Saying goodbye to the five paragraph essay

As a simplified template, the five-paragraph essay (5PE) taught in high school can make organizing content and ideas feel manageable to students, and can make grading feel easier for teachers than navigating dozens of differently-organized essays. By beginning with an introduction paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph that summarizes the argument, the 5PE is predictable and provides every student with the same roadmap for putting their content together.

And yet in writing, as in life, oversimplified, quick-fix solutions don’t always work well. The reality is that the 5PE isn’t a realistic structure for communicating effectively with all audiences you’ll write for in college classes or other world situations. Sometimes 5PE is a good idea; other times, not so much. Consider these five reasons for reconsidering whether or not to use a 5PE:

1. 5PEs revolve around a thesis, but not all academic or professional writing assignments need a thesis statement. Some might require a less argumentative controlling idea, a tagline, or another form of argument that your teacher will discuss with you. In other words, not all compositions are purely thesis driven. Consult with your instructor to clarify what they expect in terms of central message development and how that will structure the piece you write.
2. 5PEs flatten any argument. Any issue you write about will be complex, and any argument you make about an issue will necessitate exploring many dynamic viewpoints and facts. Oftentimes, three paragraphs isn’t enough to touch on every angle of an issue. You may need more paragraphs and more points than you can reasonably fit into five paragraphs.
3. 5PEs limit creativity. Making meaning is hard to do when you’re limited in terms of how you can package it. Or as Associate Professor of English Quentin Vieregge asks, “What fun is it to write when you have no choices, when the shape of your words and thoughts are controlled by an impersonal model that everyone uses, but only in school” (211)? When you allow yourself to compose beyond the 5PE structure, you open yourself up to a world of creative possibilities.
4. 5PEs lack flow. In the next section, we’ll touch on organically structured essays that aid the reader in moving through a text. Ideally, you want the relationships among your paragraphs to give a clear sense of connection, to flow well, and to build reader interest. These organizational aims are difficult to achieve when you’re constantly pointing back to a singular idea rather than letting ideas naturally build off of one another.
5. 5PEs fail to transfer. When writing a lab report for a biology course, for example, a 5PE organizational scheme probably won’t suffice for the purpose of that assignment nor will a 5PE help you write a strong memo for a business class. Scientists don’t cram their study findings into five quick paragraphs nor do journalists whittle down every feature to five tidy parts. The point is that 5PEs don’t transfer easily into many real-world writing contexts, so limiting yourself to this organizational approach precludes you from practicing organizational development skills that will benefit you in future writing contexts.

At this point, you might be thinking to yourself, “Is it ever okay to use the five-paragraph essay?” The answer depends on a range of factors related to your rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, context), and, of course, you’ll want to consult with your instructor about their preferences, but rest assured that the 5PE isn’t an inherently flawed way of composing. It’s simply one way of composing that won’t transfer to every rhetorical context you’ll encounter.

Embracing organically structured and genred essays

Unlike the 5PE, an organically structured essay is one that doesn’t follow a predetermined or prescribed organizational pattern, but instead incorporates transitions among paragraphs that feel natural and build connections between paragraphs. At times, the paragraphs and transitions may meander or wind around differing or oppositional viewpoints, but a sense of connection among ideas always exists and the organization is developed to build reader interest.

What does it mean to establish a sense of connection among the ideas you’re writing about? One way to understand connection in writing is to imagine you’re watching a group photo session at a local park. Maybe the group is dressed up and ready to go to prom or maybe it’s a family photo session. In either scenario, the people being photographed can choose to arrange themselves in relation to other people in ways that feel natural or unnatural. We’ve all seen the cringe-worthy prom pose pics where two people are standing uncomfortably close or far apart, or most of us have witnessed the awkward family photos that, despite good intentions, are almost uncomfortable to look at because the physical positioning of some family members in relation to others feels rigid and forced. Good photographers know that the trick to making the subjects of a photo look relaxed and natural is to have the people on camera gather close, reach out to one another—maybe by placing a relaxed hand on another person’s shoulder—and  chat amongst themselves  to feel at ease. These small ways of socially connecting with other people are reflected in the overall composition of the photograph. In much the same way, an organically structured essay conscientiously builds natural connections among paragraphs so that the overall composition feels cohesive and genuine.

