5 paragraph essays conclusion
Still, teaching students to organize essays into the five-paragraph format is an easy way to introduce them to writing literary criticism, which will be tested time and again throughout their primary, secondary, and further education. The introduction is the first paragraph in your essay, and it should accomplish a few specific goals: capture the reader's interest, introduce the topic, and make a claim or express an opinion in a thesis statement. Students can practice with creative writing prompts to get some ideas for interesting ways to start an essay. The next few sentences should explain your first statement, and prepare the reader for your thesis statement, which is typically the last sentence in the introduction. To correctly write each of these three body paragraphs, you should state your supporting idea, your topic sentence, then back it up with two or three sentences of evidence.
How to Write a Five Paragraph Essay
Its sturdy structure provides students with a safe and organized way to express their thoughts. The introduction enables them to stake a claim with the thesis. The body paragraphs are where they can make assertions and provide the supporting details to prove their argument. The conclusion wraps it all up, reinforcing the main ideas. Many students need that predictability. They need that familiar structure to develop a thoughtful progression of ideas.
Teachers know what to expect from five-paragraph essays, too. Both the writing and the grading are neat and orderly. There are other, more authentic ways in which students can flesh out complex thoughts, experiment with voice, and present a sequence of ideas in an organized way. Stephen King, in his memoir, On Writing , recognized the weight of writing. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed Come to it any way but lightly.
Let me say it again: You must not come lightly to the blank page. Here are five ways students can turn a blank page into a powerful expression of their mind and heart. Blogs: Rather than have students write essays about the novels, stories, and articles they read during the year, have them create and maintain a blog. While a traditional essay can box students into a limited area, a blog allows them to express themselves as they see fit.
Because of the many customization options, each blog can be unique. Multigenre research papers: A multigenre research paper communicates a central thesis through a variety of pieces composed in an assortment of genres. The genres run the gamut from a journal entry to a newspaper article, a biographical summary to a pop-up book. While each piece in the paper has its own purpose, identity, and style, the whole of the paper is more than the sum of its parts because the multigenre research paper assimilates research, advances an argument, and has an organizational structure just like a traditional research paper.
What distinguishes it from its counterpart is its creative versatility. Students must not only choose the genres that best suit their purpose but also display a wide swath of writing skills as they follow the conventions of the various genres. A better way to see them is as organized distillations of complex ideas told in a bold and powerful way. Infographics can be created to show comparisons, explain rules or a process, show trends, present a timeline, and so much more.
The New York Times has a useful introduction to teaching with infographics. Debates: Debates incorporate a broad array of skills that are foundational to the Common Core State Standards. I love the way debates naturally enable students to read critically, write persuasively, listen attentively, and speak forcefully, all within the same unit.
They write out opening statements and closing arguments, and must anticipate what their opponents will say and have talking points written out so that they can offer convincing counter-arguments. The Guardian has a brief guide to getting your students debating. Parodies encourage students to transform something familiar into something comedic and fresh. I have my students create modern-day parodies of famous poems. For inspiration, ReadWriteThink has a four-session lesson plan on using the movie Shrek to explore satire.
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Sentence #5: connect back to the essay hook and relate your closing statement to the opening one; transit to human nature to impress a reader. The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and more about it than you can possibly include in a five- or ten- or page essay.
Writing an essay conclusion may seem an obvious and easy step in the entire essay writing task. To be true sometimes, it may take more efforts than you expected. That is why you need to get proper essay conclusion examples to get the main point of this task.
Introduction: states what the essay will be about.
Many students find it challenging to write a good essay. Often the main challenge is to organize and develop the ideas and arguments in a clear and coherent way.
Get Your Inspiration from Our Essay Conclusion Examples and Writing Guide
But our reader Emily has knocked spots off them all when asked to share tips on how to write a conclusion for your essay to impress teachers and help you get an A! Our writers know it firsthand, so they give consent graciously to share the ultimate guide on conclusion definition, conclusion paragraph outline, conclusion examples, and expert tips on how to how to write a conclusion for a research paper. It helps readers see why your essay should matter to them. A conclusion provides closure and drives the main points of your essay one last time. Example source : Purdue OWL. The number of sentences in your conclusion will depend on how many paragraphs statements you have in the essay.
Alternatives to the 5 Paragraph Essay
When you write the conclusion paragraph of a five paragraph essay, you will use power zero and power one statements if you are doing power writing. Basically, you are restating what your paragraph was about and drawing a conclusion based on the information that you provided in the body of your essay. For example, if your essay is about your three cousins, you might have statements like this in your conclusion paragraph:. In this example, the power one idea restated is that you have three cousins whom you do different activities with. Your power zero statements are that they are each unique and that your cousins are the best. Using power writing to write a five paragraph essay can help with the organization and what to write in the body of the essay. But do power twos belong in the conclusion paragraph? Just like with the introductory paragraph, you will mention your power twos in your concluding paragraph since one of the main goals of this paragraph is to restate the main points of your essay.
The five-paragraph essay is a format of essay having five paragraphs : one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs with support and development, and one concluding paragraph. Because of this structure, it is also known as a hamburger essay , one three one , or a three-tier essay.
Its sturdy structure provides students with a safe and organized way to express their thoughts. The introduction enables them to stake a claim with the thesis.
How to Write the Conclusion Paragraph of a Five Paragraph Essay
Introduction: Introductory Paragraph See, first, Writing Introductory Paragraphs for different ways of getting your reader involved in your essay. The introductory paragraph should also include the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the paper: it tells the reader what the essay is about. The last sentence of this paragraph must also contain a transitional "hook" which moves the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the paper. The first paragraph of the body should contain the strongest argument, most significant example, cleverest illustration, or an obvious beginning point. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the "reverse hook" which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the introductory paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the second paragraph of the body. The second paragraph of the body should contain the second strongest argument, second most significant example, second cleverest illustration, or an obvious follow up the first paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the first paragraph of the body. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the third paragraph of the body. The third paragraph of the body should contain the weakest argument, weakest example, weakest illustration, or an obvious follow up to the second paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the second paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional concluding hook that signals the reader that this is the final major point being made in this paper. This hook also leads into the last, or concluding, paragraph.
Kill the 5-Paragraph Essay
That just about everyone reading this is well-familiar with the 5-paragraph essay is a testament to why it needs to be retired, and by retired, I mean killed dead, double-tap zombie-style, lest it rise again. The 5-paragraph essay is indeed a genre, but one that is entirely uncoupled from anything resembling meaningful work when it comes to developing a fully mature writing process. If writing is like exercise, the 5-paragraph essay is more Ab Belt than sit-up. They cannot hope to develop unless and until we first undo the damage done. Not really. At least not these rules, and the way students learn them. More troublesome is what the 5-paragraph essay does to the writing process. The act of writing is primarily treated as a performance meant to impress a teacher or score well on a standardized exam. Mature writers need to navigate choices rooted in genuine rhetorical situations.
