5 Paragraph Essay

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5 Paragraph Essay

• A Step By Step Guide

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5 Paragraphs

• Introduction
• Body Paragraph 1
• Body Paragraph 2
• Counter Argument 3
• Conclusion

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THESIS STATEMENT

• WHAT IS YOUR THESIS STATEMENT?

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Your Thesis Statement is the trunk of the tree
that will be your essay

• A thesis statement is the LAST sentence of your
  introduction and is only ONE sentence.
• Your thesis will be what supports your entire
  essay
• A thesis statement presents your opinions or
  thoughts on a subject or an issue.
• You cannot write an essay without one. A thesis
  statement must contain a subject an sub point
  for each body paragraph
• A thesis statement answers the topic question
  (the one you created or the one presented to you
  by the instructor).
• Thesis statement should never contain the
  following In my opinion, I think, I believe,
  etc.

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INTRODUCTION (PARAGRAPH 1)

• FIRST YOU NEED A HOOK!
• A hook is a statement or a few that interests and
  orients the reader on the topic of your paper
• You can use a quote from the story, a quote
  someone said that relates to your topic,
  statistic but it MAY NOT be a question
• THE HOOK DRAWS THE READERS INTEREST!

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INTRODUCTION(Paragraph 1)

• Once you have stated your hook, you want to
  TRANSITION into Flowers for Algernon and your
  topic.
• Provide a sentence that links your hook to you
  TAG (title, author, genre)
• Example Society has become a shallow place. If
  an individual does not fit into societies form of
  the normal person ,then they are treated
  differently. But, does society treat those who
  are different in a negative or positive way? An
  in depth look into the treatment of individuals
  in today's society is the overarching questions
  that Daniel Keyes provides in the short story
  Flowers for Algernon.

Where is the transition from the hook to the TAG?
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INTRODUCTION

• TAG (TITLE, AUTHOR, GENRE) of what novel or short
  story you are writing about!
• Provide three-four sentences of background
  information of the story that RELATES to your
  topic.
• Example Society has become a shallow place. If
  an individual does not fit into societies form of
  the normal person ,then they are treated
  differently. But, does society treat those who
  are different in a negative or positive way? An
  in depth look into the treatment of individuals
  in today's society is the overarching question
  Daniel Keyes provides in the short story Flowers
  for Algernon. The main character, Charlie, has a
  very low intelligence and has always wanted to be
  smart. A surgery has been created to increase
  intelligence and Charlie has been chosen to
  receive that surgery. The surgery , however,
  causes Charlies intelligence to deteriorate but
  before it does, he is able to experience a life
  as a genius.

Where is the background information?
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INTRODUCTION

• The last sentence of your introduction is your
  thesis.
• Make sure that it is ONE sentence.
• Society has become a shallow place. If an
  individual does not fit into societies form of
  the normal person ,then they are treated
  differently. But, does society treat those who
  are different in a negative or positive way? An
  in depth look into the treatment of individuals
  in today's society is the overarching question
  Daniel Keyes provides in the short story Flowers
  for Algernon. The main character, Charlie, has a
  very low intelligence and has always wanted to be
  smart. A surgery has been created to increase
  intelligence and Charlie has been chosen to
  receive that surgery. The surgery , however,
  causes Charlies intelligence to deteriorate but
  before it does, he is able to experience a life
  as a genius. Even though Charlie experienced what
  it is like to feel smart, he is better off before
  the surgery because ______a_____, and
  ________b________.

