How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay With Power Writing

Writing a five-paragraph essay is not as difficult as it sounds, especially if you use power writing. Power writing is a type of writing and organizational
system that makes it easy to write informational or expository papers. Power writing is similar to outlining.

The Power Umbrella

Once you have picked a narrow topic for your five-paragraph essay such as "my favorite summer activities" or "three places to visit in St. Louis, MO,"
you are ready to fill out the power-writing umbrella. The umbrella is a visual cue to help you remember that all your sentences and paragraphs should fit
under the topic that you have written on your umbrella.
o Draw a large umbrella on your paper. (You do not have to use an umbrella for power writing. You can just write your power outline like a regular
outline if you wish).
o In the top part of the umbrella, write a number 1. This is where you will write your Power 1 sentence or main idea of your five paragraph essay,
such as "My Favorite Summer Activities."
o Underneath the umbrella, write a 2. Then skip a few lines and write another 2. Repeat this process until you have three 2s. These are Power 2s,
which are the topics for each of your body paragraphs.
o Underneath the 2s, write a 3 on each line. The Power 3s will be your details. So, the power writing outline will look something like this (except you
may have drawn an umbrella to go with it) for your five paragraph essay:
1. Opening: My Favorite Summer Activities

2. Swimming at my grandma's pool

3. My cousins are there

3. She has cool rafts and water volleyball

2. Playing on my baseball team

3. I play first base.

3. My favorite part is batting.

3. My best friend is on my team

2. Going to Six Flags

3. I love the roller coasters

3. I like to get an ice cream in a waffle cone

3. I like to see Bugs Bunny

1. Closing: Other summer activities I like, but these three are my favorites

A five-paragraph essay on "My Favorite Summer Activities" will be easy to write once you have a power-writing outline.

 slide 2 of 3

Power Zeros
Some critics of power writing complain that you have no voice when you are writing five-paragraph essays. Power zeros put the voice into the paper. For
example, if you are writing about your favorite summer activities, and one thing you like to do is eat ice cream, you might put a power zero sentence
such as: "I really can't pick which of the thirty-one flavors is best because they all make my stomach so happy." Power zero sentences are often used at
the beginning of the introductory paragraph. In this case, it may be a fun fact or a question such as: "There are only 84 days of summer before I start
fourth grade. I need to start having fun now!"

From Outline to Essay

Once you have your power-writing umbrella outline and you are ready to begin writing your five-paragraph essay, start with the introductory paragraph.
You will use the power one sentence that you wrote on your writing graphic organzer (the umbrella) and include other information to introduce the topic
and let the reader know what to expect from your essay.

The body paragraphs come next. It is important to include as much detailed information as you can about your topic in each of the body paragraphs. You
are not only writing down your power twos and threes in paragraph form. You need to add transition words and sentences, so that the essay flows and
has voice. Here is a sample paragraph about playing baseball from the power-writing umbrella.

o Playing baseball is one of the best ways to spend a summer night. My team, the Enforcers, plays every Tuesday night, and we usually win. My
position is first base, and I am very busy since we are always trying to get the batter out when he hits a ground ball. My best friend, Sam, is also
 on my team, and he plays third base. He is really good at throwing me the ball when we are trying to get someone out. We make a great team!
Even though playing first base is fun, my favorite part of a baseball game is when I get to bat. I love to hit the ball and run around the bases!
Finally, you use your power-writing graphic organizer for writing the conclusion paragraph of your five paragraph essay. The conclusion paragraph's
main job is to wrap up the paper and maybe give an opinion based on the information in the essay. For example, with the summer activity topic, a
concluding paragraph might recap the three favorite activities and then also discuss something else the writer might like to try this summer or something
he is looking forward to, like a vacation.

◄●●●►

References
 The Writing Site: http://www.thewritingsite.org/

Writing Tips for a Five Paragraph Essay

This series focuses on how to write a five paragraph essay. The tips will help you write a five paragraph essay. Sometimes, the hardest parts are the
introdcutory and concluding paragraphs.
1. How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay With Power Writing
2. Writing the Introductory Paragraph of the Five Paragraph Essay
3. Writing the Conclusion Paragraph of the Five Paragraph Essay

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 Resources for Special Education Teachers: Where to Find Sample Five-Paragraph Essays

Strategy in Practice

back to to

Introduce the concept of powers by showing students a simple example that most will be familiar with. Explain to students
that Power Notes are simply another way of helping them organizing their thoughts; other notetaking devices or outlines are
still acceptable, too. A possible example is below:
Power 1. Sports

