3 paragraph essay samples
Despite the fact that, as Shakespeare said, "the pen is mightier than the sword," the pen itself is not enough to make an effective writer. In fact, though we may all like to think of ourselves as the next Shakespeare, inspiration alone is not the key to effective essay writing. You see, the conventions of English essays are more formulaic than you might think — and, in many ways, it can be as simple as counting to five. Though more advanced academic papers are a category all their own, the basic high school or college essay has the following standardized, five paragraph structure:. Though it may seem formulaic — and, well, it is - the idea behind this structure is to make it easier for the reader to navigate the ideas put forth in an essay.
SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more Got it! There are four main types of essays: narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative. Each has a unique purpose. Some tell a story, some are descriptive, and others attempt to alter opinions.
One of the best ways to understand each type is to review a batch of essay examples. Narration means you're telling a story from a certain viewpoint, and there is usually a reason for the telling. All narrative essays have characters, setting, a climax, and most importantly, a plot. The plot is the focus of the story and is usually revealed chronologically, but there are sometimes flash-forwards and flashbacks.
If you're looking to write a personal narrative essay, here are some tips to get you started. Include sensory and emotional details, so the reader will experience the story, not just read about it. Allow the story to support the point you're making, and make reference to that point in the first sentence. I had gone to the pound just a week earlier with the idea that I would just "look" at a puppy.
Of course, you can no more just look at those squiggling little faces so filled with hope and joy than you can stop the sun from setting in the evening. I knew within minutes of walking in the door that I would get a puppy… but it wasn't until I saw him that I knew I had found my puppy. Unfortunately, none of the ones that we saw seemed to match the specifications that we had established.
They were too small, too impersonal, too close to the neighbors. After days of finding nothing even close, we began to wonder: was there really a perfect house out there for us? Aided by the gloom, Fisher was slicing through the Sox rookies, and Williams did not come to bat in the seventh. He was second up in the eighth. This was almost certainly his last time to come to the plate in Fenway Park, and instead of merely cheering, as we had at his three previous appearances, we stood, all of us, and applauded.
Descriptive essays describe the traits and characteristics of people, objects, events, and feelings in intricate detail. What's being described will be thoroughly examined.
For example, if you were describing roses, you might want to detail:. When you write a descriptive essay, you want to involve the reader's senses and emotions. For example, you could say, "I got sleepy. He often came to survey the fields and the clouds before his hunt, to listen to the steady sound of the stream passing through reeds under the bridge, while combing his feathers for the unwanteds - whatever they might be.
A student at Roane State Community College managed to spice up a first visit to a diner. Watch how descriptive things get. The first room, through the door, is the main part of the restaurant.
There is another, rarely used, dining room off to the right. It was added during the oil well boom of the seventies. Through the main dining room is yet another room; it guards the door leading into the kitchen. This room contains the most coveted table in the place. The highest tribute Lou can bestow on anyone is to allow them access to seats at this table.
This table is the family table; it is reserved for Lou's, and her daughter Karen's, immediate family and treasured friends. Like the diner essay above, this sample excerpt from a student at St. Cloud State spruces up something as everyday as a local pawn shop.
The blazing, red, diesel fuel tanks beamed in front of the station, looking like cheap lipstick against the pallid, wrinkled texture of the parking lot sand. The yard, not much larger than the end zone at General G. Patton High School on the north end of town, was framed with a rusted metallic hedge of lawn mowers, banana seat bicycles, and corroded oil drums. It wasn't a calico frame of rusted parts, but rather an orchestra of unwanted machinery that Billy Ray had arranged into sections.
The yellow-tanked mowers rested silently at the right of the diesel fuel. Once red, now faded orange, mowers stood at attention to the left. The oil barrels, jaded and pierced with holes, bellared like chimes when the wind was right. The bikes rested sporadically throughout the lot. In the middle of it all was the office, a faded, steel roof supported by cheap two-by-fours and zebra paneling. Billy Ray was at home, usually, five blocks east of town on Kennel Road. Expository essays compare, explore, and discuss problems.
While there's a bit of a storytelling element to them, their purpose is greater than that. It's always to explain some integral concept to the reader. As such, they inform, describe, and explain. Ready to dive deep into a specific issue? Here are three excerpts that'll show you how it's done.
Not that there was anything wrong with the park: The hikers camped next to them loved the wild isolation of it. But it just wasn't the kind of place the couple from New Jersey had in mind when they decided to camp out on this trip through Florida. This sample expository essay from Thoughtful Learning relies heavily on facts and statistics to explain the important concept of cheating. Did you know that 50 percent of those students have cheated more than twice? These shocking statistics are from a survey of 9, U.
Incredibly, teachers may even be encouraging their students to cheat! Last year at a school in Detroit, teachers allegedly provided their students with answers to statewide standard tests. The University of Victoria uses this sample essay to demonstrate the importance of straightforward clarity in an expository essay. Ancient Chinese aristocrats bound their feet as a show of femininity; American and European women in the s cinched in their waists so tightly, some suffered internal damage; in some African cultures, women continue to wear plates in their lower lips, continually stretching the skin to receive plates of larger size.
The North American ideal of beauty has continually focused on women's bodies: the tiny waist of the Victorian period, the boyish figure in vogue during the flapper era, and the voluptuous curves that were the measure of beauty between the s and s.
Current standards emphasize a toned, slender look, one that exudes fitness, youth, and health. According to psychologist Eva Szekely, "Having to be attractive at this time In North America today, thinness is a precondition for being perceived by others and oneself as healthy. In an argumentative essay , the writer is trying to convince the reader of something.
