Let's say you're in high school or
university, and you have to write an
essay. Where do you start? Is there some
magic formula for success? Many people
think there is. They call this the five
paragraph essay. As we'll see, the five
paragraph essay can be useful for
beginners, but eventually you have to
move on. Let's take a closer look at this
model and whether you should use it. The
five paragraph essay includes much more
than simply having five paragraphs. It's
really a set of rules that is meant to
make writing a bit like plugging
information into a formula. Here is how
it works.
Paragraph 1: the introduction. Start with
something to grab your reader's attention,
like a dictionary definition, a famous
quote, or anything interesting you can
google at 2:00 in the morning. Once your
reader is hooked, you can introduce your
topic and explain why people should care.
Then after these opening sentences you
can get to your thesis or argument. Now
the thesis of a five paragraph essay -- it
should follow some very specific rules.
It should be exactly one sentence long,
it should state three arguments that are
loosely related to each other, and it
should be the last sentence of your
introduction. Follow these rules and your
teacher will love you. Don't follow them
and you clearly don't know how to write
a proper essay. Paragraph 2: this is the
first of your three body paragraphs.
They're called body paragraphs because
everything between the intro and the
conclusion is the body of your essay.
Start each paragraph with a topic
sentence. This is where you state the
first of your three arguments. Next it's
time to back up your argument with some
facts or examples. Wrap up your paragraph
with a concluding sentence or two, and
paragraph two is done. Notice that the
beginning and end of a paragraph are
more general, which is why people often
compare the shape of a paragraph to an
hourglass, or a hamburger, or even a beer
mug. Paragraphs three and four follow the same format.
Each one covers one of the arguments
mentioned in your thesis statement.
Before you know it, the body of your
essay is done. All that's left is the
conclusion. And the conclusion is easy,
because you mostly just have to restate
your arguments. If you want to do more
than summarize, you could add a clever
observation, some moral lesson, or maybe a quote. And that is a five paragraph essay.
Once you know the formula, you can crank out essay after essay essay. But is it
a good formula? The answer is
both yes and no. The five paragraph model
teaches the importance of structure,
which is good, but it also is extremely
rigid, and sometimes does more harm than good.
Here's what's wrong with this model. Number one: why three body paragraphs? Why
three main points? In what other
discipline do people come up with such
artificial rules? That's like saying that
every math problem must be solved in
three steps, or that every recipe should
have three ingredients. But what if you
write a longer essay? What if your essay
is 20 pages long? Do you stretch your
paragraphs to be six pages long? And what do your three points have to do with
each other? Are they just generally on
the same topic or do they form a
coherent point of view? Second problem:
the five paragraph essay is extremely
repetitive. You state your argument in
your thesis, repeat it in every topic
sentence, state it again at the end of
every paragraph, and sum it all up again
in the conclusion. How much more boring
can it get? Third problem: the five
paragraph essay doesn't zoom in enough.
If your thesis has three arguments
instead of just one it's likely that
your essay will remain quite general.
In addition, students are not always
taught to start as close to their topic
as possible. You may feel clever adding
some creative hook at the beginning, but
often it's better just to zoom in right
away and get to the point. And one more
problem, just to show that we're not
limited to three
points, there is little flow to this kind
of essay. Each body paragraph feels like
a little mini essay. Perhaps there's some
reference to the overarching argument,
but the paragraphs don't show much
interaction. Because of these problems we
think people should stop teaching the
five paragraph essay. Instead, we would
like to propose a more organic structure.
We'll keep some of the core principles
of essay writing, but will relax many of
the rules. First of all, we will still use
the basic structure of an essay: the
introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion,
except you can now have as many body
paragraphs as you need. We'll also keep
the idea that a paragraph is usually
more specific in the middle and should
have some kind of topic sentence that
explains what the paragraph is about. At
the same time as long as the general
direction of the essay is clear we can
be more relaxed about constantly
summarizing the overall argument. Next,
the thesis should make just one argument, not three. If you want to have some sub-
points, that's fine, but the focus should
be on the one argument that connects
everything. It's usually a good idea to
state your thesis at the end of the
first paragraph, but in a longer essay it
can come later as well. You also don't
have to cram your entire thesis into one
sentence. If it takes you two or three
sentences to get your point across,
that's fine. Next, a good essay starts as
close to the topic as possible. Don't
waste a lot of time with general
observations or background information,
with hooks and catchy quotations ... Just
get to the point. Of course you can add
some flavor and creativity, but try to
zoom in as soon as possible. As mentioned, you can use as many paragraphs as
necessary to make your argument. Your
average paragraph is between 3 and 12
sentences long. If your paragraph is
longer than a page it's probably too
long. But more important than length is
what your paragraph is about. In a good
paragraph everything fits together.
That's why a paragraph usually explores
just one point. If you find that you're
moving on to something new, even if it's
just a slightly different angle or a
different example, feel free to start a
new paragraph. And so the number of
paragraphs depends entirely on the
argument. Think of writing an essay as
crossing a stream, and as the paragraphs
as stepping-stones. The wider the stream the more stepping-stones you need. When you
get to each new paragraph, use your topic
sentence to explain how this paragraph
connects to the last. This is called
creating a transition between paragraphs.
As you make the transition, try also to
remind your reader of the general
argument. But don't overdo it. Most readers will be able to remember
where you're going. And then we get to
the conclusion. Conclusions are so hard
to write because you don't want to just
restate everything you've already said.
So avoid doing too much summarizing,
especially in a short essay. Now that
you've crossed the stream it's okay to
look back to where you came from, but
it's also nice to look forward a little
and make your conclusion interesting and
exciting. So don't settle for
cookie-cutter essays. Allow your essay to
flow naturally as you develop one main
argument. If you're used to the five
paragraph essay it may be scary to leave
behind such a clearly defined structure,
but we're not getting rid of structure
altogether. We just want you to be free
to find the right structure for your
essay, and that is going to be different
for each new topic. So write organically
and naturally and say farewell to five
paragraph essay!
