The 5 Paragraph Essay Structure Sucks

5 Paragraph Essay Structure Sucks

Why does everything need to fit some kind of model or template? Learning how to write essays in high school and even in intro writing classes in college tell you to write using a paragraph for the introduction, 3 supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

I believe is it has to do with what that writing is for: to become one of potentially hundreds of essays that are graded by one person. It's easier for a grader to see what a student "knows" with a shorter essay using the same structure.

However, this isn't very captivating reading. Transition phrases like, "in this essay" or "In conclusion", blah blah, are just too cliche. Most people don't actually want to read anything like this.

I think a better structure is really dependent on whatever it is you're writing about. I also think it's better to not have any paragraph restrictions for each section of an essay. Rather than making the intro one paragraph, why not have more than one? Something may require a lot more context or discussion about the current thinking about the topic.

![[How-to-Structure-an-Essay.webp]]

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