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Every essay is an opportunity to share an original idea on a subject about which you have some knowledge. Sometimes you only just gained that knowledge—as in a free response question paired with a reading segment during an exam—and other times you’ll be writing about a subject that you have studied for years and know like the back of your hand. In either case, writing a five-paragraph essay can serve as a useful tool for communicating your thoughts to an academic audience.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenEvery essay is an opportunity to share an original idea on a subject about which you have some knowledge. Sometimes you only just gained that knowledge—as in a free response question paired with a reading segment during an exam—and other times you’ll be writing about a subject that you have studied for years and know like the back of your hand. In either case, writing a five-paragraph essay can serve as a useful tool for communicating your thoughts to an academic audience.
A five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows the basic structure of five paragraphs. It includes an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Often critiqued for being too formulaic, the five-paragraph essay is an essential tool in every writer's toolkit and is especially handy on timed writing assignments and exams.
Why is this format best for writing timed essays? During an exam, you might be asked to write an essay, and you may have only just learned some of the details about the subject. You likely won’t have time to draft a uniquely formatted, in-depth analysis in the time you are given. That’s where the five-paragraph structure comes into play; you can use it as a vehicle to get your main idea across to the reader and not spend precious time on how to structure your essay.
This essay format can also be thought of as a building block for almost every type of essay you could write. It is built on a thesis statement and uses the main pieces of support, which are formatted into segments (or paragraphs), to uphold your thesis. This approach can be expanded based on however much support or analysis is appropriate for your essay.
The key principle of this familiar structure is to organize your perspective or claim in a way that is logical and easy for your reader to understand.
You can use the five-paragraph format for writing any of the five styles of essay: argumentative, descriptive, narrative, informative, and persuasive. Think of this approach as not merely an essay structure, but also a means to adapt your writing and strengthen your composition skills for any future assignment.
Sometimes the five-paragraph essay is referred to as the hamburger of essays. That’s not because it’s cheesy, but rather because of how it is built—like a hamburger with a beginning (bun), middle segmented into separate parts (hamburger patty, lettuce, condiments, etc.), and end (bun).
Hamburger composition, Unsplash.
Below is the basic structure of a five-paragraph essay:
Introduction
Hook
Background information
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Body paragraph 3
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Conclusion
Rephrased Thesis
Call to action
The paragraphs below break down each section to show how it functions within the whole essay.
The introduction serves several purposes, all of which are important and should not be forgotten or glossed-over. Remember, this is the "bun" to the hamburger and without it, the whole thing falls apart. The introduction starts with a statement to get your readers’ attention—this is called a hook.
A hook can take the form of a question, quote, statistic, or anecdote; it grabs your reader and pulls their interest into the topic.
Hook as a Question: Have you ever stood at the edge of the crashing waves in the ocean and wondered how far out it goes?
Hook as a Quote: Clarence Joshua Tuttle once said, “Why do we call this planet Earth, when it would more aptly be called Ocean?"
Hook as a Statistic: About 71% of the face of the earth is covered by water, and the oceans hold about 96.5% of earth’s water.
Hook as an Anecdote: As a child, I used to gaze at the line where the horizon met the sea and wonder how it could stretch on for infinity.
In addition to the hook catching your reader’s attention, your introduction should also contain background information on the topic to give your reader context.
Without some kind of explanation about the topic’s background, you risk your reader not having the full picture, or worse, not understanding what you’re talking about at all.
You don’t have to include too much background explanation for your five-paragraph essay. Usually a couple of sentences will suffice to give the necessary context.
Lastly, your introduction needs your thesis statement, which is arguably the most important part of the essay.
A thesis statement is a single sentence that explains your main argument for the entire essay. You don’t have to pack every point you’re going to make into the thesis, but your thesis should be a clarified version of the main point.
The vast majority of our planet is covered in water, so there needs to be more awareness about the impact of global warming on Earth's oceans and the wildlife therein.
The thesis should be stated near the end of the first paragraph. It should be supported by details and evidence in the following paragraphs.
The body paragraphs are the meat of your five-paragraph essay (literally, remember the hamburger—the body paragraphs are the juicy middle). You can use more than three paragraphs if you have more points that need to be discussed, but typically no less than three.
You can consider each of your body paragraphs to be one piece of support for your thesis. The first sentence of each paragraph should be the topic sentence for that paragraph, and can act like a mini-thesis. It will state the main idea of that particular paragraph, and the rest of the paragraph will dive into further explanation by including examples and supporting details.
Your body paragraphs should look something like this:
Paragraph 1: First piece of support
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Paragraph 2: Second piece of support
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Paragraph 3: Third piece of support
Topic sentence
Supporting details
Examples
Your five-paragraph essay should not end abruptly; it should include a short summary that will wrap up your argument and/or observation on the topic, just like the bottom bun of the hamburger. Provide a brief summary, and then remind your audience of your thesis statement.
By restating or rephrasing your thesis, you are reminding your audience that in the body of the essay you explained everything you said you would way back in your introduction.
The last thing your conclusion needs is something to bring the topic back into the reader’s world. Make them remember why it’s relevant. This could be a call to action, warning, provocative question, or something to evoke emotion in the reader.
Call to action
Because of [insert main idea], you should take [X] action.
Warning
If you (or we) don’t do [X thing], [X consequence] will happen.
Provocative question
What do you think will happen if [X] continues (or ceases. Whatever is relevant to your main point.)?
Evocative statement
Could be a quote or anything you think will stir the emotions of the reader on the subject.
