Five-paragraph Essay Research Articles

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

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

Reconceptualizing the Teaching of the Five-Paragraph Essay Through Concept-Based Language Instruction to English as a Second Language Writers

Reconceptualizing the Teaching of the Five-Paragraph Essay Through Concept-Based Language Instruction to English as a Second Language Writers

Motif and Manipulation: Choreographing the Five-Paragraph Essay

This article serves as an in-practice guide to help teachers facilitate the creation of a dance piece using the five-paragraph essay format to explore themes through motif and manipulation. It is an outline of the process that begins with the selection of a theme and the development of a motif to represent that theme. It compares the development of an introduction, body, and conclusion to the creation of a motif and its manipulations. This is done through a discussion of writing techniques including the use of attention grabbers, transition words, and FRIES (Facts, Reasons, Incidents, Examples, Statistics) and what their counterparts might be in a choreographic work. This article is based on the author’s experience as both a high school language arts and dance teacher in a public high school, and it highlights the culminating activity in a high school choreography class.

The Writing-to-learn Dimension of L2 Writing: Towards Rhetorical Hybridity and Flexibility

This study investigated how two Korean EFL college students, who were taught the five-paragraph essay in their college writing classes, drew upon rhetorical resources in their writing for learning content (WLC). Using a multiple-case study design, the study examined how the students consciously manipulated all of their rhetorical resources to make meaning and used L2 writing to learn content. It also explored how they differed in their enactment of rhetorical practices and deployment of rhetorical resources in WLC. During their engagement with WLC, they developed rhetorical strategies that reflected the structure of their evolving text rather than the structure of the five-paragraph essay. Their rhetorical choices in WLC have provided invaluable insight into the rhetorical challenges they faced while writing. Overall, they produced texts that better portrayed the multiple nuances inherent in a translingual approach. An implication is that more L2 writing teachers and scholars should pay attention to the rhetorical sensibility promoted by the translingual movement

Towards a unified English technology-based writing curriculum in the Arabian Gulf countries: the case of Oman

This study investigates the efficacy of a new testing tool, a Web-based application known as the Academic Writing Wizard (AWW), in creating a unified English technology-based writing curriculum in the Arabian Gulf countries, focusing particularly on the case of Oman. The application was piloted in three Oman high schools selected by the Omani Education Ministry. All the schools have class grades 11 and 12 only. Over 2 weeks, 71 students and 6 teachers were trained in the effective use of AWW. In the pre-application phase, the selected students were asked to write a five-paragraph essay without using AWW. In the post-application phase, they were asked to write the same essay employing AWW, specifically elements of the Lexical Cohesive Trio (LCT), combining elements of textual reference: anaphora, cataphora, transitional signals, lexical repetition, and lexical phrases. A total of 71 respondents took part in the study. All were senior grade students (class grades 11 and 12). Comparisons of the two groups with respect to the quantitative and scoring scales were performed on the basis of the nonparametric Mann–Whitney criterion. An analysis of the dynamics of the indexes was conducted on the basis of the nonparametric Wilcoxon criterion. A multifactorial dispersive analysis was performed to study the influence of the factors in class. MANOVA was also conducted to study the influence of two factors simultaneously: the class and the time period. Based on the results of the statistical analysis, the following was found:1. The dynamics of the index Teacher’s Score and the values of indexes in all the grades were higher in the post-application period.2. There was a statistically significant positive increase across all indexes between the post-application and pre-application periods in each grade.3. The dynamics of the index Teacher’s Score and the values of indexes in all the grades were higher in the post-application period. There was an incremental increase from the post-app period to the pre-app period in the 11th grade and 12th grade of 3%. Thus, the index Teacher’s Score was influenced by the Period factor.4. The dynamics of the Score index were clearly visible. The values of the index Score in all the classes were higher in the post-app period.5. Based on the results of the multifactorial dispersive analysis per index Score, Teacher’s Score and Final Grade were influenced by the Period factor only.When the index Final Grade is compared, the average score was 46.3 ± 5.8% in the 11th grade in the pre-app period, which increased by 13% to 59.3 ± 5.5% (P < 0.0001) during the post-app period. In the12th grade, the average score of the same index was 48.1 ± 8.4% in the pre-app period, which increased by approximately 13% to 61.0 ± 7.5% (P < 0.0001) during the post-app period. The results further indicate that the application of AWW significantly improved Omani students’ English academic writing skills. Therefore, AWW will be a useful tool in the English curriculum of both Omani and Arabian Gulf English schools.

