Doctorate Students Writing Class Steve Peterson [email protected] Week 4 “ 5-paragraph Essay ”...

Doctorate StudentsDoctorate Students Writing Class Writing Class

Steve PetersonSteve [email protected]@yahoo.com

Week 4Week 4““5-paragraph Essay”5-paragraph Essay”

““Writing an Introduction”Writing an Introduction”““Examples of Purpose Examples of Purpose

Statements”Statements”

Writing the 5-Paragraph Writing the 5-Paragraph EssayEssay

A Concise, Clear A Concise, Clear Presentation of Your IdeasPresentation of Your Ideas

When you present your ideas in an essay in English, you should use the style of writing that suits this language.

The five-paragraph essay helps you to do that by stating your idea at the beginning, giving clear support, and then re-stating your idea at the end.

Writing the 5-Paragraph Writing the 5-Paragraph EssayEssay

There is nothing special about the 5-paragraph essay except that it is a clear way of showing us how to write using the western structure of writing. The main goal of learning about the 5-paragraph essay is to teach us the western structure of writing.

Most essays will not be exactly 5 paragraphs long, some will be shorter and others longer.

The FormatThe Format

Introductory paragraphIntroductory paragraph Supporting paragraph #1Supporting paragraph #1 Supporting paragraph #2Supporting paragraph #2 Supporting paragraph #3Supporting paragraph #3 Concluding paragraphConcluding paragraph

The format you use is quite straightforward:


The Introductory Paragraph

• The introduction is always the first paragraph in an essay. It will always contain the purpose statement which is usually located at the end of the introduction. This is the most important sentence in the essay. The rest of the essay will be related to this sentence.


The Supporting Paragraphs• This is called the Body of the essay.

These paragraphs explain, define, clarify and illustrate the purpose statement. Each paragraph consists of a topic sentence, several supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. The number of paragraphs depends on the length of the assignment. We will learn more about these in another class.


Concluding Paragraph• This paragraph completes the essay

usually by summarizing what has been written.


Purpose Statement and Plan• When beginning to write an essay the

first thing you must do is write a purpose statement. You must also know the main supporting points for the purpose statement. This is what we call the plan for the essay.

The first step is to choose a topic. For example:

Smoking is bad.

Purpose Statement and Purpose Statement and PlanPlan

Now you’re ready to put together your main idea and support ideas, which we will call the “Purpose statement,” and “plan,” respectively.


A primary subject.A primary subject.

A definite opinion.A definite opinion.

TIP Your purpose statement is

usually the last sentence of your introductory paragraph.

Your Purpose statement should have two things:

Purpose StatementPurpose Statement

A Purpose Statement should have a primary subject that can be written about in the space that you have.

For example, “Love” is not a very good subject for a 5-paragraph essay, because it is too broad.


The Purpose Statement should have a definite opinion because we can not say much about facts; they are either true or not true.

So, we create a sentence like . . .


Smoking is an awful habit.



We have our primary subject, “smoking” . . .



And our definite opinion, “it’s an awful habit.”

PlanPlan

The plan lets the reader know how you will develop your idea.

Try to avoid sentences like, “I will write about ….” or “I will prove my argument in this way . . . .”

It can be very effective if you put your purpose statement and plan together in one sentence, though this is not necessary.

PlanPlan

Since we are writing a five-paragraph essay, let’s choose 3 supporting points.

PlanPlan

Smoking is dirty Smoking makes you smell bad. Smoking damages your health.

PlanPlan

Smoking is dirty, it makes the smoker smell bad, and it damages the smoker’s health.

Now let’s put them together:

Smoking is an awful habit, because it is dirty, it makes the smoker smell bad, and it damages the smoker’s health.


Now let’s put the Purpose Statement and Plan together:

Introductory paragraphIntroductory paragraph

Now that we have the main idea, and how we will develop it, let’s start to build our whole introductory paragraph.

Introductory ParagraphIntroductory Paragraph

Your introductory paragraph should do two things. First, catch the reader’s attention so that the reader will be interested in your topic. After the reader has read the introduction they should want to continue to read what you have written. Second, It should also tell him/her what the main idea of your paper is.

Introductory paragraphIntroductory paragraph

There are four parts to this paragraph: Motivator Transition Purpose Statement Plan

MotivatorMotivator

Catch the attention and interest of the reader;

Stimulate the reader’s curiosity.

The idea of the motivator is to . . .

MotivatorMotivator

• An Interesting Story• A Surprising Fact or Idea• An Opposite Opinion• A Quotation• A Rhetorical Question

An effective motivator might use . . .

MotivatorMotivator

An Interesting Story:

-the main point of your story should be related to the rest of your essay.

MotivatorMotivator

My nephew, a middle school student, indulged in computer games last year. When his classes were over he would rush out of the classroom and go into the internet bars which were located near his school. Though he got great joy from the computer games, he failed in the National Exam this summer. He is now full of pain and regret.

MotivatorMotivator

A Surprising Fact or Idea:

Example:

• Soon there will be more divorces in the United States than marriages.

MotivatorMotivator

An Opposite Opinion

• -In such an introduction, your purpose statement contradicts what many or most people believe.

MotivatorMotivator

Example of Opposite Opinion:• Recently, many articles have been written

that oppose people having the freedom to own their own gun. They say this freedom increases the level of crime and lowers the sense of safety and security. Despite these facts, I believe every person should have the freedom to buy and use a gun if they choose.

MotivatorMotivator

A Quotation:• This is likely to catch the reader’s

attention. You can then continue by agreeing or disagreeing with this quote. Make sure the wording of the quote is accurate.

MotivatorMotivator

Quotation:Example:

“Marriage is the tomb of love.”

MotivatorMotivator

A Rhetorical Question:• A rhetorical question asks a question that

the body of the essay will answer and discuss. The purpose of a rhetorical question is to cause the reader to think more deeply about the topic that will be written about in the essay.

MotivatorMotivator

A Rhetorical Question:

Example:

What are the key factors in having a successful marriage? Marriage is an important part of the lives of many people. It is important to know what the key factors of a successful marriage are.

Motivator--Motivator--Smoking

Look at the following example related to smoking. This is a combination of “Opposite Opinion” and “Telling a story”.

There she was, Mary Jones, looking absolutely stunning in her long black dress, beautiful eyes, and cigarette lying on her red lips. This wonderful actress was the image of feminine beauty in the 1950’s, letting women know that a cigarette was as important a part of a woman’s clothing as her dress.

MotivatorMotivator

Doctorate Students Writing Class Steve Peterson [email protected] Week 4 “ 5-paragraph Essay ”...

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