why the 5 paragraph essay is bad

The 5-paragraph essay is indeed a genre, but one that is entirely uncoupled from anything resembling meaningful work when it comes to developing a fully mature writing process. If writing is like exercise, the 5-paragraph essay is more Ab Belt than sit-up.

College freshman composition teacher John Warner argues in Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities, Current common approaches for teaching writing are simultaneously too punishing and not nearly challenging enough.

In short, a proper five-paragraph essay comes packing a myriad of rules, regulations, and restrictions. It might then come as a surprise to some to hear an argument that, on its own, the five-paragraph essay is not inherently bad.

Despite this long tradition, the five-paragraph essay is fatally flawed. It cheapens a student’s thesis, essay flow and structure, and voice. First, the five-paragraph essay constricts an argument beyond usefulness or interest. In principle it reminds one of a three-partitioned dinner plate.

The five-paragraph essay is a writing structure typically taught in high school. Structurally, it consists of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This clear structure helps students connect points into a succinct argument.

The effects of the five-paragraph essay damage not only the quality of the work but limits the scope of one’s learning. In fact, the five-paragraph essay has encouraged students to stop learning altogether.

Once one moves to write more complex ideas, the five-paragraph essay becomes a hinderance because of its rigidity. There is a key difference between the goals of high school writing and college writing that cannot be fulfilled effectively through a rigid five-paragraph structure.

There’s nothing wrong with using the five-paragraph essay as a tool to make that illustration clearer, however. Students are not going to be forever scarred if they get five-paragraph essay examples as part of the many types of writing they see.

The five paragraph essay encourages students to engage only on the surface level without attaining the level of cogency demanded by college writing. In its broad, overarching style, it has a tendency to encourage overly general thesis statements that lead to poorly developed and unfocused papers.

The five-paragraph essay, a staple in school writing curricula, has become a source of debate for educators, with critics charging the format is too rigid and constraining.