Incorporating Multiple Intelligences in L2 Writing Classes: New Horizons in Redefining the Classroom

This article seeks to restore the notion of the classroom in light of emerging pedagogies. It attempts to provide a sketchy introduction of the theory of multiple intelligences and its potential gains in ELT. Despite the variance of teaching methods and approaches implemented in classrooms, students’ results in some topics have remained below the par of teachers’ expectations. This article attempts to provide a solution to teaching students to their differences and learning preferences. It investigates the impacts of accommodating students’ intelligences profiles in writing classes. To fulfill this objective, 114 male and female participants majoring in English at the University of Kairouan were asked to write a five-paragraph essay and respond to a writing strategies questionnaire, a multiple intelligences inventory. The collected data were statistically analyzed using Pearson Correlation and ANOVA techniques to probe possible correlations and predictability levels between MI profiles and WS. The findings indicated that there is a significant degree of correlations between learners’ multiple intelligence profiles and the writing strategies they use when writing. As for the impacts of multiple intelligences on writing quality, the results revealed weak or no significant correlations. It is then suggested that the same study should be further elaborated within the same L2 context with larger population to acknowledge learners’ differences and learning preferences and benefit from new dimensions in teaching paradigms Chronic deterioration of learners results in different language topics The current upheaval caused by the striking pandemic Lack of homogeneity in the syllabi provided to university students For the above reasons, implementing the Multiple Intelligences Theory (Gardner 1983/1999) and Computer Assisted Language Learning at the university level classroom could boost the teaching/ learning and would reduce apprehension and foster learning achievements. So, knowing learners’ individual differences and preferences and integrating CALL in the classroom would allow teachers to establish “broad range of teaching strategies with their students” (Armstrong, 2009). Gardner (2006) also concludes that “people have very different kinds of minds… then education which treats everybody the same way, is actually the most unfair education”. Briefly, incorporating intelligences whether cognitive or artificial and recognizing the blended learning would revolutionize the notion of the classroom and reduce inconveniences between the teaching input and the learning output. Therefore, the new CLASSROOM would be effective, inspiring, and prospective.

Benefits of Collaborative Writing: University Students’ Reflections

The importance of collaborative activities has been recognized for increasing learning opportunities in language classrooms. However, benefits of collaborative writing in university writing classrooms have not been robustly reported yet. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perception of a collaborative writing project and its instructional benefits during a course devoted to teaching transitions from writing paragraphs to essays in an EFL classroom. The project involved 15 students in an intermediate-level writing class at a university in Korea. Each group was assigned with different types of paragraph. Other groups gave suggestions on how to transform the paragraph to a five-paragraph essay in a series of peer feedback workshops. Results of surveys and interviews of participants clearly revealed that the collaborative project helped them develop a positive attitude towards writing in L2 English and working in groups. This study contributes to the practice of academic writing by showing that collaborative writing allows students to achieve the goal of understanding composing processes and the goal of producing a presentable essay. For teachers who are reluctant to implement collaborative writing projects in EFL settings, this study provides useful guidelines for project design and practical applications for the classroom.

To Teach or Not to Teach the Five-Paragraph Essay?

While the field of composition might like to believe it has moved on from concern about the five-paragraph essay, the debate is far from over. The five-paragraph essay continues to be taught, and oppositionists continue to rail against it. As long as the five-paragraph essay continues as a common form of writing assessment on standardized exams and as a form commonly taught in schools, it is a form that will likely persist. Instead of calling for the retirement of the five-paragraph essay, practitioners and researchers need to rethink the potential of the five-paragraph essay as a foundational form and to reconsider approaches to teaching it. Some of the problems associated with the five-paragraph essay are likely due to pedagogical decisions, such as an exclusive focus on the five-paragraph essay and not advancing to other forms when students are ready rather the five-paragraph essay form itself. In this paper, I define the five-paragraph essay, outline some of the historical links to the five-paragraph essay, challenge common criticisms of it, and suggest that such essay might be a useful foundational form.

Nigel A. Caplan, & Ann M. Johns (Eds.), Changing practices for the L2 writing classroom: Moving beyond the five-paragraph essay, The University of Michigan Press (2019)

Nigel A. Caplan, & Ann M. Johns (Eds.), Changing practices for the L2 writing classroom: Moving beyond the five-paragraph essay, The University of Michigan Press (2019)

Changing Practices for the L2 Writing Classroom: Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay by Nigel A. Caplan and Ann M. Johns, eds.

Changing Practices for the L2 Writing Classroom: Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay by Nigel A. Caplan and Ann M. Johns, eds.