For anyone dreading the loss of the 5PE, the authors of “Organically Structured Essays” offer sage advice: “A good starting place is to recharacterize writing as thinking. Experienced writers don’t figure out what they want to say and then write it. They write in order to figure out what they want to say.” Journaling or freewriting is one way to determine exactly what you want to say and how many points might naturally structure a piece if you weren’t limited by a 5PE.

So, how do we build a sense of connection among our paragraphs? We must think about the paragraphs like we would people in a picture. How will the paragraphs reach out to one another? First, we’ll define what exactly a paragraph is, and then we’ll get into some of the nuts-and-bolts techniques for using paragraphs as units of meaning that forge connections among ideas.

The Paragraph

A paragraph is a unit of text—most likely several sentences in length but not always—that focuses on a particular idea or point. When we divide our writing into these units of text, we do so to break up the flow of information into manageable chunks, which in turn gives structure to how we present our ideas in writing. When you send multiple text messages back-to-back instead of sending one overly long text, you’re writing in paragraphs. When you compose a social media post and hit the spacebar to drop down a line, you’re writing in paragraphs. Whether we realize it or not, most of us write paragraphs every day, but few of us understand how these units of text came to be.

If you enjoy history, you might be interested to know that paragraphs have been around for longer than the invention of paper. Historian of rhetoric Richard Leo Enos posits that the earliest etchings or “scratch marks” around letters on Greek tablets denote early forms of the paragraph (46). In the infamous clay tablet that follows below, you can look closely to see where lines are drawn to break up the flow of ideas. Additionally, scholars now believe that the development of the paragraph derives from the ancient stage direction cue used at intermission, called the parabasis, or the moment at intermission when the chorus would come on stage to sing to the audience between acts (Enos 56). Although there aren’t any choir members hitting high notes between your paragraphs, your paragraphing (the action of breaking your writing up into paragraphs) will function similarly in providing the reader a moment to lay the ideas of the previous paragraph to rest before transitioning to new ideas in the next paragraph.

When to Paragraph

How do you know when “enough is enough”—when you have enough information in one paragraph and have to start a new one? A very rough guide is that you need more than one or two paragraphs per page of type. Paragraphing conventions online require even shorter paragraphs, with multiple short paragraphs on one screen.

It’s best to deal with paragraphs as part of the revision step in the writing process. Find places where the information shifts in focus, and put paragraph breaks in those places. You can do your best to paragraph as you draft but know you’ll address paragraphing more during the revision process.

Building Body Paragraphs

In essays and articles, body paragraphs are those that come in the middle of the text. In other words, if it’s not the introduction or the conclusion paragraph, then it’s a body paragraph. Body paragraphs typically begin with a key sentence (sometimes called a topic sentence) and are followed by one or more sentences that develop claims, paraphrase or directly quote from sources, and synthesize or provide analytical commentary on the evidence provided. At the end of the body paragraph, a concluding sentence wraps up the main point of the paragraph or segues on to the next paragraph.

Once you have identified the topic of your paragraph, you need to think through your ideas and flesh them out so that you’re reader can understanding what you are thinking, what you are feeling, and/or what position you are taking. Below are ways writers and speakers develop their ideas. Remember, writers choose strategies they believe will best reach their audience, including genred expectations. For example, you are unlikely to find personal testimony in an engineering journal. You are equally unlikely to find statistics in a Taylor Swift song. Both strategies are effective, both ways of speaking are powerful, but they speak differently to different audiences.

