A five paragraph essay is organized with an introduction, 3 main points, and a summary:

Paragraph 1.—Introduction of your subject and the 3 points you will make.

Paragraph 2.—first point

Paragraph 3.—second point

Paragraph 4.—third point

Paragraph 5.—Summary of your 3 points and any conclusions you have come to.



  1. Choose your subject and the title.
  2. Brainstorm ideas—
    Without thinking about spelling or grammar, write down any facts and points you’d like to make concerning your topic. Jot down ideas–anything that relates. This will give you some basic thoughts to begin working with.
  3. Organize –
    • From your list of ideas, choose 3 main ones to serve as topics for each of the 3 body paragraphs you’ll be writing.
    • Now look at the other ideas you wrote down. If they relate to one of your main 3 topics, draw a line from that idea to the main topic it falls under.
    • Brainstorm a bit more under each of the 3 topics.
  4. Write your introduction. You should clue your reader into what your basic idea for the paper is and introduce the 3 topics for each paragraph. The first sentence of your intro should be a “hook” for the reader making him want to read more.
  5.  Write each of your 3 body paragraphs. Stick to the main idea of each paragraph!
  6.  Write your summary paragraph. This is when you “bring it home” and sum up for the reader what you have been saying to make sure he gets it. Draw some conclusions if you can. Perhaps you can throw in some added fact or fun idea to close with. Maybe you have learned something that you could mention. Or what have you tried to help the reader to see?  All of these ideas are good for the final paragraph.


Writing an essay is often summarized like this: first you tell your reader what you are going to say. Then you say it. Then you tell him what you said.