kill the five paragraph essay

Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

There seems to be widespread agreement that?when it comes to the writing skills of college students?we are in the midst of a crisis. In Why They Can’t Write, John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn’t caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we’re teaching writing wrong. Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in standardization, assessments, and accountability. We have done no more, Warner argues, than conditioned students to perform "writing-related simulations," which pass temporary muster but do little to help students develop their writing abilities. This style of teaching has made students passive and disengaged. Worse yet, it hasn’t prepared them for writing in the college classroom. Rather than making choices and thinking critically, as writers must, undergraduates simply follow the rules?such as the five-paragraph essay?designed to help them pass these high-stakes assessments. In Why They Can’t Write, Warner has crafted both a diagnosis for what ails us and a blueprint for fixing a broken system. Combining current knowledge of what works in teaching and learning with the most enduring philosophies of classical education, this book challenges readers to develop the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and habits of mind of strong writers.

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The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay

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• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

A five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows a prescribed format of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph, and is typically taught during primary English education and applied on standardized testing throughout schooling.

Learning to write a high-quality five-paragraph essay is an essential skill for students in early English classes as it allows them to express certain ideas, claims, or concepts in an organized manner, complete with evidence that supports each of these notions. Later, though, students may decide to stray from the standard five-paragraph format and venture into writing an  exploratory essay  instead.

Still, teaching students to organize essays into the five-paragraph format is an easy way to introduce them to writing literary criticism, which will be tested time and again throughout their primary, secondary, and further education.

Writing a Good Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph in your essay, and it should accomplish a few specific goals: capture the reader's interest, introduce the topic, and make a claim or express an opinion in a thesis statement.

It's a good idea to start your essay with a hook (fascinating statement) to pique the reader's interest, though this can also be accomplished by using descriptive words, an anecdote, an intriguing question, or an interesting fact. Students can practice with creative writing prompts to get some ideas for interesting ways to start an essay.

The next few sentences should explain your first statement, and prepare the reader for your thesis statement, which is typically the last sentence in the introduction. Your  thesis sentence  should provide your specific assertion and convey a clear point of view, which is typically divided into three distinct arguments that support this assertation, which will each serve as central themes for the body paragraphs.

Writing Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay will include three body paragraphs in a five-paragraph essay format, each limited to one main idea that supports your thesis.

To correctly write each of these three body paragraphs, you should state your supporting idea, your topic sentence, then back it up with two or three sentences of evidence. Use examples that validate the claim before concluding the paragraph and using transition words to lead to the paragraph that follows — meaning that all of your body paragraphs should follow the pattern of "statement, supporting ideas, transition statement."

Words to use as you transition from one paragraph to another include: moreover, in fact, on the whole, furthermore, as a result, simply put, for this reason, similarly, likewise, it follows that, naturally, by comparison, surely, and yet.

Writing a Conclusion

The final paragraph will summarize your main points and re-assert your main claim (from your thesis sentence). It should point out your main points, but should not repeat specific examples, and should, as always, leave a lasting impression on the reader.

The first sentence of the conclusion, therefore, should be used to restate the supporting claims argued in the body paragraphs as they relate to the thesis statement, then the next few sentences should be used to explain how the essay's main points can lead outward, perhaps to further thought on the topic. Ending the conclusion with a question, anecdote, or final pondering is a great way to leave a lasting impact.

Once you complete the first draft of your essay, it's a good idea to re-visit the thesis statement in your first paragraph. Read your essay to see if it flows well, and you might find that the supporting paragraphs are strong, but they don't address the exact focus of your thesis. Simply re-write your thesis sentence to fit your body and summary more exactly, and adjust the conclusion to wrap it all up nicely.

Practice Writing a Five-Paragraph Essay

Students can use the following steps to write a standard essay on any given topic. First, choose a topic, or ask your students to choose their topic, then allow them to form a basic five-paragraph by following these steps:

• Decide on your  basic thesis , your idea of a topic to discuss.
• Decide on three pieces of supporting evidence you will use to prove your thesis.
• Write an introductory paragraph, including your thesis and evidence (in order of strength).
• Write your first body paragraph, starting with restating your thesis and focusing on your first piece of supporting evidence.
• End your first paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to the next body paragraph.
• Write paragraph two of the body focussing on your second piece of evidence. Once again make the connection between your thesis and this piece of evidence.
• End your second paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to paragraph number three.
• Repeat step 6 using your third piece of evidence.
• Begin your concluding paragraph by restating your thesis. Include the three points you've used to prove your thesis.
• End with a punch, a question, an anecdote, or an entertaining thought that will stay with the reader.