• Examples or testimony: clarify your meaning and help your reader connect to your ideas with specifics.
• Data: use facts and statistics to support your points.
• Analysis: break the topic down into its constituent parts and then analyze each part.
• Comparison and contrast: highlight your idea’s similarities to or differences from another concept.
• Cause and effect: discuss possible causes of the topic and any consequences or effects it may have.
• Definition: consider whether the topic needs a definition. Would a definition help make your point?
• Evaluation: judge the topic’s value or power by examining possible significance and implications.
• Classification: classify the topic into a group to expound on your definition and provide examples in the form of like items.
• Narration: tell a story about the topic

• Enumeration: follow a numerical pattern of one, two, three . . .
• Chronology: use time to tell a story, or explain how a process unfolds.
• Space: start at the top of whatever you are describing and move to the bottom, or move from left to right, inside to outside, etc.
• General to specific/abstract to concrete: although this pattern can be reversed, usually the general statement comes first, followed by supporting details, explanations, and evidence.
• Order of importance: move from the most important point to the least important, or vice-versa.

Specific word choice can also assist paragraph logic and “flow.” Consider the following:

• Repeat key words to keep the reader focused on your main points. For example, if I am writing about food deserts, I am going to use that term repeatedly as well as associated language like “scarcity,” “access,” “residents,” “healthy,” “affordable,” “hunger,” “vulnerable,” and “at risk” to remind my reader what is at stake.
• Be consistent in number, point of view, and verb tense to keep your readers on track. For example, if you use the plural noun “students” in one sentence, you wouldn’t want to randomly switch to “student” in the next. Likewise, don’t randomly switch between past and present tense.
• Use parallel structure for ideas that are similar. For instance, to describe how writers procrastinate, you might say: “Writers inevitably find ways to put off writing. They answer their email. They pay their bills. They water their gardens. They do everything but write.” Using the same short subject-verb-object sentence structure in the three example sentences reinforces that the delaying tactics listed are similar.

Transitions

Transitions are words or phrases that indicate linkages in ideas. When writing, you need to lead your readers from one idea to the next, showing how those ideas are logically linked. Transition words and phrases help you keep your paragraphs and groups of paragraphs logically connected for a reader. Writers often check their transitions during the revising stage of the writing process. (Note that several of the key sentences in the previous section also include transitions.)

Here are some example transition words to help as you transition both within paragraphs and from one paragraph to the next.

From sentence-to-sentence, paragraph-to-paragraph, the ideas should flow into each other smoothly and without interruptions or delays. If someone tells you that your paper sounds choppy or jumps around, you probably have a problem with transitions. Compare these two sentences:

• Proofreading is an important step in the writing process. Read your paper aloud to catch errors. Use spell check on your computer.
• Proofreading is an important step in the writing process. One technique is to read your paper aloud, which will help you catch errors you might overlook when reading silently. Another strategy is to use spell check on your computer.

The second example has better transitions between ideas and is easier to read. Transitions can make a huge difference in the readability of your writing. If you have to pick one aspect of your writing to focus on during the revision process, consider focusing on adding effective transitions to help your reader follow your thinking.

Concluding Statements

Ending a paragraph is comparable to politely leaving one conversation before you begin another. Most people try not to “ghost” their friends by exiting in the middle of a conversation. Instead, they use verbal and non-verbal cues to indicate that the conversation is coming to a close. Why? Because people love having a sense of closure at the end of social exchanges.

Writing, like talking at a party, is another type of social exchange. When you write a paragraph, you’re communicating ideas that help to build relationships and understanding between you and your reader. At the end of a paragraph, your reader expects you to give some closure to the discussion with a concluding sentence that ties the paragraph up in a neat and tidy bow. Perhaps your concluding sentence ties up several loose ends by bringing all the ideas together in one statement that unifies or demonstrates the connections among the ideas discussed. Or you might opt instead to comment on how the points are very relevant to your shared interests or could be points of further discussion. Finally, you might segue by moving the conversation in a new direction or toward a new idea.

Here’s an example of a segue sentence that transitions the reader out of the topic of one hypothetical paragraph (maybe focused on disputing the long-term viability of cults from a sociological perspective) and into the topic of the next paragraph (which might be a historian’s evidence-based perspective on cults):

Although plenty of sociologists have debated the long-term viability of cults, some historians provide contradictory evidence to confirm the staying power of cults over time.

Do you see how the example concluding sentence points back before pointing forward? This rhetorical move ties up the focus of the last paragraph while also working to keep the reader interested in what comes next.

