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Dear
writer!
Please
review this guideline for a five-paragraph standard essay.
Please
note: this is an essay template only. As a writer, you should primarily
follow customers’ instructions and their requirements regarding essay length
and number of words and overall structure.
Keep
in mind: An essay is a short piece of writing that discusses, describes or
analyzes one topic. It can range in length from one paragraph to more than
twenty. It can be about anything, and be written in almost any style. It can be
serious or funny, straight-forward or symbolic. It can describe personal opinions, or
just report information.
Basic elements of an essay:
1. Introduction (Introductory
Paragraph).
2. Body.
3. Conclusion.
Your
essay should start with an introductory paragraph. There are
actually many different ways to begin an essay; therefore, the format of the
introductory paragraph is flexible. Often, essays begin with a General
Introductory Statement. This statement could be an anecdote, description,
striking statistic, a fact that will lead to your thesis, etc. Beginning this
way, you will use the first few sentences to prepare, or "lay the
groundwork" for your thesis, and use the last sentence of the first
paragraph to present your thesis. However, your thesis statement can be
anywhere in your introduction. In a longer essay, you can even wait to
present your thesis until the second paragraph or later. Also for a
longer essay, you should begin to introduce a few supporting ideas in the first
couple of paragraphs. These supporting ideas should be the topics that
you will discuss in full in your body paragraphs. For a short essay,
presenting supporting ideas during the introduction is optional.
Your
second paragraph generally begins the body of the paper. (For a
longer paper, the body of the paper may not begin until the third paragraph or
later). This paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that introduces
the first supporting idea (the support for your thesis). You should use
the middle of the paragraph to discuss your support, give examples, and analyze
the significance of these examples. Your last sentence of the body
paragraph could be used to draw a conclusion for that supporting idea, or to
transition into the next paragraph.
Your
next two body paragraphs should follow the same format as your first
body paragraph. They should each have a separate topic sentence and
supporting ideas, but the three paragraphs should work together to prove your
thesis. If you are writing a longer paper, you will have more than three
body paragraphs, but they should all follow this format.
The
form of your Conclusion, like your introduction, is flexible. One
good way to conclude a paper is to begin the last paragraph with a statement that
reflects on what has been stated and proved, without repeating it
exactly. Then you should briefly restate your key points to gently remind
the reader how well you proved your thesis. Your conclusion should end
with a statement or idea that leaves a strong impression and provokes further
thought.
(This
guideline is largely based on “English Works! at Gallaudet University”, http://depts.gallaudet.edu/Englishworks/).
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Guideline to Standard Essay Form