Once a student can master these 10 simple steps, writing a basic five-paragraph essay will be a piece of cake, so long as the student does so correctly and includes enough supporting information in each paragraph that all relate to the same centralized main idea, the thesis of the essay.

Limitations of the Five-Paragraph Essay

The five-paragraph essay is merely a starting point for students hoping to express their ideas in academic writing; there are some other forms and styles of writing that students should use to express their vocabulary in the written form.

According to Tory Young's "Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide":

"Although school students in the U.S. are examined on their ability to write a  five-paragraph essay , its  raison d'être  is purportedly to give practice in basic writing skills that will lead to future success in more varied forms. Detractors feel, however, that writing to rule in this way is more likely to discourage imaginative writing and thinking than enable it. . . . The five-paragraph essay is less aware of its  audience  and sets out only to present information, an account or a kind of story rather than explicitly to persuade the reader."

Students should instead be asked to write other forms, such as journal entries, blog posts, reviews of goods or services, multi-paragraph research papers, and freeform expository writing around a central theme. Although five-paragraph essays are the golden rule when writing for standardized tests, experimentation with expression should be encouraged throughout primary schooling to bolster students' abilities to utilize the English language fully.

• Practice in Making a Simple Outline for a Cause & Effect Paragraph
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• An Essay Revision Checklist
• Examples of Great Introductory Paragraphs
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• What Is Expository Writing?
• Practice in Supporting a Topic Sentence with Specific Details
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• How to Write a Good Thesis Statement
• 501 Topic Suggestions for Writing Essays and Speeches
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• Write a Compare and Contrast Essay
• Writing a Descriptive Essay

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UMGC Effective Writing Center Secrets of the Five-Paragraph Essay

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This form of writing goes by different names. Maybe you've heard some of them before: "The Basic Essay," "The Academic Response Essay," "The 1-3-1 Essay." Regardless of what you've heard, the name you should remember is "The Easy Essay."

Once you are shown how this works--and it only takes a few minutes--you will have in your hands the secret to writing well on almost any academic assignment. Here is how it goes.

Secret #1—The Magic of Three

Three has always been a magic number for humans, from fairy tales like "The Three Little Pigs" to sayings like “third time’s a charm.” Three seems to be an ideal number for us--including the academic essay. So whenever you are given a topic to write about, a good place to begin is with a list of three. Here are some examples (three of them, of course):

Topic : What are the essential characteristics of a good parent? Think in threes and you might come up with:

• unconditional love 

Certainly, there are more characteristics of good parents you could name, but for our essay, we will work in threes.

Here's a topic that deals with a controversial issue:

Topic : Should women in the military be given frontline combat duties?

• The first reason that women should be assigned to combat is equality. 
• The second reason is their great teamwork. 
• The third reason is their courage.

As you see, regardless of the topic, we can list three points about it. And if you wonder about the repetition of words and structure when stating the three points, in this case, repetition is a good thing. Words that seem redundant when close together in an outline will be separated by the actual paragraphs of your essay. So in the essay instead of seeming redundant they will be welcome as signals to the reader of your essay’s main parts.

Finally, when the topic is an academic one, your first goal is the same: create a list of three.

Topic: Why do so many students fail to complete their college degree?

• First, students often...
• Second, many students cannot...
• Finally, students find that...

Regardless of the reasons you might come up with to finish these sentences, the formula is still the same.

Secret #2: The Thesis Formula

Now with your list of three, you can write the sentence that every essay must have—the thesis, sometimes called the "controlling idea," "overall point," or "position statement." In other words, it is the main idea of the essay that you will try to support, illustrate, or corroborate.

Here’s a simple formula for a thesis: The topic + your position on the topic = your thesis.

Let’s apply this formula to one of our examples:

Topic: Essential characteristics of a good parent Your Position: patience, respect, love Thesis: The essential characteristics of a good parent are patience, respect, and love.

As you see, all we did was combine the topic with our position/opinion on it into a single sentence to produce the thesis: The essential characteristics of a good parent are patience, respect, and love.

In this case, we chose to list three main points as part of our thesis. Sometimes that’s a good strategy. However, you can summarize them if you wish, as in this example:

Topic: Women in combat duty in the military Your Position: They deserve it Thesis: Women deserve to be assigned combat duty in the military.

