teaches all students a basic organizational structure that can be built upon in the future and, in addition, is especially useful for teaching students who struggle with basic organization when writing. While such a view may indeed have a small degree of merit, the persistence and popularity of the FPT has a more sinister source— standardized testing. With its mechanical formula, the FPT is the perfect vehicle to ensure inter-rater reliability (consistency amongst test graders), allowing for both efficient and economic scoring sessions for testing companies. Essentially, the FPT influences writing instruction as a result of what is referred to as assessment washback , with standardized testing indirectly dictating curriculum. Thus, the FPT has become the primary genre, not because of its educational merit or real-world applicability, but as a result of its pragmatic benefits for testing companies. Even worse, as a result of its rigidity and the manner in which testing companies assess the FPT, it imparts a hollow, formulaic notion of writing to students that emphasizes adherence to generic features rather than focusing on quality of content, informed research practices, effective persuasive techniques, and attention to the specific contexts in which students will compose.

To understand why the FPT is immensely beneficial for testing companies, it is essential to understand the concept of interrater reliability. The original attempts at assessing writing ability on large-scale, standardized assessments relied on multiple-choice questions that dealt with grammar and stylistics primarily. However, such assessment methods were scrutinized since they did not actually have students compose (and, as other chapters in this collection discuss, acontextual grammar instruction that multiple choice tests rely on doesn’t improve writing). Such methods were critiqued as lacking construct validity; in essence, they were not measuring the actual construct (writing ability) they were purported to measure. Instead, they merely focused on specific skills that did not reflect one’s overall ability to write.

As a result, testing companies were forced to transition to holistic scoring—evaluating writing as a whole as opposed to its isolated components. Yet, this presented quite a dilemma. At its core, the evaluation of writing is a subjective, interpretative endeavor. After all, we have all disagreed at one time or another with an friend or colleague about the quality of a particular book, newspaper article, and so on.

However, such disagreement is especially problematic for the standardized testing community. How can a standardized writing assessment be an accurate reflection of students’ writing ability if the people scoring the students’ writing disagree wildly as to the quality of it? Thus, it is necessary for these testing companies to produce consistency amongst scores. That’s what inter-rater reliability is meant to do—create reliability among the raters, and it is paramount for testing companies to justify the accuracy and fairness of their writing assessments. At its core, inter-rater reliability is a measure of how often readers’ scores agree on a specific piece of writing. An inter-rater reliability of 1 indicates perfect agreement and, for standardized testing purposes, an inter-rater reliability of .8 (80% agreement) is usually seen as the benchmark for reliability. However, obtaining a .8 inter-rater reliability is not as easy as it may seem. Even on a holistic scale of one to six (one poorest, six highest), raters will frequently disagree.

As a general rule, the more rigid and precise the criteria for evaluation of a piece of writing, the more likely a high inter-rater reliability will be achieved. This is why the FPT is so efficient in scoring standardized writing assessments; with its prescriptive formula and distinct features, raters can be normed (i.e., trained to agree) on the presence and quality of these rather specific features. Is there a clear and concise thesis statement with three main points? Check. Does each supporting paragraph have a topic sentence and move into a more detailed description? Check. Did the conclusion effectively restate the argument? Check.

Although the scoring session for a standardized writing assessment may not necessarily be as mechanical in nature, the general premise still holds. If raters can be trained to identify specific features or qualities in writing, they will be more likely to agree on an overall score; this agreement saves testing companies time and money since they do not need to resolve disagreements between raters. While such a practice may seem to be merely a practical solution to a troubling assessment problem, it actually has profound consequences for writing instruction at the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels.

Ideally, assessments should reflect the curriculum taught in schools. Yet, when high-stakes testing tethers students’ scores to school funding, teacher bonuses, students’ acceptance to colleges, and so on, the reverse frequently happens—the curriculum taught in schools begins to align with the assessments. The state of Florida provides an illustrative example of this. Surveying students across four Florida high schools, Lisa Scherff and Carolyn Piazza have found that persuasive and expository writing (styles frequently associated with the FPT and standardized testing) were heavily emphasized in the 9th and 10th grades, not surprisingly the grades in which the students took the state’s standardized writing test. Instead of receiving instruction on composing in a variety of genres and for a variety of purposes, students are rigorously drilled on how to effectively compose for the genre featured on the state assessment, which—to no one’s surprise—is a five-paragraph persuasive or expository essay.

