3 Tips on How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay
Best Tips For An Essay
A 5 paragraph essay, is not a type of essay in the most formal sense. Types of essays include argumentative essays, persuasive essays, definition essays, literary analysis essays, etc. Any of these types of essays can be written as a five paragraph essay. Essentially, a 5 paragraph essay is an essay format that includes the following elements:
- Introductory Paragraph
- 3 Body Paragraphs
- Concluding Paragraph
Writing a 5 paragraph essay is quite common in introductory writing classes where students are focusing on learning the basics of essay writing more than they are focusing on elements such as research. As students learn how to write a five paragraph essay, they study concepts such as defining and writing a thesis statement, creating a main idea sentence, and writing a conclusion that integrates the evidence introduced in the body paragraph into a final statement proving the writer's thesis. Another reason that instructors assign 5 paragraph essays is to teach students how to properly cite their sources both in the body of the essay, and on the works cited page or bibliography. The simple 5 paragraph format is convenient for the instructor, because they can quickly read these short essays and determine what each student understands and where each student is lacking understanding. Don't be fooled by the short length and relative simplicity of the five paragraph essay. These are still graded assignments, and your work will be held to the standards of good writing. This is the reason why we have developed this brief set of tips on writing an excellent 5 paragraph paper.
- Content is Still Important
While it is true that you are not going to delve into anything very deeply in a 5 paragraph essay, that does not mean you can be sloppy when it comes to the information you are delivering. Make sure that the facts you provide are accurate and verifiable. Use smooth transitions when moving from one paragraph to the next. Read each body paragraph to yourself in order to be certain that there is a clearly identifiable main idea sentence and that the other sentences support that main idea. Work hard to ensure that your thesis statement is well-written.
- Demonstrate That You Understand the Essay Writing Process
Check and double check your writing. Do you have every required paragraph? What about your citations? Have you made certain that you have all of the inline citations correctly formatted? If you are using direct quotes, have your cited those correctly? Are your font size, margins, title page, and works cited page in compliance with the citation format that you are using?
- Spelling and Grammar are Major Factors in Your Success
This is extremely important when writing a 5 paragraph essay. The short length of your paper will make any errors stand out. After all, it's pretty hard to hide a mistake in only 500 words or so. One thing that you can do to stay on top of errors as you go is to try writing a paragraph and then reviewing it for errors before going on to the next. This can make your final editing and proofreading go much more quickly.