This type of thesis is shorter and easier to write because it provides the overall position or opinion without forcing you to list the support for it in the thesis, which can get awkward and take away from your strong position statement. The three reasons women deserve to be assigned combat duties--equality, teamwork, courage--will be the subjects of your three body paragraphs and do not need to be mentioned until the body paragraph in which they appear.

Secret #3: The 1-3-1 Outline

With your thesis and list of three main points, you can quickly draw a basic outline of the paragraphs of your essay. You’ll then see why this is often called the 1-3-1 essay.

• Supporting Evidence for Claim 1    
• Supporting Evidence for Claim 2
• Supporting Evidence for Claim 3

The five-paragraph essay consists of one introduction paragraph (with the thesis at its end), three body paragraphs (each beginning with one of three main points) and one last paragraph—the conclusion. 1-3-1.

Once you have this outline, you have the basic template for most academic writing. Most of all, you have an organized way to approach virtually any topic you are assigned.

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The Five-Paragraph Essay Must Die

In the fourth century, a Christian grammar teacher named Cassian  in the central Italian town of Imola was so scathingly critical toward his students that they attacked him. The students decided to smash their wax tablets on his face and then “launch at him the sharp iron pricks which by scratching strokes the wax is written upon,” until “two hundred hands have pierced him all over his body.”

Cassian died as a martyr, murdered by pagan students with bad grammar. In other words, if you think kids these days can’t write, you’re in the good company of frustrated teachers and parents going back at least a couple thousand years.

In Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities , John Warner dispenses with arguments that the current moment of compositional crisis is related to screen time, text-speak, Twitter, or the idea that kids have become snowflakes who want participation trophies. There are, however, specific factors that have erected specific challenges to teaching writing in 2018; these include standardized testing, over-reliance on teaching grammar instead of writing, reliance on formulaic structure (i.e. those five-paragraph beasts), classroom surveillance, and college labor conditions. Warner examines the systemic causes in K-12 education that propel students into college without having discovered much about themselves as writers. Having explained the problems, Warner turns to solutions. The second half of the book offers his philosophical approach to teaching writing, honed over 18 years teaching first-year-writing classes at various schools, paired with practical exercises. Warner’s next book, The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing , a book of exercises, will be coming out next February. Together, they offer his assessment of the problems and plan for transforming how we teach college writing in higher education.

Warner spoke to Pacific Standard about his career teaching writing, his two books, and the biggest challenges facing would-be writers and their instructors today.

So why can’t Johnny write?

The complaint is eternal. People have always been complaining that “Johnny can’t write.” The present issue is not so much the matter of writing skills; students have the same skills as ever. Developing writers need help developing. If we focus on correctness, we’re going to have error.

One of the messages of the book is that everybody has some writer inside of them, if you can get them to display it.

So it’s not Twitter’s fault?

No, it’s not! And it’s not the skills of students, but the attitudes. Writing has become something they do for the purposes of school assessment, instructed into a highly scripted structure (the five-paragraph essay) that passes surface muster but has no depth. I see a lot of things to worry about.

(Photo: Johns Hopkins University Press)

The problem of atmosphere: I discuss the crisis of student mental health that I think is largely attributable to what happens in school. Of course [there are things like] bullying, but in a lot of cases it’s the day-to-day reality of the pressures of school and the conditions in which they are expected to achieve.

The problem of surveillance: how our students are tracked, and watched, and judged. The problems of writing for standardized tests. The problem of “education folklore” and fads. The conditions under which teachers are working are not conducive to students. Too little autonomy, too little freedom.

We almost couldn’t be doing worse in terms of the systems and conditions in which we expect students to learn to write.

Why are these issues bad for writing in particular and not, for example, for math?

Surveillance is bad. The pressure is bad. The damage to student mental health is one of my chief worries. They come into college quite damaged by school. And they perceive themselves as survivors in a battle. It’s particularly bad for writing because so much of writing is the ability to take a risk, to set a goal and risk failure. Falling short of your goal is nonetheless a noble enterprise that gets you up to try again. That’s the writer’s work.

Because writing is different from other kinds of work?

I view writing as thinking, and different types of writing involve different types of thinking. The process of writing reveals that which you meant to say. The brain must be free to do the activity. And we do so much against allowing students to free their brains. By judging, by setting up standardized [procedures], by making the stakes too high—there’s no lack of ability among students even in a single semester in a first-year writing course.

