How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay

The five-paragraph essay is the most frequently used format of student papers. Writing such a paper will allow you to learn how to express your thoughts correctly. The distinctive features of this work are a clear plan and thoughtful structure. The essay also reflects the point of view of the author. If you need to write an essay, read these recommendations.

Find an Interesting Topic

The topic of the essay should be interesting and familiar to you. After all, it is hardly possible to express your point of view on a subject about which you have no idea. You also need to express the depth of your thoughts and write only about what you feel, without any templates, hints and looking at the works of other authors. In the essay, people very often use constructions “in my opinion,” “I think” and others. If you are writing a work on a humanitarian subject, you will have to spend time reading the book or reviews of this book in order to understand the material.

Use the Proper Style

For the presentation of the personal perception of the world, the author of the essay can give examples, draw parallels, select analogies, and use various associations. An essay will become successful if there are unexpected turns of thought and unpredictable conclusions in it. These factors determine the scope of your creative development, logical and figurative thinking. Based on the fact that the essay belongs to the free genres, there is no limit on the volume. However, teachers can set the size of the work up to 4-7 pages.

Keep the Correct Structure

Before you start writing a five-paragraph essay, you need to consider its structure and content. As a rule, the structure of the essay looks like this:

• introduction;
• the body of the text;
• conclusions.

The introduction must be brief, but expressive, and contain a central metaphorical image. The last sentence of the introduction and the first sentence of the main part should be organically linked. The body of the text should be connected with the introduction and conclusions not only by the topic but also in the way of language format (through the central image). The essay must contain conclusions. In this case, it does not matter at all whether the end is an affirmation of something, a question, or finally incomplete reflections. Aphorisms or quotes are good options for the conclusions.

Five-Paragraph Essay Writing Stages

The process of writing an essay can be divided into several stages, such as thinking, planning, writing, rereading, correcting. To write a good paper, scientists advise students to stick to the following action plan.

1. Think about the topic, reflect on the problem and write a plan (simple or detailed one).
2.  Line up the text logically.
3. Express cause-effect relationships.
4. Use examples, definitions.
5. Express a chain of thoughts.
6. Demonstrate the ability to use different grammar tools and choose proper words.
7. Argue your own opinion.
8. Reread the written text and correct mistakes.