What Is a Five-Paragraph Essay and Why Should You Care?

We usually request our students of about 5^th grade and higher to write five-paragraph essays, which are often called “five-paragraph form” or “standard five-paragraph essay” by teachers everywhere. This, of course, leads to the question: What is that?

Let’s look at the basics.

1. Start with an introduction or introductory paragraph. This will include a few elements, but the most important are the main idea of your essay (this is a thesis statement, which we will discuss some other time) and three subtopics (Iet’s call them A, B, and C) that will be organized in the order that you will discuss them and create what is known as “the body” of the essay.
2. The second paragraph is about subtopic A.
3. The third paragraph is about subtopic B.
4. The fourth paragraph is about subtopic C.
5. The fifth paragraph is the conclusion, which will restate your subtopics in order and your main idea.

Each of these parts of the essay are more complicated than this, but those elements should be discussed separately in more detail, so we will do that later in Charlotte’s Tips.

Students need to know that the five-paragraph essay is the foundation of essay writing. Once you understand it, you can organize any essay quickly and successfully, even if you are facing a question or prompt for the first time without warning on a quiz or exam. Take a few minutes to think through the main parts you need to build your essay. Here’s an example:

1. Introduction: The main character (Fred) faces and overcomes obstacles to succeed. Fred makes a new friend, together they practice, and they make the team.
2. Body 1: How Fred meets and makes a new friend, Bob.
3. Body 2: How Fred and Bob practice and encourage each other to learn soccer skills.
4. Body 3: How Fred and Bob make the soccer team.
5. Conclusion: Fred meets a new friend. They work together to improve. They make the team. Fred overcomes these obstacles to succeed.

See? Now you have a map, a plan, a blueprint, and a path to writing glory! Well, you have an outline for a five-paragraph essay, and that’s a HUGE step in the right direction.