Beyond restricting writing instruction to a formulaic genre, this assessment washback has other negative effects on students’ writing development as well. Prominent composition scholars Chris Anson and Les Perelman (featured in this collection) have found that students can be coached to perform better on these standardized writing assessments by following a few general guidelines: Follow the structure of the FPT, write more words (length of essay tends to directly correlate with score), use big words (the higher the vocabulary the better, regardless of whether the words are used correctly), use multiple examples (whether they are relevant to the overall argument or not), and provide a lot of supporting details and evidence, whether they are factually correct or not, since raters are trained not to account for factual accuracy. (One of the students Perelman coached wrote that the Great Depression was primarily a result of American competition with Communist Russia, admitting that he made something up since he could not remember the specific details.) These standardized writing assessments reinforce notions about quantity over quality in writing. I believe it is fair to surmise that most English teachers would not support these practices as methods for improving writing!

The simple solution to all of these problems would appear to be merely reducing our reliance on, or removing, the FPT from our curricula. However, as long as policy makers rely on standardized writing tests, and those writing assessments rely on the FPT, such a change in curriculum will not be possible. The manner in which we assess writing will always exert a tremendous influence over how we teach writing. Since, for inter-rater reliability and economic purposes, standardized testing relies on the FPT, the only sure-fire way to reduce—or eradicate—the use of the FPT in our curriculums is to reduce or eradicate our reliance on standardized testing.

Over the last two decades, we have consistently been fed a lie that teacher evaluation is biased; as a result, standardized testing is necessary to hold schools accountable for student learning. This cunning ruse has deceived us into believing that standardized assessment evaluates student learning better and predicts future growth and performance more accurately. The logic is that teachers and administrators are biased; standardized testing provides a level playing field for everyone involved.

And yet, surprisingly (or not surprisingly), the reverse is true, at least when it comes to predicting future academic success. Pop quiz: Which measure is the most accurate predictor of high-school students’ success at the collegiate level? If you answered SAT scores or performance on state-wide assessments, you would be wrong. Time and time again, studies show that a student’s high school GPA is the most accurate predictor of collegiate success! Essentially, the supposedly biased and poorly trained local educators are the most apt at assessing students’ growth, learning, and future performance. The expertise and localized knowledge of our teachers is rendered irrelevant by standardized testing; in an effort to remove the purported bias of local educators, standardized testing removes a wealth of local knowledge and expertise from the process of assessing writing.

Transitioning to localized writing assessments would not only take advantage of educators’ local knowledge and expertise, it would enable more authentic, valid forms of writing assessment. Students could produce capstone projects that require them to compose in genres and media that adequately reflect the composing challenges they will face in college or their future professions. Writing portfolios would enable local educators to assess how students perform on a multitude of writing tasks across a variety of contexts. Electronic portfolios would even allow students to practice technological literacy skills. Local educators could work collaboratively with state and federal agencies to create challenging writings assessments that would accurately reflect the composing challenges students will face in their futures, while ensuring oversight to prevent any possible bias or padding of the results of these assessments.

As long as we remain tethered to standardized testing as our primary method for assessing students’ writing proficiency, the FPT will exert a prominent influence over curricula. However, by allowing local educators—who work diligently with our students and children throughout the school year and know students’ abilities and needs best—to play a prominent role in developing and administering such localized assessments, more valid writing assessments can be developed that will influence curriculum in a positive, educationally productive fashion.