So why isn’t the five-paragraph essay a useful starting point? Why isn’t it like doing scales before playing music, or practicing free throws before playing basketball?

The danger is the prescriptive process that the use of the five-paragraph essay privileges. Students are given rules—not just parts of speech and subject-verb agreement rules—but [they are told] all paragraphs should have five to seven sentences. The last paragraph should start, “In conclusion,” then summarize the previous three paragraphs. In a 500-word essay, the audience hasn’t forgotten what you’ve said! So if there’s a specific purpose where a five-paragraph essay is useful, go nuts.

Students need to be given experience wrestling with the full rhetorical purposes of writing. Doing that allows them to develop the kinds of thinking that writers do [and] makes them far more amenable to examining the quality of the sentences.

I write bad sentences all the time in my drafts. I write ungrammatical sentences. That’s how I believe how most writers work. So that’s what I want students doing.

A lot of what I talk about in the book a matter of re-orienting our values. The publisher hype calls The Writer’s Practice revolutionary. I see it as the opposite. I have an assignment that my third-grade teacher did about the components of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s not a revolution. It’s stripping away the apparatus of school and getting back to essence.

Who teaches college writing? In your journalism and in the book,  you link bad labor practices with poor outcomes .

The conditions under which the vast majority of writing teachers work are out of whack with disciplinary recommendations, which are not luxurious. Teaching three sections of 20 students per semester is a very full-time load. That’s 60 [students]. Now imagine 120, which is pretty routine at community colleges and other places. [General education courses like first-year writing] deserve resources because they address questions like acculturation to college, retention, and prep for other courses. To shunt off first-year writing to a contingent workforce makes no sense.

You’ve argued against the general “kids these days” mentality by pointing to decades of concern about this kind of thing, dating back to the famous 1955 Time   article, “Why Johnny Can’t Read?” But we are in a very peculiar hyperlexic and hyperscribal moment , in which people are reading and writing more words per day than ever before in human history. Does that have an effect on education?

We are writing more than ever, so we need to get better about the things that writing involves. It’s absolutely in play when we’re tweeting, confined to 280 characters. In The Writer’s Practice , each assignment has a remix, where you have to take what you’ve done and remix it for a different audience or medium. Take a research paper and boil it down to a tweet—absolutely vital to survive in today’s day and age. If you go to work in a business that has a Slack channel and you’re relating to your colleagues, you could step into some mess at any moment with careless writing. Also, people need to become a more critical reader of these things. We are bombarded with text and images. My belief is we need to practice as many ways of working as possible.

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The Five Paragraph Essay: Developing and Organizing Your Ideas

Introduction.

Your introduction should entice your reader to read on, as well as prepare them to follow your discussion or argument by providing necessary, relevant, or helpful context, background, and/or information about your subject. This can include: names, dates, places, and key terms.

Your thesis should first present a clear statement of your argument or main idea about your subject, and second, introduce the reasoning, examples, information, anecdotes, and/or sources you will use to support or illustrate your argument.

• I believe _____ (OR _____ is true)

Body Paragraphs

Each of the three body paragraphs of your essay should include a topic sentence or sentences that clearly signal to the reader which of your “because” statements you are going to address. Next, the paragraph should present in detail the reasoning, anecdotes, examples, facts, statistics, or sources , in other words, the evidence that has led you to your statement. Remember to present your body paragraphs in a logical order.

Topic sentence for body paragraph #1 __________

Supporting points __________

Topic sentence for body paragraph #2 __________

Topic sentence for body paragraph #3 __________

Your conclusion should not only remind the reader of your topic, your thesis, and your evidence, but also should ask the reader to think more deeply about your subject by addressing its implications or broader significance. If you’re stuck, ask yourself: Why should someone care about my subject? What would be different if not for my subject? What is the influence of my subject in history? What does my subject mean for the future? How does my subject relate to everyday life? How does my subject fit into a larger discussion? What lessons can be learned from my subject?

