Useful Strategies for writing an effective Five-Paragraph Essay

Five-paragraph Essay: Definition

Its unique feature named it after the hamburger, as some would call it the ‘one three one’, the ‘three-tier essay and finally but most common the ‘Hamburger essay’. Many writers, students, in particular, have trouble with creating one, but once one gets the guidelines as to how it’s structured, it becomes easy. It usually serves to measure the basic writing skills of students and in most times is a timed exercise. The five-paragraph essay is named by its structure or format, as it is the makeup of three main parts, divided into five paragraphs.

The component of the five-paragraph essay consists of the introduction, the body, and lastly the conclusion. The five-paragraph essay does have its great use and lapses as well.

1.Introduction

Firstly, the five-paragraph essay introduction is where the tone of the writing is set. This paragraph serves to introduce the topic and gives a brief understanding of the purpose of the essay. It serves to guide the pattern of how the whole essay would be structured, as this contains the thesis statement of the essay, otherwise called ‘’pathway’’. It is preferable to have every sentence in the first paragraph written in an active voice, as this makes it much more powerful and attention-demanding. One could say that the introduction is where the basic idea is ‘’cooked up’’. Now, you might want to conclude that the introduction as the most important of all the paragraphs, because this is where the essay is provided with a tone of direction, and a foundational step that serves to guide the writer into producing both creative and structured content. A well-structured introduction will provide clarity to the reader, as well would serve to grab the undivided attention of the reader, as not every written essay can grab an audience, especially the ones poorly prepared.

2. Body

Secondly, the Body, which is further divided into three, making the second third and the fourth paragraphs of your five-paragraph essay. At this point, you are flexible and free to ponder on deep thoughts and come up with concrete statistics to prove your listed points, as well as examples to serve to support claims that are mentioned in the introductory paragraph. Now, each of these points that have been highlighted in the introductory paragraph will be taken out as points and would be expatiated in detail.

To begin, each paragraph much have a catchy start, otherwise, a topic sentence that would summarize the content of the paragraph and keep the reader wanting more. This would be the pattern with which each of the second, third and fourth paragraphs would be structured in the essay. This paragraph avails the writer the opportunity to defend and support claims and also to prove their right and others wrong on the issue of discussion. To validate one's point of view, it’s best to sort statistical data, as well do in-depth research from the internet, and using existing literature. Once the body has been created, then the process can be repeated for the point’s paragraph two and paragraph three. The body of the essay is the part of the five-paragraph essay where writers are free to ‘’flow with the text’’, i.e. at this point, one can be creative and make the content as long as desired by the writer. Oftentimes the five-paragraph essay is criticized of restricting creativity in writers and that it limits writers to the five-paragraph alone and prevents people from being able to write according to their will, but this only happens when the writer does not understand that the body paragraph was provided as to meet this need in particular. For writers who leverage appropriately this section, they always come with an awesome write-up delivery.

1.Conclusion

The concluding paragraph of the five-paragraph essay then summarizes the major points that have been explained in the body. The concluding part is sometimes the hardest part to come by, as it has to do with making the whole point in small detail. The thesis (pathways) should be restated when concluding the essay and some sort of nexus between the thesis and the body of the essay should be created such that it explains the relationship between the points and the thesis. Also, in addition, the ending part of the essay is not one for adding in fresh ideas and information, rather it should be a reiteration of already explained points in the body of the essay, rather than introducing fresh ideas into the concluding part, it should be embedded in the body; in summarizing points the final sentence on concluding should be awe-striking and very clear to understand easily.

Lastly, the basic components that make up the essay must be in the structure for it to be a five-paragraph essay, and it is very important for the introduction to briefly point out the points to be discussed, the body provide a detailed explanation, while the concluding paragraph gives a summary of the entire discussed points. Seeing that the five-paragraph format is the set foundation for almost every type of essay that is written, they must all follow the same structure, as this pattern has been a very useful tool in helping students to create both detailed and concise essay that is structured and follows a well-defined order. Now, the rule still applies for longer papers, where the three middle paragraphs still explain one main point each, but can still have as many paragraphs as possible.