Essay Writing Activities in Class: Bangladeshi Undergraduates’ Perspectives

Although smart writing skill is equally important in both academic and professional spheres, many Bangladeshi tertiary level learners find writing skills too difficult to be developed. In respect of this, the students are given many writing tasks (such as composing a five-paragraph essay) to improve their competencies in a language classroom. Anyhow, writing a good essay needs several cognitive steps that a student has to go through demanding a high level of motivation and constructive teacher feedback. Considering the fact, this paper has investigated tertiary level Bangladeshi learners’ perspectives about how the essay-writing tasks keep them motivated in class. This pilot project had been conducted using a set of 20 items (quantitative survey questionnaire), which was administered among thirty participants from the Department of English of a reputed Bangladeshi public university. The small-scale research revealed that the majority of the undergraduates stay motivated during the brainstorming part of essay writing tasks. However, many of them find the patterns of essays quite confusing. However, these learners believe more writing assignments, along with effective teacher feedback, can highly encourage them to develop their writing skills.

Where is the Writing Teacher? Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives on the Teaching of Writing

This article identifies how a cohort of preservice teachers educated during the No Child Left Behind Era thought about the teaching of writing when they entered a secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teacher preparation program. Most participants shared the beliefs that: (1) writing was primarily the demonstration of specific skills, often on a standardized test; (2) alternatives to the five-paragraph essay would be extra, with formulaic writing central to instruction; (3) teachers had little role in student writing development beyond assigning writing; (4) feedback on writing should be ‘objective’ and tied to a grade; and (5) the purpose of ELA is primarily to teach literature. Authors believe identifying preservice teachers’ beliefs about writing and the role of the writing teacher at the beginning of a program can help teacher educators design experiences to expand students’ notions of literacy and of writing instruction.

Comparing and Contrasting the Interactional Performance of Teachers and Students in Traditional and Virtual Classrooms of Advanced Writing Course in Distance Education University

Since interaction provides the opportunity for students to share their ideas, thoughts, comments and feelings with their peers and teacher, it can be claimed that it is an integral component of learning. The present study applied the Sinclair and Coulthard’s interaction (IRF) (1975) model on the English learners of two traditional and virtual classes in order to investigate the differences between their writing scores in these two classes on the one hand, and the extent to which the IRF structure occurs in these two classes on the other hand. For this purpose, 79 and 20 intermediate level EFL learners were selected from the virtual and traditional classes of Payame Noor University (PNU). They were given the pre-test at the beginning and post-test after eight sessions of the same treatment in both classes by the same instructor. Their pre- and post-test scores were compared. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the participants’ post-test scores in two classes in terms of three components of the intended six components of the five-paragraph essay. This study concluded that the participants in the virtual class performed better than their peers in the traditional one. Moreover, the number of interactions between the participants and teacher was more in the virtual class. Since the effect of interaction between the students and teacher on better performance and learning was shown in this study, other teachers can take into consideration the importance of interaction as well as technology for better teaching-learning process.

Teaching a five-paragraph essay

Writing an essay requires usto think through whatwe are going to do. Every essay has a beginning, middle, and an end (Levin, 1997). In a five-paragraph essay, the first paragraph is generally understood as introduction. An effective introduction demands readers’ interest and give them a sense of the topic and purpose (Gardner, 2005). The next three paragraphs consist of the body of the essay. The body of the essay explains and supports the thesis with details; further develops ideas in a clear sequence. The fifth paragraph is conclusion. It incorporates the importance of the thesis statement, reflects on the larger significance of the topic, and brings the essay to a logical manner (Gardner, 2005).

Applying Criteria to Examples or Learning by Comparison: Effects on Students' Evaluative Judgment and Performance in Writing

In higher education, writing tasks are often accompanied by criteria indicating key aspects of writing quality. Sometimes, these criteria are also illustrated with examples of varying quality. It is, however, not yet clear how students learn from shared criteria and examples. This research aims to investigate the learning effects of two different instructional approaches: applying criteria to examples and comparative judgment. International business students were instructed to write a five-paragraph essay, preceded by a 30-minutes peer assessment in which they evaluated the quality of a range of example essays. Half of the students evaluated the quality of the example essays using a list of teacher-designed criteria (criteria condition; n = 20), the other group evaluated by pairwise comparisons (comparative judgment condition; n = 20). Students were also requested to provide peer feedback. Results show that the instructional approach influenced the kind of aspects students commented on when giving feedback. Students in the comparative judgment condition provided relatively more feedback on higher order aspects such as the content and structure of the text than students in the criteria condition. This was only the case for improvement feedback; for feedback on strengths there were no significant differences. Positive effects of comparative judgment on students’ own writing performance were only moderate and non-significant in this small sample. Although the transfer effects were inconclusive, this study nevertheless shows that comparative judgment can be as powerful as applying criteria to examples. Comparative judgement inherently activates students to engage with exemplars at a higher textual level and enables students to evaluate more example essays by comparison than by criteria. Further research is needed on the long-term and indirect effects of comparative judgment, as it might influence students’ conceptualization of writing, without directly improving their writing performance.