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Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay

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Love it or hate it, the five-paragraph essay is perhaps the most frequently taught form of writing in classrooms of yesterday and today. But have you ever actually seen five-paragraph essays outside of school walls? Have you ever found it in business writing, journalism, nonfiction, or any other genres that exist in the real world? Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer reviewed the research on the effectiveness of the form as a teaching tool and discovered that the research does not support the five-paragraph formula. In fact, research shows that the formula restricts creativity, emphasizes structure rather than content, does not improve standardized test scores, inadequately prepares students for college writing, and results in vapid writing. In Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, Kimberly and Kristi show you how to reclaim the literary essay and create a program that encourages thoughtful writing in response to literature. They provide numerous strategies that stimulate student thinking, value unique insight, and encourage lively, personal writing, including the following: Close reading (which is the basis for writing about literature) Low-stakes writing options that support students' thinking as they read Collaboration in support of discussion, debate, and organizational structures that support writing as exploration A focus on students' writing process as foundational to content development and structure The use of model texts to write in the form of the literature students are reading and analyzingThe goal of reading and writing about literature is to push and challenge our students' thinking. We want students to know that their writing can convey something important: a unique view to share, defend, prove, delight, discover, and inspire. If we want our students to be more engaged, skilled writers, we need to move beyond the five-paragraph essay.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter chapter 1 | 9  pages, combating formulaic writing, chapter chapter 2 | 12  pages, establishing a routine of thoughtful reading and writing, chapter chapter 3 | 34  pages, reading like a writer, chapter chapter 4 | 18  pages, writing and discussion in support of thinking, chapter chapter 5 | 13  pages, writing to explore, chapter chapter 6 | 20  pages, writing as an authority, chapter chapter 7 | 28  pages, writing with mentors.

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How the Absurdity of the Five-Paragraph Essay Inspired Rion Amilcar Scott's Novella

"when i started drawing up the syllabus, i thought of the way the realities of the classroom imposes a loneliness onto the academic, particularly low-paid, overworked contingent faculty members.".

The latter half of Rion Amilcar Scott's outstanding new collection, The World Doesn't Require You , is the brilliant novella "Special Topics in Loneliness Studies," about a college professor at the fictional Freedman's University whose doomed class investigates loneliness through the syllabus, growing increasingly entangled with his personal life. Scott delves into the novella's origin: the five-paragraph essay.

It was my job for a time to corral college freshmen, feed them books and then coax from them fits of insight five paragraphs at a time. This I did imperfectly. I asked them to think about their lives to concoct a narrative or descriptive piece from those thoughts. Or I’d place a book or a film in front of them and guide them down a twisting path of analysis. We’d end the semester by debating some thorny societal issue; they’d develop an opinion, search for credible sources to back up their views and then attempt to forcefully argue the point. This is all standard. Pages and pages of reading for me. Many late nights with students' words. Hand cramped from marking grammar issues. Mind numbed from the repeated phrases, the In today’s society ; from the malapropisms, the now and days . As I am teaching and grading these essays, I am writing my own fiction, the stories that would become my collections Insurrections and The World Doesn’t Require You . I wondered about the form of the five-paragraph essay and its place in my own work. One never sees a five-paragraph essay in the wild. Could it hold its own in a mature piece of writing? Constraints can lead to creativity, right? Isn’t that what poetic forms are about? This is how I arrived at the novella, “Special Topics in Loneliness Studies,” which ends my second collection. The constraints imposed by the five-paragraph essay could, I figured, be a space to dramatize all that is contradictory or absurd about academia.

In my own fiction, I usually dream freely, writing without form, mostly, hoping the words, like water, find their own shape. In my students’ work, though, I, like many academics engaged in teaching Composition, imposed a rigid structure: five paragraphs consisting of an introduction with a thesis statement at the end, three body paragraphs, and a summary conclusion. It’s a heavily maligned form, I know. Writer John Warner, whose book Why They Can’t Write is subtitled: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities , insists it warps students’ idea of a well-formed essay and we should “kill it dead.” Even while teaching it and arguing that the form allows weaker writers unfamiliar with structure and grammar to find their way, I had my reservations. To think this through further, I figured, I’d introduce the form to my fiction. First, I’d write a story consisting of nothing but five-paragraph essays, taking us through a semester in a student’s and a professor’s life. It would be a longer story, though not anything resembling a novella; the essays would begin in a relatively milquetoast way though full of colorful malaprops and misspellings that winked at double meanings. As the student grew in confidence she would also grow more verbose and the narrative would become surreal and loopy until she was in open revolt against the structure of the essay, the professor, and society itself.

