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Comp 1101

16 Oct 2022

Controversies of the Five-Paragraph Essay

If you went to high school, you most likely have written an essay before. Maybe your

teacher gave you a word count, or a page requirement, but most (if not all) essays assigned had to

have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This is the most common essay

structure, and it typically takes the form of a 5-paragraph essay, with 3 body paragraphs or main

points. This format has been hammered into students’ heads for years; if you asked a student to

write an essay but didn’t give them any parameters to abide by, chances are, you would receive

an essay made up of five paragraphs. Although the five-paragraph essay is a good starting point

for new writers, it becomes irrelevant in higher-level writing. The rigidity of this template can be

stifling to the writing process.

Kimberly Wesley supports backing away from the 5-paragraph essay, writing that "the

essays that best fulfill [5-paragraph] format requirements often turn out to be neatly packaged but

intellectually vapid" (58). Writing is such a diverse and creative concept that placing these kinds

of restrictions on it can lead to the work falling flat. The five-paragraph format allows students to

churn out essay after essay, but this machine lacks merit.

All of this isn’t to say that this style of essay-writing shouldn’t be taught in schools at all;

the use of the five-paragraph essay format is harmless by itself, and it is certainly a useful tool
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for younger students from an elementary-early high school age. It clearly organizes one’s

thoughts and ideas into digestible chunks, where you merely need to fill in the blanks and add

some quotes and fluff to have a proper essay. However, by the time a student is in, say, freshman

year, they should be taught how to explore many different types of essay-writing, and pushed to

stretch their writing horizons.

The problem comes when students begin using it as a crutch, and cannot rewire their

brains to think in any other way than an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

The once-helpful essay structure now becomes a restrictor, and a way for students to do the bare

minimum without much critical thinking. Kimberly Campbell explains how “reliance on the

[five-paragraph essay] formula keeps students from developing the thinking and organizational

skills they need to support their writing” (22). Part of writing is the ability to challenge yourself

and develop your own personal style, and this essay format can stunt that growth.

Not only is this format restrictive, but it is also not applicable to the real world outside of

high school. I myself had a rude awakening going to my first English composition class in

college, where we were chastised for still relying on the five-paragraph formula to write our

essays for us. Campbell traces the roots of the prevalence of this format to standardized testing,

claiming that many teachers were operating under the assumption that students who wrote

five-paragraph essays received the highest scores (27); however, according to the National

Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges, this notion is untrue (Albertson,

2003).
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This becomes even less relevant as students move on to college, where it is extremely

rare that any professor will ask for an essay formatted strictly into five paragraphs. Beyond

college or university, this formula will be dead in the grave; if you tried to find a professional

research paper or journal that stayed steadfast to an introduction, exactly three body paragraphs

with three main points, and a short conclusion, you would most likely fail to do so. The

five-paragraph essay’s influence fades into irrelevance the further you progress in life, and it

certainly does not stand up to the test of time in the academic world.

The perpetuation of this essay style throughout society has been a controversial topic

among scholars in the field of writing, particularly recently. Many believe that the system should

be abolished entirely, but I believe a less harsh approach exists, and that the five-paragraph

essay should be taught to a certain degree; however, other essay styles should be mixed into

educational instruction to ensure that students are not using it as a crutch to justify mediocre

writing.
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Works Cited

Wesley, Kimberly. “The III Effects of the Five Paragraph Theme.” English Journal

Campbell, Kimberly. “Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay.” Educational Leadership, 2014.

Albertson, B.R. National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges, 2003.