Teachers can use these steps to teach students how to write a great five paragraph essay by using outlines and properly organizing thoughts, topics, and details.
These directions are written for students to follow when choosing a topic, creating a basic outline, and writing the essay.
Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/2999.aspx#ixzz0lQaL6vBg
Step 1 - Choose a Good Topic
When writing an essay, it is important to choose a topic that is not too broad. For example, do not write about football. Choose something more specific, like football drills, the greatest football team, football equipment, football practice, etc.
It is important that you can think of three main ideas that you want to discuss in the essay. If you cannot think of three specific ideas to discuss, then the topic is too narrow.
If your chosen topic is too narrow, choose a slightly broader topic so specific ideas or details can be listed. For example, if you planned to write about football field goals and couldn't list many details about it, choose something like scoring points in football.
Step 2 - Organize the Essay
Organizing an essay can be done in many forms. Some people like to use graphic organizers like a web. It looks like a spider web with circles connected. In the middle circle, write the main topic. Then make three "spokes" off of the main circle and make three more circles. These will be your body paragraphs' main ideas. Write the topics in those three circles. Then from those, add two to five more lines or "spokes" from those circles to become details you want to talk about in your essay.
Another way to organize an essay is to follow this basic outline form:
Topic______________
Thesis Statement (One sentence that tells the reader what the essay will discuss.)________________________________________________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph #1 main idea