Thinking Outside the Five-Paragraph Essay

14 June 2012

Students at the University of Texas-Southmost College work on a writing assignment in an English as a Second Language class in 2006

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Millions of students have been taught a formula that has nothing to do with chemistry. The formula is for how to write a five-paragraph essay. First, write an introductory paragraph to state the argument. Then, add three paragraphs of evidence. Finally, write a conclusion.

Linda Bergmann is director of the Writing Lab at Purdue University in Indiana. Her job is to help students, including international students, improve their writing. Professor Bergmann has worked with many students who learned this traditional five-paragraph formula.

LINDA BERGMANN: "It is kind of like, 'A is true because one, two, three.' The second paragraph is the first reason, next paragraph the second reason. The next paragraph is the final reason, and then the last paragraph is, 'So we can see that this is true.'"

Professor Bergmann says international students sometimes have difficulty with this formula if they learned a different writing structure. But just knowing how to write a five-paragraph essay is not going to be enough for a college student who has to write a longer academic paper. As Professor Bergmann points out, the formula is too simple to deal with subjects that require deeper thought and investigation.