Writing a Five-Paragraph Essay: Review Mrs. Klaus

Step One: Read the Prompt! What are you being asked to do? Do you have any choice in your topic? Or is it very specific?

Step Two: Brainstorm! If you are given more than one possible topic, you need to decide which one would work best for you. ◦ Create a brainstorm sheet or idea list for each topic to determine which topic is more doable.  List specific examples you could use in your response  When writing about literature, look for supporting quotes that could be used in the essay

Step Three: Organize your Ideas Your outline is a PLAN. Planning is very important and effective when writing papers!

Introduction Hook or Attention-Getter ◦ BE INTERESTING! ◦ Make your reader WANT to read your essay! ◦ Make sure that your attention-getter is relevant and appropriate. If you are opening with a quote, be sure to use proper documentation.

Intro, continued Brief background information ◦ Provide general info about your topic:  If you’re writing about literature, include author and title…and also a one-sentence summary of the work.  If you’re writing about other topics, briefly give us the overview needed to lead in to your specific points.

Intro, cont’d THESIS ◦ This is the main point of your essay, stated in a COMPLETE SENTENCE ◦ If you had to summarize the purpose of your essay, this would be it! Be clear, and make sure your central idea MATCHES THE PROMPT!

Intro, cont’d SUPPORT SENTENCE ◦ This is a list of your supporting examples or reasons ◦ These examples/reasons should be listed in the SAME ORDER you will discuss them in your essay. ◦ You may write this as one complete sentence (including a list of examples) OR several sentences (if it’s easier grammatically).

Your thesis and support sentence should be the LAST TWO sentences of your intro!

Body Paragraph 1 TOPIC SENTENCE ◦ Connect to both your thesis (main point) and support sentence (example/reason #1) Supporting sentences: Discuss the example or reason you have presented in the topic sentence. When writing about literature, include direct quotations with proper documentation. Be sure to include good support for each point!

Transitions These help you move from one example to the next. These should appear at the end of body paragraph 1 and body paragraph 2, as you introduce your next examples.

Body Paragraph 2 Topic sentence (of course!!!) ◦ Connect to theis and supporting topic #2 Supporting Sentences Transition to body paragraph 3 (thesis topic 3)

Body Paragraph 3 Topic sentence (connect to thesis and support topic #3) Supporting Sentences… No transition needed here.

Conclusion Wrap up the main points of your essay Try to be interesting…it’s hard not to be repetitive, but TRY! Aim for new wording and maybe a connection to something broader than the scope of your essay. This paragraph can be shorter than your other paragraphs…aim for 3 sentences.

So what does all of this look like? Let’s look at your outline handout to see an example…