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Text Introductions

Many writers share that they have trouble getting started writing an introduction. By the time they’ve reached the midway point of the essay, they might feel like they’re cruising toward a smooth conclusion paragraph; however, the time they spend staring at a blank page up until that midway point can feel paralyzing. To save yourself time, it’s important to clearly understand what most audiences expect to be in an introduction paragraph and to try one of these tried-and-true strategies for opening your piece.

First, know that an introduction paragraph can take on many different forms. In some genres of writing, the introduction will be spread across a few short paragraphs, but in traditional academic writing it tends to be centralized into one primary paragraph at the beginning of the piece. In this first paragraph, the introduction typically begins with an attention-getting hook, a clear statement of the topic to be explored, a central message in the form of a thesis statement or tagline, any additional background information that is needed, and a sense of exigency or urgency that is invoked to make the topic appealing to the reader. Sometimes the elements needed in a solid introduction can overlap. As is the case in all writing scenarios, you should ask yourself “What does the paragraph need in order to fill in any gaps and make sense to the reader?” as opposed to “What elements of an introduction have I not included yet?” With much to consider, let’s start by covering what the elements entail.

A hook is typically the first sentence in your piece and the one that grabs the interest of the reader. Hooks come in many forms and serve various functions. To choose the right hook for your piece, you might ask yourself: “What do I want the reader to be enticed by at the start of this piece? What information would hook me if I were the reader?”

Some hooks are very direct in providing thought-provoking information while others opt for a more creative approach. For instance, it’s common for writers to begin a piece with a startling statistic or fact to entice the reader to keep reading. Occasionally, facts from history, case studies of particular people, or a relevant quotation pave the way for a smooth introduction into the topic at hand. On the flip side, creative hooks might set the scene for the reader through the development of a personal sketch, a fascinating dialogue between two people, a brief narration of a scene, a bold or shocking statement, or a thoughtful question. These are just a few strategies to consider when deciding how to hook your reader.

After you’ve hooked your reader, you will want to provide enough background information on the topic in order to help the reader understand the focus of the piece. For example, you might be writing a paper on a dangerous cult leader, and so the initial background information you provide can offer the reader specific context that is essential to understanding the focus of the piece. In journalism, a funny term for providing such context is the “nut graf” or “nut graph,” which is a sentence or two detailing the most important facts of the story. To write out these contextually rich sentences, consider using the 5 Ws + 1 H heuristic, which involves asking yourself what the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the piece is? In this cult leader context, you might ask yourself:

Who is the cult leader?

What cult did they lead?

Where did the cult form?

When did the cult form?

Why did the cult end?

And how did the cult function in society?

After answering those questions, I might respond with the following nut graf:

David Koresh led the Branch Davidians, a religious cult located outside of Waco, Texas, which ended when authorities from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided the cult’s facilities in 1993.

Notice how every question that was originally posed can be answered by the statement above. It’s relatively simple and straightforward, and yet lots of necessary information is packed into one sentence so that the introductory paragraph isn’t overly long.

You can read more about thesis statements in Chapter 4, and you might consider how thesis statements can augment a sense of exigency, or the feeling that you need to become involved in or take immediate action in response to an issue, event, or crisis. A first paragraph introducing a 1990s religious cult might not seem like a timely topic that people need to take action on. However, if you remind readers that history can repeat itself and religious or political zealots must always be kept in check, then you will build a sense of exigency that will motivate your reader to keep reading into the body paragraphs.

It’s worth noting that not all writers compose their introduction paragraphs first. In fact, some writing teachers insist that the best way to get started is to begin writing out your body paragraphs first, and once you know what the bulk of your paper will cover, you can write the introduction paragraph last. One of the biggest benefits of this approach is that you won’t spend too much time toiling over an introductory paragraph that you’ll want to change later because it doesn’t represent how fruitfully your ideas evolved through the process of writing. Although this approach doesn’t work for everyone beginning a new draft, this approach can be helpful later in the writing process, too. That is, if you begin your composing of a piece by writing the introduction paragraph first and your body paragraphs later, consider rereading and revising your introduction to ensure that it accurately reflects what follows in the subsequent paragraphs.