Power 2. Basketball

Power 3. Court

Power 3. Hoop

Power 3. Orange ball

Power 2. Football

Power 3. Field

Power 3. Endzone

Power 3. Brown ball

Power 2. Baseball

Power 3. Field/Diamond
 Power 3. Bat

Power 3. White ball

Begin a class discussion about the assigned topic or text. Explain to students that they will be learning a systematic way to
organize their thoughts by assigning “powers” to different thoughts/ideas.
As you work through the example above as a class, allow students to provide ideas for the different powers and help explain
to their peers why something belongs as a certain power and not another.
Point out how the powers relate to each other: power 3s offer details, examples, and elaboration of power 2s, power 2s give
examples and details of power 1s, etc. Students may begin to draw these conclusions and share them with their classmates,
as well.
Next, model a short example Power Notes using the assigned topic or text so that students understand what is expected of
them when working with their specific assignment.
Once you feel that students have a firm understanding of the system to use when writing Power Notes (based on things
they've shared in class discussions), have individuals or groups begin their own Power Notes for the assigned text or topic
using the provided Power Notes Printout.
Remind students to first start with Power 1s, then record examples by providing Power 2s, and finally to elaborate and
expand by adding Power 3 and Power 4 details. If some students find it easier to work backwards, allow them to experiment
with their 'system' and share it with you.
Power Notes can continually be expanded upon as students find more details to support their powers and learn more about
the topic.
Upon finishing their basic Power Notes, students can share and discuss their notes with a partner or their class, and they can
be used for a review of the assigned text or topic.
Additionally, Power Notes can be used to introduce paragraphing by developing their outlines into words and phrases, then
expanding their ideas into sentences, and finally, combining the sentences into a paragraph.

Student Interactives
Grades 3 – 12 | Student Interactive | Organizing & Summarizing
ReadWriteThink Notetaker

Useful for a wide variety of reading and writing activities, this outlining tool allows students to
organize up to five levels of information.

Using Outlines

Many writers use an outline to help them think through the various stages of the writing process. An outline is a
kind of graphic scheme of the organization of your paper. It indicates the main arguments for your thesis as well
as the subtopics under each main point. Outlines range from an informal use of indenting and graphics (such as
—, *, +) to a formal use of Roman numerals and letters. Regardless of the degree of formality, however, the
function of an outline is to help you consider the most effective way to say what you want to say.

Outlines usually grow out of working plans for papers. For shorter, less complex papers, a few informal notes
jotted down may be enough. But longer papers are too big to organize mentally; you generally need a more
systematic plan to organize the various parts of the paper. Preparing an outline will help you think over your
notes, consider them from several perspectives, and devise/revise an organizational plan appropriate to your
topic, audience, and assignment. An outline that accompanies the final draft of a paper can also function as a
table of contents for the reader.

When you think of outlines, you usually think of an organizational plan to help you draft a paper, but you can
outline at any one of the several stages of the writing process. At each stage, the outline serves a different
function and helps you answer different writing questions:

USING OUTLINES IN RESEARCH

While you are researching a topic, you can make a tentative outline--a plan for your paper based on what you
are learning from your research. This kind of outline helps you answer the questions: What do I know a lot
about already? What do I need to research more?

Here is an example of a tentative outline a student used to begin doing research for an essay comparing three
different political theories: neo-Marxism, pluralism, and elitism. The writer already knew about two of the
theories, but needed more information about the third.

Neo-Marxism
-power to minority
-emphasizes economics
Pluralism
-power to interest groups
-shifting coalitions of groups
Elitism
-definition
-description
Analysis: United States
-neo-Marxist
-pluralist
-elitist

PRE-WRITING WITH OUTLINES

During pre-writing, you can make a working outline--an outline that guides you in your drafting. It helps you
answer the question: How am I going to present my information, given my thesis, my assignment and my
audience?

The student who wrote the tentative outline above also wrote the one below before beginning her essay. She
wanted to describe the three political theories and then compare them by using each to analyze the government
of a particular country, arguing that neo-Marxism is the most useful theory. Her working outline isn't very
formal, but it fulfills the functions of a good outline.

 It supports the thesis.

 It establishes the order and relationship of the main points.
 It clarifies the relationship between the major and minor points.