This provided some challenges that made themselves obvious before I could even write the first word. How does the professor’s voice get into the story? What is this class about and why does it make this student want to rebel? Most importantly, what the heck is this student writing about? Essays, student essays in Comp. 101 at least, don’t come from nowhere. They come from prompts carefully drawn up by professors to achieve some educational purpose. Those educational purposes are laid out in the course syllabus. Before I could write this student’s essays, before I could write a prompt, I needed to write a syllabus. This would be a Freshman Composition class, I knew. There I could exploit any number of contradictions and conflicts—between the high intellectual nature of the academic and the utilitarian nature of the course; between bored student and starry-eyed professor. It would be tragic. It would be hilarious.

When I started drawing up the syllabus, I thought of the way the realities of the classroom impose a loneliness onto the academic, particularly low-paid, overworked contingent faculty members. The words Professor or Dr. appended to the beginning of a name have the ring of prestige, but the miniscule rewards—low pay, lack of stability and time because of the mountains of papers to grade—often make getting through day-to-day life difficult and frustrating, even dangerous if you have no health benefits and your overwork is eroding your health. The phrase, Special Topics in Loneliness Studies , flitted through my head as a title and in making the syllabus the professor character formed. He would be a lonely man obsessed by loneliness and, like any good academic, he would use his intellect to solve his solitude. A doomed project if I’ve ever heard one. When I heard the professor’s voice I needed to know why he was so lonely. Some of it was in his syllabus, but to really understand it I needed context that called for traditional narration. I watched the story grow, not just into sections like a traditional short story, but into chapters. The email is both the bane and lifeblood of the college campus these days. As the professor reached out to his students and peers via electronic mail, I wrote those for him and his peers and charges. But what did the professor tell his students in class? Back in the real world, I spent many a class hour standing in front of PowerPoint presentations, talking and watching students flash pictures of the screen like paparazzi. I snapped ridiculous pictures of my childhood toys and used the photos to create the professor’s lecture slides. To you and me they’d be absurd, to him the pictures are as serious as commitment, as serious as sitting in solitude to think through your life’s path.

Through the process of getting to know the characters and watching the piece expand from a long short story into a novella, I realized I had to abandon my original conceit, the constraint of a series of five-paragraph essays that were to bring me boundless creativity. While the narrative had prompts for free writes and free writes from the student, both further revealing the professor and the student, the five-paragraph essay had not yet made an appearance. The narrative no longer needed three of them to mark time. The narrative now took place in an academic year, not a semester. I must say, I wasn’t eager to write the five-paragraph essay I knew the book needed. I had written enough from the student’s perspective that I knew her. Her final class essay had to represent a maturity of her voice. But the five-paragraph essay is often thought of as facile and stale, the opposite of mature, fully realized work. As Warner writes in an Inside Higher Ed essay: “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.” I consulted books, doing the research the student would have done, inhabiting her, and then I wrote, following the rules and structures of the five-paragraph essay with the precision I had always hoped my students would, creating for her and for the narrative a piece of insight in five paragraphs.

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• Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

In this Book

• John Warner
• Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
• View Citation

Table of Contents

• Title Page, Copyright Page
• Our Writing “Crisis"
• Part One. Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay
• Johnny Could Never Write
• The Writer’s Practice
• The Five-Paragraph Essay
• Part Two. The Other Necessities
• The Problem of Atmosphere: School Sucks
• The Problem of Surveillance
• The Problem of Assessment and Standardization
• The Problem of Education Fads
• The Problem of Technology Hype: Making Teachers Obsolete Any Day Now
• The Problem of Folklore
• pp. 104-112
• The Problem of Precarity
• pp. 113-124
• Part Three. A New Framework
• pp. 125-126
• Why School?
• pp. 127-141
• Increasing Rigor
• pp. 142-145
• Making Writing Meaningful by Making Meaningful Writing
• pp. 146-153
• Writing Experiences
• pp. 154-175
• Increasing Challenges
• pp. 176-184
• Part Four. Unanswered Questions
• pp. 185-186
• What about Academics?
• pp. 187-206
• What about Grammar?
• pp. 207-212
• What about Grades?
• pp. 213-218
• What about the Children?
• pp. 219-226
• What about the Teachers?
• pp. 227-236
• In Conclusion
• pp. 237-242
• Acknowledgments
• pp. 243-246
• pp. 247-264
• pp. 265-274

Additional Information

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• Morning Walk - Paragraph Writing Samples

Importance of Morning Walk- Paragraph Guide and Samples in 100, 200 and 300 Words

Starting the day with a morning walk has many benefits that help both the body and mind. Walking in the morning can make you feel more energetic and improve your health . It is a peaceful time to exercise before the day gets busy. Not only does it help with physical fitness, but it also lifts your mood and can help you be more productive throughout the day. In this essay, we will look at how a morning walk can make a big difference in your daily life and why it is a great habit to start.

