WRITING AN
EXCELLENT
5-PARAGRAPH
ESSAY…
WHAT IS A TEACHER LOOKING FOR IN AN
ESSAY?
Meaning
 Language
 Conventions
 Organization
 Development

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.

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! Don’t use a big word if
you don’t 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. Don’t
start all your sentences the same way.

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
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.

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 won’t 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.

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!

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.
HOW ABOUT THIS?


“An excellent student must be very smart.”
This isn’t very good either. This is too vague and
broad. We need a thesis somewhere in the
middle of these two.
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.
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!!
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.

IF YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ALL OF THESE
ELEMENTS…
Meaning
 Language
 Conventions
 Organization
 Development

YOU CAN WRITE EXCELLENT 5 PARAGRAPH
ESSAYS FOR YOUR SUMMER READING
TEST!!
SUMMER READING TEST~FORMAT
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.

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 can’t name a single
literary work that isn’t protest.”
— Richard Wright
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.