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Note Make sure that your 2 sub points in your
thesis are in the order of your paragraphs
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Topic sentence

• Topic sentence is about introducing the main idea
  of a paragraph- your first topic sentence should
  be your first sub point in your thesis
• It relates the paragraph to the essay's thesis
  and it also signals to the reader what your
  paragraph will be about
• Should set up ideas that inform the reader what
  points you will be addressing
• It is ONE sentence and it is the FIRST sentence
  of each body paragraph
• Example Many fast-food chains make their profits
  from adding a special ingredient called secret
  sauce" to their foods.

all sentences in the paragraph must relate in
some way to fast food, profit, and secret sauce"
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Review

• First you have your topic sentence in each body
  paragraph
• Each topic sentence corresponds to each sub point
  in your thesis
• Your topic sentence is one sentence
• It is the first sentence in each paragraph
• Your paragraph will only discuss the information
  you provide in your topic sentence

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BODY PARAGRAPH

• After you have written your topic sentence, you
  want to transition into you quote
• You want to link your topic sentence to your
  quote with one-three sentences
• Example (TS) In the beginning, when Charlie is
  ignorant and unaware, he does not get hurt.
  (Transition into quote) Charlie works at a
  factory as the janitor and believes that two men
  at the factory named Joe Carp and Frank Reilly
  are his friends, when they are actually making
  fun of him. Charlie tries to figure out what is
  happening when he is getting teased, but it is
  hard to understand Quote (55).

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BODY PARAGRAPH 1

• You have your topic sentence-first sub point in
  thesis
• Transitional sentence(s) into quote
• Next task, choosing a quote!
• You are looking for a quote that supports your
  topic sentence and thesis- should be an example
  that defends your thesis (Everything links back
  to your thesis- it is the trunk of your essay!!)

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ANALYSIS The roots of the tree its what
holds up the thesis or trunk
The Interpretation!

• For each quote you want to have A MINIMUM of two
  sentences of commentary for each quote. (That
  does not include the transition into the next
  quote)
• Commentary IS NOT summarization
• It comes from your own brain. Your ideas!
• HOW DO YOU WRITE COMMENTARY??
• The goal of the commentary is to SHOW how your
  quote supports your thesis
• Your task is to show how out of the entire story,
  why does this particular quote best support your
  thesis

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Example

• Thesis for the quote below Yet, what Charlie
  takes for granted is that ignorance is sometimes
  bliss because people who are ignorant dont get
  hurt, are not always lonely, and are hard
  working.
• Example Sometimes somebody will say hey look at
  Joe or Frank or George, he really pulled a
  Charlie Gordon. I dont know why they say that but
  they always laffErnie lost a package. He said
  Ernie for godsake what are your trying to be a
  Charlie Gordon. I dont understand why he said
  that. I never lost any paciges (51).
• What would we write as commentary for this quote?
  Why is ignorance a good thing in order to not get
  hurt?

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Example Commentary for the previous quote

• Remember DO NOT summarize the quote
• Answer the why and how question for each quote
• How does this quote support your thesis
• Why is it important
• Commentary for the previous quote might include
  Because of Charlies ignorance, he did not get
  hurt by his friends comments. His ignorance
  acted as a shield to protect him from the words
  these men stated on a daily basis. His ignorance
  allowed him to stay happy on a daily basis

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Your turn to practice

• Write down a specific quotation from the story
  that supports your thesis.
• Underneath the quote write the phrase this
  shows________. Answer the why question- why is
  this quote important
• Then, think and write down, how does this support
  your thesis

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Chunk 2

• You have completed the interpretation for you
  first quote.
• After your first set of sentences that interpret
  the quote, you need a Lead In to your 2nd
  chunk/2nd quote.
• (commentary from first quote/chunk 1)
• Because of Charlies ignorance, he did not get
  hurt by his friends comments. His ignorance
  acted as a shield to protect him from the words
  these men stated on a daily basis. His ignorance
  allowed him to stay happy on a daily basis. Later
  in the story, Joe and Frank invite Charlie to a
  party and Charlie becomes aware of their teasing
  for the first time.

Transition
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Concluding sentence

• ONE sentence
• Final statement of the paragraph
• Summarizes the main idea of that specific
  paragraph
• It DOES NOT introduce ideas in the next paragraph
• Restate NOT word for word- the topic statement
  and sum of the two examples you have provided in
  the paragraph