With the basic structure of a five-paragraph essay in mind, you can begin the process of making an outline.
An outline is simply a plan for your essay, and it’s important to create one so you know how to organize your ideas. Without an outline, you’re likely to ramble or wander all over your topic without fully developing your main point.
Below are the essential steps to drafting an outline for your five paragraph essay.
The first thing you need to do is brainstorm the topic; look for associations you may already have and keep the assignment or prompt in the front of your mind.
How to brainstorm a topic: Brainstorming is a strategy for coming up with ideas and content for your essay. Brainstorming can be anything from creating word associations, to freewriting, to making lists, to drawing a venn diagram, or whatever makes sense for you so that you can break down the topic and pick out what you have to say.
Sort through whatever you come up with in the brainstorming process, and pick out something that you find important or something you can elaborate.
Next, you need to draft a thesis statement. As previously stated, your thesis is the guide for your essay—especially so in a five-paragraph essay—because your thesis introduces the ideas of your body paragraphs.
Take whatever piece of the puzzle you came up with after brainstorming, and work it into a single statement that makes a claim on the topic.
The thesis statement of your five-paragraph essay should contain a claim of some sort about the subject. It should an original thought, and not be a restating of known facts.
Now, apply the basic structure of a five-paragraph essay to your topic. An outline typically uses numbers as a way to organize the essay. Each point can be a key word or phrase; you don’t need to use whole sentences in an outline.
Organize the paragraphs by the main points that support your thesis, then include subpoints, or pieces of evidence, to explain the topic sentence of that paragraph.
Organize notes, Unsplash.
Here’s an example of a five-paragraph essay outline:
Introduction
Hook: Children are no longer growing up walking to the candy store around the corner or sharing root beer floats at the local diner with kids they’ve known their entire lives. They aren’t even growing up in an innocent world like when Super Mario Brothers was the most popular video game.
Background: The world has changed rapidly in the last fifty years.
Thesis: Because of violence in video games, movies, social media, and increased pressure from peers, being a parent today is much more difficult than it was a generation ago.
Body paragraph 1
Topic sentence: The progression of technology has given children more entertainment, but it has also decreased their attention spans, making it much more difficult to keep them on task.
Supporting detail: Music, video games, and social media are all easily accessible on phones or computers.
Supporting detail: Research shows that excessive screen time for children can drastically affect their attention span and even brain development.
Body paragraph 2
Topic sentence: Not only do parents have to be aware of the effects of constant screen usage, it means they must also be vigilant about their children being exposed to inappropriate material.
Supporting detail: In film
Supporting detail: On television
Supporting detail: Online
Body paragraph 3
Topic sentence: Children are now often exposed to dangerous situations during their daily lives or via the media.
Supporting detail: Access to drugs & alcohol
Supporting detail: Violent crimes (school shootings, etc.)
Conclusion
Rephrased Thesis statement: Society and media have a huge impact on children’s lives and have worked together to make parenting extremely difficult, now more than ever.
Call to action: Because of these changes, it is up to parents to remain present so we can be aware of and sensitive to all these challenges facing our children.
With your outline in hand, it’s now time to write your five-paragraph essay! The beauty of this process is that your argument is now fully mapped out, and you know exactly what you need to say.
The first thing to do is nail down your thesis statement. Again, the body of your essay hinges on the main point contained in your essay, so you need to be certain of that before you proceed. Next, you can start to put together your body paragraphs.
Be sure you include transitions between paragraphs, otherwise, your essay will feel very robotic and will not be enjoyable to read. Transitions help to show the relationship between thoughts as you move from one to another.
You can use simple transitions (i.e. first, next, and last); or use phrases to show similarity (i.e. also, in the same way, likewise, just as, etc.) and/ or differences (i.e. but, however, in spite of, etc.).
Remember, there is often more to your topic than can be explained in a five-paragraph essay. That’s why these essays are a great tool for exam essays; you simply won’t have the time to complete an exhaustive analysis, so the five-paragraph essay is the next best choice.
Keep this perspective in mind and remember that however brilliant your essay is, it is not the end-all-be-all on the subject. The five-paragraph essay is, however, an excellent vehicle you can use to explain your original thought on a subject in an organized manner.
Write a 5 paragraph essay by following the basic structure: introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
A 5 paragraph essay can be anywhere from one to one hundred pages; it all depends on how much you need to support your thesis statement.
A 5 paragraph essay can contain as many words as necessary to fully support and explain your main point, or your thesis.
Typically, a 5 paragraph essay will contain 4 topic sentences with one of them being the thesis statement, and the other 3 being the topic sentences of the body paragraphs.
A 5 paragraph essay can look very different from one essay to the next, however they will all follow the basic structure of the five paragraphs: introduction, (at least) 3 supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion.
What is the definition of a five-paragraph essay?
A five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows the basic structure of five paragraphs that include an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Why are five-paragraph essays a good choice for timed exam assignments?
During an exam, you likely won’t have time to draft a uniquely formatted, in-depth analysis in the time you are given.
True or false: Five-paragraph essays can also be used to write argumentative, descriptive, narrative, informative, and/ or persuasive essays.
True
Fill in the blank: The key principle of the five-paragraph structure is to ___________ your perspective or claim in a way that is logical and easy for your reader to understand.
Organize
Why is the five-paragraph essay often referred to as a "hamburger" essay style?
Because of how it is built; like a hamburger with a definite beginning (bun), middle segmented into separate parts (hamburger patty, lettuce, condiments, etc.), and end (bun).
Which paragraph in a five-paragraph essay contains the hook?
Introduction
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