Building a five-paragraph essay
The “classic” five-paragraph essay consists of several parts: the introduction, three body paragraphs, and the conclusion. This format should be used in the TOEFL independent essay as I describe in this article. Although your academic work will probably be longer than five paragraphs, essays like this give you excellent practice in organizing your ideas and perfecting your writing style. Think of them as the scales that pianists run through many times before tackling a more challenging piece of music.
You might think of your essay as a classic Roman construction … like this facade of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, Italy. Given that it was built over 2,500 years ago, it certainly has a solid structure! Your essay should have the same.
Let’s discuss the elements in your well-built essay and then we’ll look at more specific details on its construction in the following article [to be written].
First, you need a solid foundation.
Your introduction lays the foundation of your essay. And to set a foundation, you must have, at the very center, a thesis. The thesis sums up your central idea; everything built on top of it, your three body paragraphs and your conclusion, must rest on it, must be attached and connected.
One of the biggest problems my writing students encounter stems from not beginning with this foundation stone. They begin writing their essay with a vague idea of what they’re going to say, and jump from point to point so that nothing connects to a center. If your essay structure is not built solidly on a central thesis, the essay will fall apart. It will lack coherence and cohesion, which are essential to a good essay.
When I read essays like this, I ask my students to tell me what their thesis is. In one sentence, what is this essay saying? If they can’t do this, then we know that there’s a problem with the thesis; and with a shaky, wobbly foundation, it can never stand on its own.
Let’s also consider what your foundation looks like to the outsider, the reader. Is it inviting … does the reader want to enter your essay and see what’s inside? Or is the foundation boring, overly general, uninviting? An attractive “hook” to interest the reader and a clearly stated thesis statement are like a set of wide, shallow stairs that help usher the reader into your essay.
Next, you need three strong columns in the form of three body paragraphs. Each column rests on the foundation, your thesis. If a column is resting outside the foundation, dangling in space so to speak, the essay is going to fall apart or, at the very least, seem unbalanced and poorly constructed.
Although your columns, your paragraphs, aren’t going to look exactly the same … each will be expressing a different point … they should have a sense of being coordinated and similar. For example, you won’t have one paragraph twice as big as the other two. You won’t start two paragraphs with a topic sentence, and then end the third with the topic sentence. Your three body paragraphs, like three visually pleasing columns, will give your reader a sense of logical order and well-planned structure.
Finally, you cap off your essay with a conclusion. Notice that the Temple of Castor and Pollux has a rather ornate top that embellishes the whole construction. Your conclusion doesn’t need to be so fancy! You mainly need to focus on constructing a conclusion that reflects the ideas and style of the introduction. Just like you wouldn’t place a thatched roof on top of a Roman temple, you don’t want a conclusion that introduces completely new elements or distracts from the rest of the essay. Like the foundation, the roof should be well connected to the three columns. The ideas expressed in your conclusion should rest solidly on the material in your three body paragraphs.
In the next article, we’ll discuss some ways to build a real five-paragraph essay, putting all these elements into practice.
