The 5-Paragraph Essay

Course Objective

To understand the process and develop the skills necessary to produce well-written 5-paragraph essays.

Curricular Components

Lectures, Instructor-Generated Exemplary Pieces of Writing, Skill-Specific Writing Exercises and Independent Essay Production

Class Routine

- 15min Review
- 30min Lecture
- 10min Work with Exemplary Pieces
- 20min Skill-Specific Writing Exercises
- 15min Work on Independent Essays

Subject-Specific Knowledge

The process is designed for essays on topics in the social and natural sciences, but can be applied to literary analysis.

Skills Development

Systematic Writing, Analytical Thinking, Research Skills, Technical Writing Skills

About The Course

This course will focus on the quintessential example of academic writing, The 5-Paragraph Essay. No matter the class, subject or topic, the 5-paragraph essay is the most commonly assigned writing piece throughout middle school, high school and into college. Yet, students are rarely taught how to produce the work in a systematic way. This course addresses this issue, by teaching students how to approach academic writing and produce essays that are well-structured, analytical in nature and technically (grammar, word choice, syntax, etc) correct. The culminating project of the course is a well written 5-paragraph essay on the topic of each student’s choice. The course is designed for writing on social science or natural science topics, but the skills students learn during the course can be broadly applied across disciplines.

About The Instructor

Mr. John Dietrich

Mr. John Dietrich is a certified teacher with nearly fifteen years of education-industry experience in the US and China. He has taught small groups and tutored individuals in subjects ranging from elementary school English and middle school science through high school geography and standardized exam preparation. Mr.Dietrich holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning with a specialization in sustainable development, a Bachelors of Science in Anthropology, Certificate in Environmental Studies and a Florida Teaching License (General Science G5-9 & Biology G6-12).

Lesson Components & Structure

This course is designed to walk students through the essay writing process, from brainstorming an idea and outlining a work through structuring paragraphs and proofreading with purpose. The course will include lectures, work with exemplar pieces of writing, independent and group writing exercises and finally an individualized final essay.
Each class will follow roughly the same structure throughout the two-week course. Lessons will begin with a short fifteen minute review of the previous lesson, meant to solidify understanding and exhibit mastery. This will be followed with a roughly thirty minute lecture explaining the lesson’s primary skill. Students will then spend ten minutes working with instructor-generated examples of written work meant to illustrate the points previously addressed in lecture form. Next, the class will engage in approximately twenty minutes of in-class writing exercises designed to develop independent mastery. The final fifteen minutes of each lesson will be devoted to students’ work on their individualized final writing assignment.
Each lesson will normally involve two different types of writing homework: (1) class-wide exercises associated with the day’s work; and (2) individual work on the student’s final essay.
Students will always receive in-depth and individualized feedback on their work, including verbally on class-wide assignments and written on independent writing assignments.

Course Outline