Here's what the student's second outline looked like:

* Introduction
- theories are simpler than real life
- theories are tools
* Three Political Theories
- Neo-Marxism
- power to minority
- importance of economic control
- Pluralism
- power to interest groups
- interest groups form coalitions
- Elitism
- power to elite
- how elite is defined
* Compare analysis of United States
- Neo-Marxist
- Pluralist
- Elitist

Your job as the writer is to think through the relationship between your ideas. For example, is one idea similar
to or different from another? Is one a cause of another? An effect? An example? Is one idea the solution to
another? Do two points represent different categories of a larger idea? In other words, do your ideas fall into
one of the conventional approaches to thinking about an issue: cause-effect, problem-solution, comparison-
contrast, definition, classification? You can use these standard approaches to help you think through your ideas
and come up with a logical plan. That plan then becomes your outline.

While drafting, you can make a draft or descriptive outline--an outline that is based on your draft. It describes
each of your paragraphs so that you can critique your organization. It helps you answer the questions: Does my
draft flow logically from point to point? Have I discussed similar ideas in the same section or do I seem to jump
around?

This is a draft outline the above-mentioned student made after writing the first draft of her paper. She
summarized the draft, paragraph by paragraph, and then took a look at what the outline revealed.

Paragraph 1 -- General introduction to political theories, Thesis: neo-Marxism most useful

Paragraph 2 -- Description of neo-Marxism
Paragraph 3 -- Description of pluralism
Paragraph 4 -- Coalitions of interest groups
Paragraph 5 -- Description of elitism
Paragraph 6 -- Pluralist analysis of U.S.
Paragraph 7 -- Neo-Marxist analysis of U.S.
Paragraph 8 -- Strengths of neo-Marxist analysis, Weaknesses of neo-Marxism and Pluralism
Paragraph 9 -- Weaknesses of elitism
Paragraph 10 -- Conclusion

She noticed that the descriptions of neo-Marxism and elitism were each in a single paragraph, but the
description of pluralism took two paragraphs. She decided to be consistent by combining paragraphs 3 and 4.
She also noticed that the second half of the paper seemed to jump around from theory to theory, presenting each
theory's analysis and then each theory's weaknesses. She decided to put the pluralist analysis of the U.S. and the
weaknesses of the analysis together in paragraph 6, the elitist analysis and its weaknesses into a paragraph
together, and then devote two paragraphs to the neo-Marxist analysis and its strengths and weaknesses.

MAKING AN OUTLINE TO HAND IN

Finally, you may also be required to write a formal outline--an outline that serves as a guide to your paper for
your reader. If you haven't already been making formal outlines, this outline will be a formal version of your
previous notes; it lays out your main points and subpoints for your reader. Generally, this kind of outline uses
conventions of formal outlining: Roman numerals, letters and indentations. Sometimes this sort of outline can
be produced after you have written your essay.

Formal outlines can be written in two ways. In topic outlines, the ideas are expressed in parallel phrases (in
other words, they are expressed in the same grammatical form--as noun phrases, as verb phrases, etc.). Topic
outlines have the advantage of being brief. In sentence outlines, on the other hand, the ideas are expressed in
complete, though not necessarily parallel, sentences. Sentence outlines give the reader a clearer idea of what
you will argue.

Regardless of the kind of formal outline you choose, convention states that you begin with a statement of your
thesis and indicate increasing levels of support in this order: I., A., 1., a., (1), (a). In scientific papers, however,
a decimal system is also commonly used. A topic outline follows:

Thesis: Among the pluralist, elitist, and neo-Marxist political theories, neo-Marxism
provides the most powerful analysis of the current political scene.

I. Functions of political theories

A. Tools to help understand governments
1. Categorization
2. Comparison
B. Limitation: Over-simplification
II. Three political theories
A. Neo-Marxism
1. Definition
2. Description
B. Pluralism
1. Definition
2. Description
C. Elitism
1. Definition
2. Description
III. Comparative analysis of U.S. government
A. Pluralism
1. Analysis
2. Weaknesses
B. Elitism
1. Analysis
2. Weaknesses
C. Neo-Marxism
1. Analysis
2. Critique
a. Strengths
b. Weaknesses
IV. Conclusion

Notice in a formal outline, whenever a point is subdivided, there are at least two subpoints. Logic and
convention state that when you divide a point, you can divide it into no fewer than two subpoints.

styles and interests, comfort levels, and available resources. Below, Jeff shares some of his ideas:
Rather than discussing author’s Craft for text books, we have our teachers and students analyzing the structures of
websites and online tools. There are great webtools, like http://popplet.com or http://padlet.com/, for students to do
Concept maps, Venn diagrams, and most importantly, share their work to an authentic audience.
 We use RAFT to help students comprehend the material, but in the end we are publishing blogs that are actually viewed
and read by students around the world and country. (Check out this video featuring Jeff and his students to learn more
about the power of an authentic audience!)