Further Reading

If you are interested in learning more about the negative influences of standardized testing on curriculum and instruction, and

the benefits of localized assessment, Chris Gallagher’s “Being There: (Re)Making the Assessment Scene” ( College Composition and Communication ) provides profound insights into the dangers of drawing upon business practices in an educational context, critiquing the idea of using accountability as the driving logic behind educational practices. Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education (Basic Books) also provides a scathing critique of standardized testing from the perspective of someone who initially advocated for testing and school choice.

In regard to the damaging effects of the FPT and standardized testing, Chris Anson’s “Closed Systems and Standardized Writing Tests” and Les Perelman’s “Information Illiteracy and Mass Market Writing Assessments” (both found in College Composition and Communication ) discuss the adverse consequences of these assessments on students’ development as writers.

Finally, if you are interested in alternatives to standardized testing, Bob Broad’s What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing (Utah State University Press), Brian Huot’s (Re) Articulating Writing Assessment for Teaching and Learning (Utah State University Press), and Darren Cambridge, Barbara Cambridge, and Kathleen Yancey’s Electronic Portfolios 2.0: Emergent Research on Implementation and Impact (Stylus Publishing) provide valuable models of more localized, context-sensitive writing assessment practices.

assessment washback, curriculum, five-paragraph theme, interrater reliability, localized assessment, portfolio assessment, standardized testing, validity

Bruce Bowles, Jr. is an assistant professor of English and director of the writing center at Texas A&M University–Central Texas. His research focuses on formative assessment practices, in particular responding to student writing, as well as methodologies for writing assessment, the ethics of writing assessment, and the influence of writing assessment on curriculum and pedagogy. He has taught writing and rhetoric at the college level for several years and, unfortunately, has seen the negative influence the five-paragraph theme has on students’ writing development.

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Bad Ideas About Writing

Reader synopsis:.

Bad Ideas About Writing counters major myths about writing instruction. Inspired by the provocative science- and social-science-focused book This Idea Must Die and written for a general audience, the collection offers opinionated, research-based statements intended to spark debate and to offer a better way of teaching writing. Contributors, as scholars of rhetoric and composition, provide a snapshot of and antidotes to major myths in writing instruction. This collection is published in whole by the Digital Publishing Institute at WVU Libraries and in part by Inside Higher Ed .

"The writing is accessible enough that I am already considering a couple of these for handouts to my own students . . . I recommend it to all my writing teacher friends." — Curmudgucation "If you teach writing, you have certainly heard scores of misconceptions about writing . . . The next time you hear one of those misconceptions, head directly to Bad Ideas About Writing ." — Traci Gardner ". . . already I treasure this book. I wish it'd been around years ago." — John Warner "I just wanted to let you know that after Bad Ideas was released, and after I read it cover to cover, I decided to switch my second-semester research writing course to a Writing About Writing (WAW) course, with the Bad Ideas text as our textbook. I've been wanting to teach a WAW course for awhile, but I had a hard time finding readings that I thought my students would really get invested in. I think Bad Ideas is one of the best books out there showcasing a connection between teacher and student through the intersection of systemic issues in the writing classroom. Our concerns in that book are the punitive realities of my students' educational experiences, and they are surprised but glad to hear there are teachers fighting for them. They're getting into it! My classes are 8-9:15 and 9:30-10:45, so any thunder during those hours are rare gems...and there is some thunder. I'll tell you. When a student says, 'If they've known since the 1920s that making me do grammar sheets doesn't help me write, why the fuck are they still making me do it!' We've struck a very important chord." —Mitchell James, Lakeland Community College

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Table of Contents

Introduction Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe

1. Bad Ideas About What Good Writing Is Rhetoric is Synonymous with Empty Speech Patricia Roberts-Miller America is Facing a Literacy Crisis Jacob Babb First-Year Composition Prepares Students for Academic Writing Tyler Branson First-Year Composition Should be Skipped Paul G. Cook You Can Learn to Write in General Elizabeth Wardle Writing Knowledge Transfers Easily Ellen C. Carillo Reading and Writing are not Connected Ellen C. Carillo Good Readers are Taught, not Born Julie Myatt Barger

