Throughout the high school and college years, the Five Paragraph Essay is an assignment you will likely familiarize yourself with. This type of essay is primarily used in History and English courses, and for some is a greater challenge than longer essays due to the limitations in content. Proving a point in strictly three body paragraphs tends to be more difficult than having an unlimited body to provide evidence. However, once you are comfortable with the composition of the essay, the assignment is greatly simplified. 1. The Introduction Paragraph An Intro Paragraph consists of three main parts. These are the Topic, the Main Idea, and the Thesis. Topic: The topic of an Intro does NOT refer to the specific essay subject. You should be addressing a broader idea …show more content…
For example, a quotation for maturity could be "Chaos in the world brings uneasiness, but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth." A strong topic can draw a reader in, which as a writer is your primary goal. Main Idea: A main idea is a continuation of the topic. You should aim for the main idea to be AT LEAST five sentences expanding on the original topic. A proper main idea for the quotation used above could include cliché real life examples. In this case, a possibility could be how difficult decision making encourages growth. Thesis: This is where you state your specific argument. Let me just note that your thesis should definitely be developed BEFORE your topic. You have to know what you are arguing for, otherwise you are simply rambling. So let's say we're writing an essay for a novel, and the subject is a character's development. We would first create a thesis we can argue for, and then expand to a topic/main idea. The examples from the topic/main idea sections would fit a thesis which argues HOW the character grows. A thesis should be very specific, down to every detail. A fitting thesis would be "_______ grew out of his dependency on _______ by making his own difficult