#2541. Power Writing to Elaborate

Reading/Writing, level: all
Posted Fri Mar 15 06:59:24 PST 2002 by Reva Harris (revaharris@power-writing.com).
Strategic Thinking & Writing, INC.
Strategic Thinking & Writing, Inc, Titusville, Florida, USA
Materials Required: paper and pencil
Activity Time: 30 minutes
Concepts Taught: main idea, support, elaborate

Use a simple, yet effective numeric framework to teach students how to organize their thoughts, oral
and written communication.

Start with a focus (main idea). In this example, I use favorite authors as my focus or main idea -
referred to as the POWER 1 idea.

Limit the discussion to two or three authors, thus narrowing the focus. In this example, I list Stephen
King and Bill Peet. These are the POWER 2 ideas.

Now, the hard part - elaborating or telling more. To do this, I suggest that students interview each
other about their favorite authors, asking questions that start with "who, what, when, where, how,
which, and why." After the interview, now the students have an awareness of audience interest and
information to use in their paragraph or essay. This information is assigned POWER 3.

To begin the piece, transform the POWER 1 idea into a sentence. Here is an example:

Although I enjoy reading numerous authors' works, two rise to the top of my list.

Next, naturally I add my POWER 2. Again, an example:

Although I enjoy reading numerous authors' works, two rise to the top of my list. As a child, I always
enjoyed Bill Peet's illustrations and rhyming text.

Because I am writing a short paragraph, I will elaborate about Bill Peet now by adding POWER 3.

Although I enjoy reading numerous authors' works, two rise to the top of my list. As a child, I always
enjoyed Bill Peet's illustrations and rhyming text. I'll bet my mom read my favorite book, No Such
Thing, a thousand times to me between the ages of 5 and 7. As an teacher I find his book about
pollution and endangered species, Farewell to Shady Glade, not only enjoyable to share but a very
thought provoking one.

My organizational pattern thus far is 1 - 2 - 3 - 3. Now, I will introduce the other author. The use of a
transitional device is necessary to alert the reader that I am moving to a new idea. Can you identify
my transitional devices in the above paragraph?

Here they are: as a child as a teacher

Although I enjoy reading numerous authors' works, two rise to the top of my list. As a child, I always
enjoyed Bill Peet's illustrations and rhyming text. I'll bet my mom read my favorite book, No Such
Thing, a thousand times to me between the ages of 5 and 7. As an teacher I find his book about
pollution and endangered species, Farewell to Shady Glade, not only enjoyable to share but a very
thought provoking one. Whenever I have free time, you can spot me reading the latest Stephen King
book. I just finished the release of one of his earlier books, The Stand. This release is the original
book; the first release he was forced to edit. In this edition, he fully develops his characters and adds
more suspense. Last year, I read his autobiography entitled, On Writing: A Writer's Memior. It's a
fascinating opportunity to under where his story ideas came from and how he developed as a writer.

Ok, now the organizational pattern is 1-2-3-3-2-3-4-3-4.

You might be wondering "What's a POWER 4?" The answer, a POWER 4 simply tells more about the
POWER 3.

To conclude, some teachers and writers might end with a review statement. This would be assigned
the POWER 1 because it returns to the main idea. In my example, the concluding sentence might be:

Although very different, Bill Peet and Stephen King are fabulous authors which I always enjoy reading
and sharing with others.

If you are interested in learning more about POWER writing, please visit my website. I conduct writing
workshops throughout the United States and Canada. References and test results are available.
 The purpose of this form is to think about what rule was broken or what
procedure was not followed. If you are not sure, read over the classroom rules
on the wall or review the “Classroom Rules and Expectations” slide show
handout in the wall file by the door. Please turn this completed form in with
your homework in order to earn back your participation points for the day.

I broke the following rule or procedure:

This rule affects my learning and the learning of my classmates by:

In the future I can avoid breaking this rule by:

I will try my very best to not break this rule again!

yes no

I understand that if I do not obey the rule additional consequences will occur!

yes no

Student Signature:

Teacher Signature:

Parent Signature (if needed):

Date: