The
Critique of the Five-Paragraph Essay
The five-paragraph
essay, a method we have been taught for years, but is it really effective? I say no.
It is confusing as a student when we are being told to write an in depth
paper, yet we are given a limit on how much we are able to express in our
writing. If you are able to fit your
entire paper into five paragraphs, chances are you are not saying enough, or it
is poorly set up. It is important that
you present the argument, as well as showing the counter argument. After you do that, you should prove why the
counter argument is wrong. Now we will
see why it should take more than five paragraphs to create your paper.
In the article
“The Ill effects of the Five Paragraph Essay”, Kimberly Wesley argues that it
is more effective to teach the essay in three parts, the introduction, the
body, and the conclusion. If students
are being taught to write in a set number of paragraphs, they are extremely
limited. The length of a paper depends a
lot on the topic. Some topics can
require the introduction to have more than one paragraph where as others just
require the typical one paragraph. The
body paragraphs can serve a variety of reasons.
It is not just to present your point of view, you can use them to define
terms, review the reading, present and analyze the evidence for your topic, and
arguing the opposing views.
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