What's Wrong with the 5 Paragraph Essay--Part I

Many students learn to write essays using the 5 Paragraph model. Why? Because it is easy to teach, easy for students to grasp, and logical in its design.

Typically, the 5 Paragraph Essay is comprised of 1 Introductory paragraph (with the last sentence serving as the main idea or thesis), 3 body paragraphs (usually focused on 3 points introduced in the thesis), and 1 Concluding paragraph that, to a great extent, repeats the introduction.

While the 5 Paragraph Essay promotes organization and focus through its structure, students will sooner or later realize its limitations, if not toward the end of high school, then definitely when they reach college. Because the formula will eventually prove to be invalid, I think it is important for high school writers to begin to move away from this or any other essay-writing formula.

Consider the issue of length.

An essay following the 5 Paragraph model should probably not exceed 5 pages in length, double spaced. And even that, I would say, is pushing it. What happens when a student is assigned a 12-15 page paper? If the student has only written papers using the 5 Paragraph formula, he or she will end up with paragraphs that are 3 pages long each! There is no maximum length for a paragraph, but keep in mind, a reader is likely to feel bogged down and get frustrated by paragraphs that never seem to end. Excessively long paragraphs can be symptoms of rambling, unfocused writing, too. Even if the writing in such a paragraph is relatively focused, just the appearance of such a long, unbroken block of text can create the impression of rambling, or a poor grasp of organization.

When a teacher assigns a 15-page paper, the teacher is signally the depth to which the subject matter should be explored. A complex examination of almost any subject cannot be confined to a mere 5 paragraphs! That sounds silly! And it leads us to the next problem with the 5 Paragraph Essay: why only 3 supporting points? We'll cover this in a future post!

In the meantime, what do you think about formulaic writing? Is it a useful tool for teaching students? Do you teach the 5 Paragraph model? If so, why? If not, why not? At what point does it outlive its usefulness?