Five-Paragraph Essay
When it comes to writing essays in college, we all need a place to start. Think of the five-paragraph essay
as just that. Some students may find this to be a simple process, while others may spend a greater amount
of time understanding this basic building block of college writing. Whatever the case, use the following
guidelines to strengthen your knowledge of this preliminary essay format. Five-paragraph essays are
incredibly useful in two situations — when writers are just starting out and when a writing assignment is
timed.
The five-paragraph essay has three basic parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay, and it serves several purposes. This paragraph gets
your reader's attention, develops the basic ideas of what you will cover, and provides the thesis statement
for the essay. The thesis statement is usually only one sentence and is made up of the topic, focus, and
three main points of the essay.
Each body paragraph should start with a transition — either a word or phrase, like First, or Another
important point is. Then, the first sentence should continue with your topic sentence. The topic
sentence tells your reader what the paragraph is about, like a smaller-level thesis statement. The rest of
the paragraph will be made of supporting sentences. These sentences, at least four of them, will explain
your topic sentence to your reader.
Be sure that each sentence in the paragraph directly addresses both your topic sentence and your thesis
statement. If you have a point to make that is not directly connected to the topic sentence, it does not
belong in the paragraph. You might write a different paragraph on that other point, but you may not stick
it into any old paragraph just because you thought of it at that point. (You can't stick a red towel into a
load of white laundry without causing damage to the rest of the clothes, and you can't stick a point that'
off-topic into a paragraph without doing damage to the rest of the essay. Keep your laundry and your
paragraph points separate!)
The conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay. This paragraph brings the essay to a close, reminds the
reader of the basic ideas from the essay, and restates the thesis statement. The conclusion should not
contain new ideas, as it is the summation of the content of the essay. The restatement of the thesis is a
simpler form that the one originally presented in the introduction.
An outline is often used to demonstrate the content of most five-paragraph essays:
1. Introduction
2. Body
1. First Point
2. Second Point
3. Third Point
3. Conclusion
Before we finish, it is important to remember that the format of the five-paragraph essay is the foundation
of nearly every other essay you'll write. When you get ready to write longer papers, remember that the job
of the introduction and conclusion are just the same as they are in the five-paragraph essay. Also, when
you write longer papers, change your idea of support from three body paragraphs to three (or two or four)
body sections, with as many paragraphs as necessary in each section (just as you had as many sentences
you needed in each body paragraph).
Below is an example of a 5-paragraph essay. Notice how the essay follows the outline.
Outline of this essay:
1. Introduction about camping, with three main points and thesis statement
2. Body
1. bad weather
2. wildlife
3. equipment failures
3. Conclusion reviewing three main points and thesis statement
