Writing an Excellent 5-Paragraph Essay

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Writing an Excellent 5-Paragraph Essay
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What is a teacher looking for in an essay?

• Meaning
• Language
• Conventions
• Organization
• Development

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What is meaning?

• This is exactly what it sounds like. Your
  teacher looks at your essay to make sure it makes
  sense and actually has meaning.
• An essay should be logical and it should be
  obvious what you are trying to prove.

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What is language?

• Being graded on language means your teacher
  evaluates the words you use in your essay and how
  you put them together.

• Use the right word! Dont use a big word if you
  dont know what it means.
• Use a variety of words. Try not to use the same
  word over and over. It makes your writing
  boring.
• Use a variety of sentence structures. Dont
  start all your sentences the same way.

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What are conventions?

• Conventions are the standard rules of the English
  language. Teachers and readers look at your
  writing to see how closely you followed all the
  rules of

• Grammar
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Formatting

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What is organization?

• Perhaps the most important part of writing an
  essay is keeping it organized.
• There are four important things you must do to
  have an organized essay.

• Develop a clear thesis.
• Develop 3 excellent topic sentences that prove
  your thesis.
• Stay on topic within each paragraph as you prove
  your topic sentence.
• Make clear and meaningful transitions between
  ideas and paragraphs.

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What is a thesis?

• A thesis is a provable statement that tells what
  your whole essay will be about.
• A quality thesis states opinion as fact.
• An excellent thesis is clear, concise and easy
  for your reader to understand.
• Your thesis will become the last sentence in your
  introduction.
• Your thesis should be the right size.
• If it is too narrow, you wont be able to write
  five whole paragraphs about it.
• If your thesis is too big, you will fail to
  actually prove it in five paragraphs.

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What is a topic sentence?

• The first sentence of each body paragraph should
  be a topic sentence.
• The topic sentence should prove the thesis! If
  the topic sentence does not prove the thesis it
  is no good and you should think of a new one.
• Your job as a writer is to prove each topic
  sentence, thus proving the thesis!

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Is this an excellent thesis?

• The most important quality of a good student is
  that he/she knows a lot about Shakespeare.
• No! This is more like a topic sentence. It is
  too narrow. It would be very difficult to write
  5 whole paragraphs about this topic.

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How about this?

• An excellent student must be very smart.
• This isnt very good either. This is too vague
  and broad. We need a thesis somewhere in the
  middle of these two.

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Like this.

• In order to be an excellent student, the
  individual must possess not only the qualities of
  curiosity and determination, but also a keen work
  ethic.

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Once you have a thesis and three points that
prove the thesis

• You are well on your way to having an organized
  essay!
• Just make sure you stay on topic within your
  paragraph!
• If your topic sentence is that a good student
  must have a strong work ethic, that is THE ONLY
  THING you can write about in that paragraph!
• Stay focused on your topic!!

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That just leaves Development!

• A developed essay has enough evidence in each
  paragraph to prove the topic sentence.
• A good rule to follow is that you need to present
  and analyze three pieces of evidence to prove a
  topic sentence.

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If you pay attention to all of these elements

• Meaning
• Language
• Conventions
• Organization
• Development

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You can write excellent 5 paragraph essays for
your summer reading test!!
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SUMMER READING TESTFormat

• You will need to write two five paragraph essays
  (one for each book) for your summer reading test.
  Each essay will be graded on Meaning,
  Development, Organization, Language and
  Conventions.
• Essay Topics Each essay topic will include a
  famous quotation. You will need to apply the
  quotation to your specific readings in order to
  write the essay.

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Write down these two quotations

• I like flawed characters because somewhere in
  them I see more of the truth. Nicolas Cage
• All literature is protest. You cant name a
  single literary work that isnt protest.
  Richard Wright

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Practice Essay Outline

• Using one of the quotations as a focus for your
  outline, create a clear and compelling thesis
  statement about one of your summer readings.
• When you are finished, I will come check your
  work before you move on to Topic Sentences.