2. Bad Ideas About Who Good Writers Are Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged Teri Holbrook and Melanie Hundley You Have to Have My Credentials to be a Writer Ronald Clark Brooks Only Geniuses can be Writers Dustin Edwards and Enrique Paz Some People are Just Born Good Writers Jill Parrott Failure is Not an Option Allison D. Carr There is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking Anjali Pattanayak African American Language is not Good English Jennifer M. Cunningham Official American English is Best Steven Alvarez Writer’s Block Just Happens to People Geoffrey V. Carter Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision Laura Giovanelli The More Writing Process, the Better Jimmy Butts

3. Bad Ideas about Style, Usage, and Grammar Strunk and White Set the Standard Laura Lisabeth Good Writers Always Follow the Rules Monique Dufour and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson Writers Must Develop a Strong, Original Voice Patrick Thomas Leave Yourself Out of Your Writing Rodrigo Joseph Rodríguez Response: “Leave Yourself Out of Your Writing” Kimberly N. Parker The Passive Voice Should be Avoided Collin Gifford Brooke Teaching Grammar Improves Writing Patricia A. Dunn Good Writers Must Know Grammatical Terminology Hannah Rule Grammar Should be Taught Separately as Rules to Learn Muriel Harris

4. Bad Ideas About Writing Techniques Formal Outlines are Always Useful Kristin Milligan Students Should Learn About the Logical Fallacies Daniel V. Bommarito Logos is Synonymous with Logic Nancy Fox

5. Bad Ideas About Genres Excellent Academic Writing Must be Serious Michael Theune Creative Writing is a Unique Category Cydney Alexis Popular Culture is Killing Writing Bronwyn T. Williams Popular Culture is Only Useful as a Text for Criticism Mark D. Pepper The Five-Paragraph Essay is Rhetorically Sound Quentin Vieregge The Five-Paragraph Essay Transmits Knowledge Susan Naomi Bernstein and Elizabeth Lowry The Five-Paragraph Theme Teaches “Beyond the Test” Bruce Bowles, Jr. Research Starts with Answers Alison C. Witte Research Starts with a Thesis Statement Emily A. Wierszewski The Traditional Research Paper is Best Alexandria Lockett Citing Sources is a Basic Skill Learned Early On Susanmarie Harrington Plagiarism Deserves to be Punished Jennifer A. Mott-Smith

6. Bad Ideas About Assessing Writing Grading Has Always Made Writing Better Mitchell James Rubrics Save Time and Make Grading Criteria Visible Anne Leahy Rubrics Oversimplify the Writing Process Crystal Sands When Responding to Student Writing, More is Better Muriel Harris Student Writing Must be Graded by the Teacher Christopher R. Friend Machines can Evaluate Writing Well Chris M. Anson and Les Perelman Plagiarism Detection Services are Money Well-Spent Stephanie Vie SAT Scores are Useful for Placing Students into Writing Courses Kristen di Gennaro

7. Bad Ideas About Writing and Digital Technologies Texting Ruins Students’ Grammar Skills Scott Warnock Texting Ruins Literacy Skills Christopher Justice Gamification Makes Writing Fun Joshua Daniel-Wariya The More Digital Technology, the Better Genesea Carter and Aurora Matzke Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants Phill Michael Alexander

8. Bad Ideas About Writing Teachers You’re Going to Need This for College Andrew Hollinger Dual-Enrollment Writing Classes Should Always be Pursued Caroline Wilkinson Secondary-School English Teachers Should Only be Taught Literature Elizabethada A. Wright Face-to-Face Courses are Superior to Online Courses Tiffany Bourelle and Andy Bourelle Anyone Can Teach an Online Writing Course Beth L. Hewett Anyone Can Teach Writing Seth Kahn

About Open Access Textbooks

Open Access Textbooks is an open access textbook project created through West Virginia University with the goal of producing cost-effective and high quality products that engage authors, faculty, and students. This project is supported by the Digital Publishing Institute and West Virginia University Libraries and is available in HTML, PDF, and EPub formats.

For questions, comments, or technical support, please contact Jessica McMillen .

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