The Dreaded Five Paragraph Essay

My arch nemesis in middle school and high school was the five paragraph essay.

I'm sure you've encountered it, being how pretty much every kid in North America has been taught to write an essay for the past several decades.

The five paragraphs go like this:

Start with a summary of your topic or argument and the three points you're going to make.

Point 1

Point 2

Point 3

Summarize everything you just said.

In other words, as the teachers said, say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you said.

So, imagine my irritation when I was consistently marked down because my essay was too repetitive. But then, if I went off script, I got dinged for going off the template.

There was no winning!

It has occurred to me time and time again, why five paragraphs?

Long paragraphs are hard to read; we know this because we delete emails of them every day. Plus, sometimes a one-sentence paragraph can be really compelling.

Like this one.

And for that matter, who reads essays?!?

It's like preparing for the big game in a sport that doesn't exist.

We knew we were writing essays for the teacher. But, we were never told why this was important or how we could use it one day.

While we were held to an impossible essay structure, I wish we were taught how to write for a specific audience. Or, how to write in a compelling manner that might create change. That would have been pretty cool.

But then, that's what blogs are for.

See that one-sentence paragraph there? The one where there was maybe a tiny emotional blip inside you that would have been marred by a longer paragraph?

Let's get creative in our writing, just like our music. Bring on the one-sentence paragraphs, the made-up words, and the courage to write something remarkable.

That's the writing that changes lives.

(See? Another one-sentence paragraph. I've now ruined the moment with this sidebar, but I couldn't pass on one more teaching opportunity.)