The very aptly named English poet William Wordsworth once said that one should fill
the paper with the breathings of their heart.
Now, writing essays need not contain such personal intimations, but your approach to
writing, whether it's poetry, a shopping list, an email to your family, or an academic essay
should always be consistent with your beliefs and true to yourself.
Hi guys, this is Mark from EssayPro, and today we're going to teach you how to write a five-paragraph essay.
We'll first define what an essay is and we'll talk about the different ways to write them.
We'll also help you create a structure, and anything else you need to know to create a
top class essay that will make you stand out among your peers, and most importantly, get
you top marks.
But before we get started, remember that we publish content every week, so don't forget
to subscribe to our channel, AND click that bell button so you never miss any of the good
stuff from EssayPro.
So today's topic is how to write a five-paragraph essay.
Teachers and tutors will ask you to write essays many times throughout your student life.
Essays are perhaps one of the most common assignments, as they help to reinforce a particularly
significant topic on the student's mind.
This topic may have bearing later in the academic year, in exams, for example, so writing an
essay helps you remember it with more clarity.
If you google the words what is an essay, you're likely to be confronted with a myriad
of responses, each with their own merits and resonance.
But let's stick to the simplest definition, as simplicity is often the key to understanding.
An essay is a short piece of writing on a particular subject.
Now, some people confuse essay with dissertation.
While the principles are similar, the key difference is the length.
An essay is a short piece, while dissertations, also known as theses, are long pieces of writing.
With the definition clear in your mind, let's get down to the business of actually writing it.
There are different types of essays: Narrative Essay, Opinion Essay, Synthesis Essay, and a few more.
We have spoken about some of these before, and we strongly encourage you to review the
videos so you get a solid understanding of the writing process.
Generally speaking, essays can be divided into four broad categories:
Comparative essays, Narrative essays, Argumentative essays, Critical or analytical essays.
Let's explore these categories a bit deeper.
In Comparative Essays, also known as contrast essays, you take two or more issues and use
the essay to analyze and compare these terms.
You'd be looking at their similarities, differences, and explaining why you feel either way.
For example, you might talk about two separate political and social systems (for example,
Capitalism vs communism), two novels of the same genre, two racing cars, and so on and so forth.
These types of essays tell a story, or a sequence of events, told from the writer's experience
and point of view.
A typical application of narrative essays is the 'What I did during the summer' assignment
for the younger student demographic.
Narrative essays are often, but not always, written in the first person.
The author of an argumentative essay would present two separate points of view about
a given issue, and then discuss them.
These essays would feature arguments and facts from one side, then introduce a second set
of arguments and facts that counter or refute the previous ones.
This second set of arguments would usually support the writer's view on the issue itself.
The goal of argumentative essays is to provide the reader with the whole picture, so they
can make up their minds.
For example, you could write an argumentative piece on the introduction of a new tax.
First describe the background of such decision, the practical facts, and then proceed to refute
them in a way that's logical and sound, stating why that tax burden can be avoided by taking
other measures.
A critical essay is a more or less straightforward analysis or evaluation of the ideas and themes
expressed in a given text, film, or other media.
For example, you might want to write a critique about the effect that Uncle Ben's death had
on Peter Parker's subsequent life.
Remember, Peter Parker, Spiderman, had the chance to capture the burglar who later that
day killed his uncle, an event which deeply scarred Spiderman (Parker's) view on morality,
and sealed his resolution to fight crime from then on.
So it is clear that you have to make a choice before the writing process starts.
What type of essay are you going to write?
Remember:
Comparative essays, Narrative essays, Argumentative essays, Critical or analytical essays.
Now, we have talked about structure before.
Remember our video on how to write an article review?
Remember how we discussed the importance of structured writing?
Structured writing is good writing.
Always bear that in mind, regardless if you are just writing a text message, an email,
or a full essay.
Framing your writing makes it look neat, elegant, coherent, and easy to understand.
Structure is your friend.
In this case, you don't have to think too much about the structure, because it has been
suggested to you: Five paragraphs.
The key here is to know how to use that structure to your advantage.
To frame this video, that is to give it structure (remember that structure is your friend) let’s
imagine we have to write a narrative essay.
The topic is a reunion with an old school friend from Denver.
But first, a few hints and tips:
Rule number 1: When writing a narrative essay, always pick a concrete and definite event.A
general, vague, or nondescript event will make the writing substantially more difficult,
as it'd be harder to focus it.
A narrower focus is better.
Rule number 2: Remember, essays tend to be short, and narrative essays are no exception.
You're not writing a novel, nor are you writing a dissertation.
Keep-it-short.
Rule number 3: Detail.
Detail, detail, detail.
A narrative essay is a story, and storytelling needs details that the reader can see, hear,
or smell with their mind.
Include details which convey the realism of the event, and add memorable moments.
So here we go.
You have five paragraphs available.
Let's break each of these paragraphs down:
First paragraph: Introduction and background.
Use your first paragraph to present the topic you are going to talk about, and the importance
and significance that the event had for you.
In our example, meeting an old friend in Denver, you might want to talk about that person,
your relationship with them, the background to the meeting, and the emotional impact that
the reunion might have.
Emotion is a common factor in narrative essays, these are essentially personal stories that
describe an experience or event that the writer went through.
Your writing should convey that emotional quotient.
Second paragraph: The aftermath of the event.
It may seem early in the essay, but you should use the second paragraph to explain the outcome
of the event, what your feelings were afterwards, and what lessons you learned, if there were
any.
You could end the second paragraph by saying something like 'We talked long into the night,
sipping our drinks, listening to the droning noise of the wind outside the bar while we
reminisced about days spent walking around the city in the Autumn mist.
We parted at midnight, and we both knew it'd be the last time we'd see each other.'
See all the details we added here?
The noise of the wind, the mist of Autumn, the midnight hour.
These details tell a story in themselves.
Third paragraph paragraph (and maybe the fourth).
This is the main body of your essay.
This is where you talk about the topic at length, including motivation, the participants,
why the situation arose, and anything else that you think is relevant.
In our example, talk about why you felt there was a need to meet this person.
Perhaps you just wanted to catch up on an old friend visiting town for a day or two.
Or maybe some unspoken romantic feelings needed to be talked about.
Whatever happened in the event, describe it, including your own feelings and thoughts.
And include details.
Always include details.
Usually, you will need two full paragraphs to put whole this stuff to paper.
Use them.
Fifth and final paragraph.
Every story has a conclusion, right?
And since you're writing a narrative essay, and a narrative essay is a story, you need
to add a conclusion to it.
Use the last paragraph to reiterate the aftermath of the event, and how it impacted your feelings
or views.
Think about it as an introspective look about how you felt afterwards.
There is likely to be a lot of emotions involved, so don't be afraid to communicate that through
your writing.
Remember how we talked about the emotional factor?
A powerful closing statement will have a lingering impact on the reader, which will likely lead
to powerful memories, and outstanding marks.
All the writing is done.
Time to relax, right?
Wrong.
Your text might be written, but it's far from ready to be let out into the wild.
Proofreading might be the last step of the process, but it's certainly one of the most
important.
Read through the text to make sure that it flows well, that it's grammatically sound,
and that it does the job it sets out to do.
You might also consider cutting out extra words.
Adverbs tend to creep up here and there, and make for lazy and awkward reading.
Off with as many adverbs as possible.
The final draft should be clean and readable.
Your marks depend on it.
And that's it.
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