He or she will demonstrate the validity or falsity of a topic. The writer's position will be backed up with evidence, including statistics or the opinion of experts. In these essays, the writer isn't merely offering an opinion, but making an argument for or against something, and supporting that argument with data. To write an argumentative essay, it's important to research and back up what you say in the text. For more detail, here are some argumentative essay writing tips. When it's time to stand your ground and make a strong case, allow these excerpts to help get you started.
A vast majority of citizens believe that if gun control is strictly enforced, it would quickly reduce the threat of crime.
Many innocent people feel they have the right to bear arms for protection, or even for the pleasure of hunting. These people are penalized for protecting their lives, or even for enjoying a common, innocent sport. To enforce gun control throughout the nation means violating a person's Constitutional rights.
Although some people feel that the issue of gun control will limit crime, the issue should not exist due to the fact that guns are necessary for self defense against crime, and enforcing gun control is violating a citizen's second amendment right to bear arms. An argumentative essay from Bogazici University offers a bit of a dramatic flair, which is important to making a strong argument.
A new theory suggests that medicine could be bad for your health, which should at least come as good news to people who cannot afford to buy expensive medicine. However, it is a blow to the medicine industry, and an even bigger blow to our confidence in the progress of science. This new theory argues that healing is at our fingertips: we can be healthy by doing Reiki on on a regular basis.
Essay By Example dives deeply into an argument touting the benefits of online gaming. As millions of gamers demonstrate, playing online is about friendship and cooperation, not just killing monsters. These games are a viable social network because players focus on teamwork, form groups with like-minded people and have romantic relationships with other players.
The games are social in nature as they allow players to band together and complete missions based on a story line, or test their skills by fighting against each other. At the start of the game, the user creates a fictional character, and customizes its physical appearance. Since many games involve combat, players also outfit their characters with armor and weapons, as well as choose their "profession.
While the process seems simple, players may spend hours agonizing over the perfect look for their character, from their armor color to the type of skills to use in battle. MMOG users are mostly male - usually between the ages of - although titles like World of Warcraft have a healthy population of female players as well. With millions of players, there are plenty of people to adventure with.
In the essay writing examples above, you can see how each serves a distinct purpose. Sometimes, writers only want to offer facts and information informative. Other times, they're seeking to change the tide of people's belief systems argumentative. English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton wasn't kidding when he said, "The pen is mightier than the sword. Essay writing is something that may never leave your life. As such, here are a few more resources to help you float on down the river of change.
Review the basics with How to Write an Essay.
Passing the IELTS Writing task 2 requires not just a knowledge of good grammar and vocabulary, but also knowing how to organise, structure your essay and. Write in the first or third person. Examples of Narrative Essays. Ready for a little storytelling? Here are four excerpts to light your creative fire. "Looking back.
Writing This is the most useful thing you will ever learn in Writing -- if you haven't already learned it in some other English class. If you feel confident about writing essays and usually do well at it, you may be able to skip this. There are other good ways to write an essay that will work just as well and be more interesting to read.
There are a number of important elements to any successful high school or college essay. This article will define those elements and provide you with a good strategy for crafting a great 3-paragraph essay outline that keep your thoughts organized and make writing your paper much easier.
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Structuring the Five-Paragraph Essay: Examples of Five-Paragraph Essays
Just like there is more than one way to skin a cat or so they say , there is more than one way to write an essay. One is not required to produce a perfectly formatted five-paragraph essay every time one composes a piece of writing. There is another type of essay you can write that may just be simpler than the traditional style: the three-paragraph essay. This type of essay might be beneficial for beginning writers as it offers the organizational structure of a longer essay without requiring the length. It also offers a challenge to more advanced writers to condense their points. As with most essays, the three-paragraph essay has three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
Essay Examples
Key words: academic essay, essay question, paragraph, introduction, body, conclusion, reference list Sometimes a good example of what you are trying to achieve is worth a words of advice! When you are asked to write an essay, try to find some samples models of similar writing and learn to observe the craft of the writer. You can use the samples as a basis for working out how to write in the correct style. Most books on essay writing will supply you with a number of model essays—collect some of these as they are great teachers! No matter what the topic is, you will see similarities between your writing tasks and these model essays. This is because many features of writing are common across subject areas. In some subjects e. The following five paragraph essay has paragraph labels to show the parts of an academic essay. Note: This essay does not contain authentic references and has been written specifically to use for this teaching task. Using assignment essays for assessment supports student learning better than the traditional examination system.
Samples of writing essay problem of population growth essay write a descriptive essay on your best teacher ib extended essay topics sports narrative essay topics sample, how to write essay online essay on diwali 10 lines essay topics for money my school essay on english tell us about yourself college essay.
Sentences are getting longer and more complex. Kids are learning to use a dictionary to correct their own spelling. Grammar improves; for example, you'll see appropriate punctuation, contractions, and correct subject-verb agreement.
General Essay Writing Tips
General Education. Need to defend your opinion on an issue? They combine persuasive arguments with fact-based research, and, when done well, can be powerful tools for making someone agree with your point of view. After giving an overview of this type of essay, we provide three argumentative essay examples. After each essay, we explain in-depth how the essay was structured, what worked, and where the essay could be improved. We end with tips for making your own argumentative essay as strong as possible. Its purpose is to persuade the reader to agree with the argument being made. For example, say you wanted to write an argumentative essay stating that Charleston, SC is a great destination for families. For it to be an argumentative essay, you need to have facts and data to support your argument, such as the number of child-friendly attractions in Charleston, special deals you can get with kids, and surveys of people who visited Charleston as a family and enjoyed it. The first argument is based entirely on feelings, whereas the second is based on evidence that can be proven. The standard five paragraph format is common, but not required, for argumentative essays. These essays typically follow one of two formats: the Toulmin model or the Rogerian model. Below are three examples of argumentative essays, written by yours truly in my school days, as well as analysis of what each did well and where it could be improved.
Writing a Three-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.
