Five Paragraph Essay The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them. ~Raymond Chandler

Introduction Attention Grabber (Hook) General Background Summarize your points Thesis

Strong Openings Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him a different reason, but we didn’t realize it until the day we killed him. ~Opening paragraph from Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Why worry about openings? Remember, it’s the appetizer course. You want your reader to be engaged. If the reader is not interested, they won’t want to hear what you have to say.

Technique Number One Descriptions of personal experience or use of anecdote or narrative Make sure you allow the reader to identify with you and your story You may refer to the story throughout the essay to provide examples Keep them relatively short As I walked down the street, a guy with pink hair and three nose rings asked me if I knew about the alien convention downtown…

Technique Number Two Interesting fact, statistics, or quotation They intrigue the reader as well as introduce your topic The person next to you has twenty-three forms of bacteria on his or her skin. Children that watch three or more hours of television a day are four times as likely to become obese, diabetic, or suffer a heart attack as an adult.

Technique Number Three Open with a striking assertion The sentence is so “out-there” that the reader has to finish the essay so that he or she can figure out what the writer is talking about John Milton, Beethoven, and Socrates were all failures. I have decided that I do not really have to pay attention in class.

Technique Number Four A provocative question Make sure the question is thought-provoking Make sure you answer the question effectively Do not run a string of unanswerable questions together (the reader will expect you to answer all of them) When writing questions, watch your point of view – do not switch to 2 nd person.

Technique Number Five Use a rhetorical or literary device Analogy Allusion Paradox Figures of speech (simile, metaphor) Etc. If I had to give my life a title, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest comes to mind. (allusion)

A few things to consider about your thesis… The summary may be before your thesis or you may include it within your thesis. Thesis: A + B = C Topic + impression/attitude = thesis This is the controlling idea to which everything else in the essay should support. Five hundred years ago, talented writers were encouraged to imitate the works of others – now such imitation invites public disgrace, professional ostracism, and lawsuits.

Supporting your thesis: The Body Paragraphs The main course! Use examples Make sure your examples are specific Make certain that you are explaining how your examples support your thesis Show, don’t tell! Only use information/examples that support your thesis Use topic sentences to introduce each topic of the paragraphs Use transitions in your topic sentences to link your paragraphs and examples together Use clinchers to wrap up each paragraph (summarize) – do not transition in the clinchers!

Thoughtful Closings This is the fifth and final paragraph, therefore the most important! It’s the dessert portion of the essay Do not introduce new information – stay focused

Conclusion Restated thesis (different words, but the same impression) Summarize main points General statement that reflects insight