Text Conclusions

Unlike the grand entrance the introduction makes, the conclusion paragraph often plays second fiddle, which means that it takes on more of a supporting role. Certainly, your conclusion can have just as big of a starring role in the overall production of your piece as the introduction does, but the rhetorical impact of this paragraph is largely up to you and dependent upon the expectations of your audience. Nevertheless, there are a few key moves that function like stage cues in how well they refocus the reader’s understanding of the overall performance of the piece by this ending point.

1. Cue the Finish. Choosing the right introductory phrase to indicate that your piece is coming to a close. Some phrases that will help signal to your readers that the end is near include: “In conclusion…” “Overall…” “In light of…” “Furthermore…” “Finally” or “Lastly.” Many more exist, but you might try experimenting with one of those phrases so that the reader knows you’re wrapping up.
2. Restate Your Argument. Harken back to your thesis statement or the controlling idea you led with in the introduction paragraph. You might reword or try to paraphrase what you originally wrote, or you can even try to add onto this initial argument with additional key details or claims that came up in your body paragraphs. The purpose of a sentence or two restating your argument isn’t to bore the reader or yourself with old information but to give a sense of cohesion and completeness to the overall piece.
3. Call to Action. Much like the exigency established in the introduction, the conclusion paragraph should stress the importance of the topic or issue explored in the piece. Ideally, the emphasis placed on the seriousness of the issue motivates the reader to take action and provides actionable steps the reader can take in order to effect change. For instance, you might list a few easy steps that readers can take in order to reduce their carbon footprint on a daily basis or you might share information on how to sign a petition for policy reform. The more specific and attainable the action step is, the more likely the reader is to act.
4. Focus on the Future. If a call to action doesn’t quite work with the topic you explored in your piece, you might create a final, future-oriented sentence. Some writers might gesture back to a startling statistic delivered earlier in the piece or others might end on a positive note of hope. In the latter scenario, it’s not uncommon for writers to ask their readers parting questions, such as, “Twenty years from now, will the children living at the Texas border know a better life than they do today?” or “Having read this piece, will you go to school tomorrow thinking about how you can be more supportive of your neurodiverse classmates?”

Remember, these strategies for closing can take many forms. You can end with a metaphor, a description, dialogue, a question, a declaration, a word.

Arranging body, introduction, and conclusions paragraphs

The genre you’re writing in will likely be the most important determining factor in deciding when to paragraph or where to place your paragraphs. For example, the organizing principles for an argumentative essay based on research and citation of multiple sources will require you to think about where you’ll place the paragraphs that make the strongest points, whereas an analysis essay may require a spatial or appeals-based organization that guides the reader through various elements within a written, oral, visual, or electronic artifact. In this section, we’ll discuss different theories guiding writers’ arrangement of paragraphs.

