The Five Paragraph Essay; An Academic Writing Perspective

Last Updated: July 8, 2023

Overview

As an online academic writer, you will write a wide array of papers. These include:

  • Reports
  • Article critiques
  • Financial statements
  • Essays

Of the above, essays are where you will spend most of your time. Understanding the basic structure of an essay is therefore of great importance.

The typical essay will have five paragraphs. That is why it is referred to by the sophisticated name, ‘A five paragraph essay’. 

The five paragraphs of a five paragraph Essay

  • Paragraph 1: Introduction
  • Paragraph 2: Point 1 of the body
  • Paragraph 3: Point 2 of the body
  • Paragraph 4: Point 3 of the body
  • Paragraph 5: Conclusion

Example to further Explain the Structure of a Five Paragraph Essay

Type of Paper: Essay

Subject: English

Number of Pages: 2 pages

Citations: APA

Sources: 0 pages

Additional Instructions: I am a 7th-grade student and I need help writing a 500-word essay about bullying. Focus on the effects of bullying on the victim and his family.

Introduction

The introduction is the door to the rest of the essay. 

Part 1 of the introduction

The first few sentences of the introduction, therefore, introduce the main concept of the essay. There are several ways to introduce a concept. The commonest of which are: 

  • Giving  a definition:

 Example: The introduction statement to the above essay question would define what bullying is.

bullying - Google

A few general statements then follow the definition.

General Statements: 

Bullying is mostly experienced by school going children. Such Bullied Children eventually end up with psychological problems

 

  • Highlight a statistic on the given subject:

Take a look at a  good example for our bullying question below.

11% of children in high schools experience bullying. 

A Note On good practice when
writing the first part of an introduction:

Be as creative as
possible when it comes to this part. It is the only chance you have to capture
your reader’s attention.

Part 2 of the introduction

The second and last part consists of a thesis statement. The thesis statement is a sentence that explains what the paper is about. 

In the case of the bullying question, the thesis statement will go something like this:

‘The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of bullying on the child who is being abused and his or her family’.

Good practice when writing the
thesis statement:

Both the concept
statement and the thesis statement have to be in one paragraph.

Body

The body is where the main arguments of the paper are presented. In the typical five-paragraph essay, the body will have three paragraphs. Each of these paragraphs can be broken down into three components.

  1. Opening statement

A typical paragraph will start with an opening statement. This statement states what the entire paragraph is going to be about.

 Sample opening statement for our essay:

‘Bullying causes low self-esteem on the bullied students.’

2. Supporting Statements

After the opening statement are the supporting statements. Support statements explain the opening statement. 

Sample supporting statements:

For our example above one opening statement may be:

‘Such students with low self-esteem often perform poorly in school. Bullying consequently denies them the opportunity to be successful in life.’

3. Concluding Statement

After 3-5 support sentences, it is time to end the paragraph. This is done using a concluding statement. A good concluding statement summarizes the entire paragraph in one sentence. 

In our case a relevant concluding paragraph would be:

‘Bullying, therefore, needs to end for all students to have an equal chance in life’.

The two remaining paragraphs of the body.

They will each have a unique point on the negative impact of bullying. The structure is the same: 

  • An opening statement
  • A supporting statement
  • A concluding statement

Conclusion

The conclusion is a summary of everything you talked about in the paper.

Sample conclusion:

‘Bullying has great ramifications to the children who are being victimized and their families. To start with, such children lack the self-esteem to excel academically. Their families, on the other hand, have to deal with mental health issues associated with bullying. These effects are enough to push for policies that will completely end bullying.’

Good practice:
Restate what you said. It is unacceptable to copy different parts of your essay and paste them into the conclusion.

The End:
An essay written with such a structure in mind will always make your client happy.