How to Write a Morning Walk Paragraph?

When writing an essay or paragraph on the advantages of morning walk, include the following elements to ensure an engaging piece:

1. Introduction

Opening Statement : Begin with an engaging introduction that highlights the importance of physical activity.

Thesis Statement : Clearly state the main benefits of morning walks that will be discussed in the essay.

2. Physical Health Benefits

Improved Cardiovascular Health : Explain how walking in the morning can strengthen the heart and improve circulation.

Weight Management : Discuss how regular morning walks can aid in weight control and reduce the risk of obesity .

Enhanced Energy Levels : Describe how walking in the morning boosts energy levels and reduces fatigue throughout the day.

3. Mental Health Benefits

Reduced Stress and Anxiety : Highlight how morning walks can lower stress levels and alleviate anxiety.

Improved Mood : Explain how physical activity releases endorphins that can enhance mood and promote feelings of happiness.

Better Sleep Quality : Discuss how morning walks can contribute to better sleep patterns and improved rest.

4. Social Benefits

Opportunity for Social Interaction : Mention how morning walks can provide opportunities to connect with others and build social relationships.

Community Engagement : Describe how participating in group walks or joining a walking club can foster a sense of community.

5. Lifestyle and Productivity Benefits

Boosted Productivity : Explain how starting the day with physical activity can improve focus and productivity throughout the day.

Establishing a Routine : Discuss how incorporating a morning walk into a daily routine can promote discipline and consistency.

6. Environmental Benefits

Fresh Air and Nature : Highlight the benefits of breathing fresh morning air and enjoying natural surroundings.

Increased Awareness of the Environment : Explain how walking outdoors can foster a greater appreciation for the environment and nature.

8. Conclusion

Summary of Benefits : Recap the key benefits discussed in the essay.

Encouragement to Start : End with a motivating statement encouraging readers to incorporate morning walks into their daily routine for a healthier lifestyle.

Short Paragraph on Morning Walk in 100 Words

A morning walk offers numerous benefits that positively impact both physical and mental health. Starting the day with a walk helps boost energy levels, enhancing overall alertness and productivity. Regular morning walks improve cardiovascular health by increasing heart rate and circulation, reducing the risk of heart disease. They also aid in weight management by burning calories and maintaining a healthy metabolism . Mentally, a morning walk can reduce stress and anxiety, as it provides time for reflection and relaxation. The fresh air and natural light exposure improve mood and help regulate sleep patterns. Including a morning walk into your routine is a simple yet effective way to enhance overall well-being.

Morning Walk Paragraph in 200 Words

A morning walk is an excellent way to begin your day, offering numerous benefits for your physical and mental well-being. Starting the day with a walk helps to wake up your body and mind, providing a burst of energy that can last throughout the day. The fresh air you breathe in during your walk rejuvenates you, making you feel more alert and ready for the day ahead. The peaceful morning environment helps reduce stress and improve your mood, setting a positive tone for the rest of the day. Regular morning walks are beneficial for your health also. They help improve cardiovascular health by strengthening your heart and reducing the risk of heart disease. Walking also aids in managing weight by burning calories and improving metabolism. Exposure to morning sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D, which is crucial for strong bones and overall health. Additionally, a morning walk can enhance your mental clarity and focus, making you more productive throughout the day. Incorporating this simple activity into your routine can lead to better sleep, improved mood, and a stronger, healthier body, making it a valuable habit for a balanced lifestyle.

Morning Walk Paragraph in 300 Words

A morning walk is a wonderful way to start the day, offering many benefits that contribute to both physical and mental health. When you step outside early in the morning, you breathe in fresh air and enjoy the peace and quiet of the world waking up. This calm environment helps to reduce stress and set a positive mood for the rest of the day. The early morning light also helps regulate your body’s internal clock, which can improve your sleep patterns and overall energy levels. Walking in the morning is great for your physical health. It helps to improve cardiovascular fitness by strengthening your heart and lowering blood pressure. Regular morning walks can also help with weight management. They burn calories and boost your metabolism, making it easier to maintain a healthy weight. Moreover, walking increases your stamina and flexibility, which can enhance your overall physical well-being. Besides the physical benefits, morning walks have a positive impact on mental health. They offer a chance to clear your mind and focus on the day ahead. This quiet time for reflection can lead to improved mental clarity and reduced anxiety. Additionally, walking outdoors exposes you to sunlight, which helps your body produce vitamin D. This vitamin is essential for strong bones and can also improve your mood. Another benefit of morning walks is that they offer an opportunity for social interaction if you walk with friends or family. This social aspect can strengthen relationships and provide additional motivation to keep up with the habit. Overall, incorporating a morning walk into your daily routine is a simple yet effective way to enhance your physical fitness, mental health, and overall quality of life.