• Primacy vs. Recency. To elaborate on the organization of argumentative, research-based essays, some writers tend to think in terms of primacy versus recency. When a writer steps back to look at the many paragraphs they wrote, they might rearrange paragraphs to place their strongest points in strategic locations. When organizing with primacy in mind, a writer might place paragraphs featuring their strongest claims and evidence early on in the piece to persuade readers from the start. With primacy, the writer strategically chooses if they want their reader to encounter persuasive information immediately so that they read the rest of the essay in agreement with the author. When a writer arranges the paragraphs to build toward or end with their strongest paragraphs toward the end, then the writer is organizing with recency in mind. Arranging paragraphs to end with the most persuasive information can help to win over a skeptical audience needing more information to be built into the body of a text before deciding if they’ll agree with the author.
• Chronological. Of course, some texts lend well to chronological organizations. If you’re writing an essay that will contain many dates or pertinent historical events, then a chronological organization enables you to arrange paragraphs in accordance with a historical timeline. For analyses, a chronological order sometimes works to support the writer and reader in moving carefully, one-by-one through the placement of features of a text to be analyzed. For narrative essays, a chronological organization can feel like an easy go-to method for developing your organization. However, take special caution to avoid giving a simplified plot summary for narrative essays, and consider structuring a narrative essay out-of-order or in a non-linear fashion much like thriller movies do to keep the audience interested and piecing together what happens next.
• Spatial. A spatial organization can be incredibly helpful for arranging paragraphs in analysis papers, particularly those that are geared more toward visual rhetorical analysis. Spatial relates to the word space, and when conducting a spatial analysis, you might think about how the eye moves across the space of a text. For example, when we naturally analyze, our eyes tend to look for focal points, centering objects, or the directions lines create. When we start by analyzing what we see first, next, and so on, we take the reader with us as we visually break down numerous elements of a text. Imagine you’re looking at a painting of a fruit bowl in a museum, and there’s a gigantic pineapple sitting in the center of all the other fruits. As opposed to a chronological organization, which moves in a left-to-right linear order, a spatial organization might start in the center of a picture because the largest element is anchored there. After analyzing the color, texture, and stylistic features of the pineapple, you would move not to the element right next to it but to the next element in the painting that catches your eye. Maybe you notice a corner window shining light onto the bowl. That would be the next element to write a paragraph of analysis on in your spatial organization.
• Parts- based. In Chapter 4 or 5, more information on the persuasive appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos is provided, and these appeals might be useful to you in organizing an analysis focused on rhetorical appeals. You might consider choosing one of these appeals to develop an argument about how that particular appeal can be used to understand the rhetorical purpose of a text. On the other hand, some students favor speaking to each of the appeals by giving a paragraph or more to each one. If you go this route, be sure to actively contemplate if you want to touch on each of the three appeals in order to form a 5PE or if your instructor would like to see you write beyond a 5PE.

Using Mentor Papers

In this chapter, we began with the concept and purpose of organically structured essays, which stands in stark contrast to the standardized, familiar 5PE approach that writers most often come to know in high school writing classrooms. When aiming for the organically structured essay approach, it’s important to think about paragraphs as units of text that can be structured and arranged to increase clarity and cohesion for the reader, which is why this chapter focused on how to effectively build, structure, and arrange paragraphs. The differences between body paragraphs versus introduction or conclusion paragraphs were also explored, and the final section touched on ideas for organization.

More helpful than any generalized schematic, however, is using model papers to understand the genre you are writing in or to generate ideas for how to structure your work based on similar work. Managing text organization can feel like a juggling act, and most of us don’t know how to juggle (yet). It is also worth acknowledging that your piece’s organization will change as you move through different drafts of your text and come to different understandings about your work, your ideas, and your audience.  Composition studies scholar Ann Berthoff once compared the great balancing act that is writing to learning how to ski:

Let me speak from my experience as a profoundly unathletic person . . . [My ski instructor’s instruction was to do thus and do so with my knees, to hold my arms this way and not that way, etc.] All that happened was that I continually pitched forward and fell in the snow. But suddenly across the meadows, I saw a figure going like the wind—a young man in shorts and a tee shirt, obviously a serious skier! And as I watched I suddenly saw the whole shape of the act of skiing; I saw the Gestalt; I got the rhythm, the allatonceness of the action. I did what I saw and I shot across the snow! What I needed was not a model which could show me how the various gestures and stances and operations fitted together, but an image of how cross-country skiing looks, and kinesthetically, how it feels. The image of the skier gave me the whole process; it represented the allatonceness of cross-country skiing. (89)

Berthoff is suggesting that sometimes we need to stop and study how others are writing before launching confidently into our own process of organizing a piece. Look for opportunities to study models, to talk to other students in your class about how they’re organizing their papers, or even to ask your instructor questions about their writing process sometimes. Instructors are often happy to pull back the curtain on organizational techniques that work for them, but you may not know until you ask.

Attributions

“Key Sentences,” Lumen Learning, CC BY: Attribution, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1/chapter/topic-sentences/.

“Organically Structured Essays,” Lumen Learning English Composition I. CC BY-NC-SA, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1/chapter/organically-structured-essays/.

“Paragraphing and Transitioning,” Excelsior OWL, CC BY: Attribution, http://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/paragraphing/paragraphing-and-transitioning/.