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What is wrong with the Five- Paragraph-Essay?

What is wrong with the Five- Paragraph-Essay?. W hen is it appropriate?. Ideas should dictate Shape. What's wrong is that this is a shape dictating an idea.  In college-level writing, the ideas should be dictating the shape that the paper takes. . Ideas Should Dictate Shape.

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What is wrong with the Five- Paragraph-Essay?

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  1. What is wrong with the Five- Paragraph-Essay? When is it appropriate?

  2. Ideas should dictate Shape • What's wrong is that this is a shape dictating an idea.  • In college-level writing, the ideas should be dictating the shape that the paper takes.

  3. Ideas Should Dictate Shape • And because three points are dictated, there is a real tendency to name ANY three points--related or not, equal level or not, parallel or not--in order to fit the formula. And woe if there are only two, and four or more just can't be considered.

  4. And woe if there are only two, and four or more just can't be considered.

  5. Stacked Organization On top of the shape driving the content, this structure tends to promote a stacked organization, where one idea is plopped on top of the other, often with a first, second, finally transitions. 

  6. Weak Structure Not the house to live in--and not the paper to read because, if the readers don't die of predictability, they will exhaust themselves trying to make the connections that the writer should have made.

  7. College Expectations • College--believe it or not--is about ideas and students developing credibility as thinkers.  The relationships between the concrete and abstract and between the students' thinking and the thinking of experts simply require more sophisticated organization and development.  • Simple sentences aren't sufficient to make the necessary connections and stacked organization isn't either.

  8. When is 5 paragraph Okay? • Yes, five-paragraph essays are great for an exploratory draft to learn what you are thinking.  Often, by working through the formula a solid idea will emerge in the concluding paragraph that will function as a strong thesis for the next draft driven by ideas rather than this formula.

  9. When is a 5 paragraph Okay? • The five-paragraph is often a useful strategy for essay-exams in content courses.  Because the graders will be looking for a clear statement of purpose early on and evidence that each point is developed, the formula can be useful on some testing occasions.

  10. Your Turn: Can you find a Five Paragraph Essay in Patterns? • In a group of 3 students each of you pick an essay we haven’t read and map out the structure and purpose of each paragraph. • Do any of these essays have the five-paragraph structure? • If so, How does the structure serve the purpose? • If not, what is the pattern of the paragraphing? • Identify the purpose of each paragraph: i.e.: elaborate, extend, define, etc.

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