Review Your Understanding of the Importance of Morning Walks

I. choose the correct statements.

1. What is one of the primary physical benefits of taking a morning walk?

A) Increased risk of chronic diseases

B) Enhanced cardiovascular fitness

C) Decreased metabolism

D) Reduced flexibility

2. How does a morning walk affect your sleep patterns?

A) It disrupts your sleep cycle

B) It does not affect sleep

C) It helps regulate your body's internal clock

D) It decreases sleep quality

3. Which of the following is a mental health benefit of a morning walk?

A) Increased anxiety

B) Reduced mental clarity

C) Improved mood and reduced stress

D) Decreased focus

4. What role does sunlight play in the benefits of a morning walk?

A) It increases risk of skin damage

B) It helps produce vitamin D

C) It causes dehydration

D) It has no effect

5. How can walking with friends or family in the morning be beneficial?

A) It decreases motivation

B) It weakens relationships

C) It provides social interaction and motivation

D) It reduces exercise effectiveness

II. Write a paragraph on Morning Walk in 100 words

Check yanswers below:, i. choose the correct sstatements.

Answer 1: B) Enhanced cardiovascular fitness

Answer 2: C) It helps regulate your body's internal clock

Answer 3: C) Improved mood and reduced stress

Answer 4: B) It helps produce vitamin D

Answer 5: C) It provides social interaction and motivation

II. Paragraph on Morning Walk in 100 words

Morning walks are an excellent form of exercise. The fresh air, cool breeze, and chirping birds create a soothing start to the day. Regular morning walks help control blood pressure, reduce stress, and enhance overall well-being. A brisk walk in the morning benefits our health by promoting peace of mind and boosting our enthusiasm and confidence for the day. Daily walking aids in weight loss and keeps us fit. Consistent morning walks can help prevent diseases and support long-term health. They also improve self-control and elevate mood. Scientific research confirms that morning walks contribute to better health and a fresher, more vibrant body. Overall, morning walks are a valuable exercise for maintaining fitness and enhancing overall well-being.

Takeaways on This Page:

Physical Health : Morning walks improve cardiovascular fitness and boost metabolism.

Mental Well-being : They reduce stress, enhance mood, and improve overall mental clarity.

Sleep Improvement : Regular morning walks help regulate sleep patterns.

Vitamin D : Exposure to sunlight during walks supports vitamin D production .

Social Interaction : Walking with others can provide motivation and strengthen relationships.

FAQs on Morning Walk - Paragraph Writing Samples

1. What are the main physical benefits in benefits of morning walk paragraph?

Morning walks improve cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles, and enhance overall fitness.

2. How does a morning walk impact mental health?

It reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, and boosts mood and mental clarity.

3. How does a morning walk affect sleep quality in a short paragraph on morning walk?

Regular morning walks can help regulate sleep patterns and improve overall sleep quality.

4. Does walking in the morning provide any sunlight benefits?

Yes, exposure to morning sunlight helps with vitamin D production and improves mood.

5. Can morning walks improve energy levels throughout the day as per the benefits of morning walk paragraph?

They boost overall energy levels and help combat fatigue.

6. Are there any benefits to walking with others in the morning?

Walking with others can enhance motivation and provide social interaction, which boosts mental well-being.

7. How long should a morning walk be to see benefits?

A 20-30 minute walk is generally sufficient to experience the benefits of improved health and mood.

8. Can morning walks be beneficial for people with joint problems?

Yes, walking is a low-impact exercise that can help maintain joint health and flexibility.

9. What are some tips for making the most out of a morning walk?

Wear comfortable shoes, stay hydrated, walk at a brisk pace, and enjoy the fresh air and surroundings.

10. Can morning walks help with weight management?

Yes, they boost metabolism and aid in burning calories, contributing to weight management.