A MIXED METHODS ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE DOCS ENVIRONMENT ON EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE AND CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS FOR SUCCESS AND FAILURE

This study investigated the effect of writing process in Google Docs environment on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance. It also examined students’ perceptions towards the effects of Google Docs and their perceived causes of success or failure in writing performance. In this regard, 48 EFL students were chosen based on their IELTs writing test scores. During the treatment, the students were taught how to write a formal five-paragraph essay in the class, but they were supposed to practice writing process and give feedback to their peers’ essays through Google Docs. At the end of the treatment phase, the participants received another sample of IELTs writing test (posttest). Moreover, 20 participants were interviewed for their perceptions regarding the causes for their success and failure and the influence of Google Docs on their writing performance. The analysis of a Paired-Sample t-test revealed that Google Docs played an effective role in improving students’ writing performance. In addition, the analysis of interview revealed that the students perceived both internal and external causes for their success and failure; but in case of failure, internal factors were cited more often than external ones. Also, it was revealed that students generally showed positive attitude towards the implication of Google Docs as a factor leading to success in their writing performance.

Essay Development for Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities: Graphic Organizers for Visualizing Organizational Patterns

Students with disabilities often find expressive writing frustrating and difficult. The prospect of writing a well-developed five-paragraph essay can be especially daunting. One reason is that struggling writers may have difficulty conceptualizing how the elements of an effective essay are developed. This article describes an instructional strategy that has been used to help struggling writers visualize the elements of a five-paragraph essay. The Big Ideas writing strategy helps reduce the load on working memory during the writing process with a combination of two graphic organizers to guide students as they learn the steps for writing an effective essay. The described strategy provides explicit strategy instruction opportunities for rural educators who are working to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Since many rural districts have a higher proportion of special education students, it follows that a substantial number of students may struggle with their composition skills. Students in rural settings may especially benefit from this strategy due to its opportunities for specialized instructional delivery. The article also provides recommendations for fading support and generalizing the strategy.

Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing by John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk (review)

Reviewed by: Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing by John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk Elena Foulis John Mauk, Jayme Stayer, and Karen Mauk. Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2014; 324p. Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing, is an almost pocket-sized book with excellent and practical insights into academic writing. Divided in three parts, this guide encourages writers—the targeted population being freshman or sophomore college students—to transition from the traditional five-paragraph essay, to a richer, more complex, and critical way to approach college writing. Each chapter in part one address a specific step in the writing process and provides examples of the step being studied. The examples used throughout each of the chapters are short, and often include excerpts that illustrate and further advance the understanding of a process. Part one is the longest section of this book, and it teaches writers how to “learn the moves” of academic writing. With chapters that teach the writer how to seek complexity, apply a concept, justify a position, assess thinking, etc., part one offers plenty of opportunities to discuss, practice and build a critical essay. The book uses accessible language with clear, descriptive and relatable examples that are easy to follow, while at the same time challenges writers to exercise the skills discussed in each section. Although each chapter has a guided exercise section that pushes students to think, talk and write about the topic, it leaves room for instructors to design exercises that apply more directly to the subject. Additionally, some of the chapters include information—in reference boxes in blue—that support and aid the writer in remembering how to cite, paraphrase, summarize, etc. These blue boxes, sprinkled throughout part one, offer concise explanations of basic mechanics and techniques every writer needs to remember. [End Page 239] Part two, titled, “Read the moves,” offers longer and full-length essays designed to show the intellectual moves described in part one. In this section, the reference boxes direct the reader to look at each paragraph of the essay the author uses to examine specific processes from part one. For example, in Steve Krause’s essay, the writers point out that Krause, “denies the usual association between technology and new” in paragraph 3, “unpacks literacy, a broad term, and explains three of its traits” in paragraph 6-7, and “makes connections between Lindstrom’s and Socrates fears of technology” in paragraph 9 (194). This step-by-step approach to reading the moves from part one, serves as a model for the student’s own writing. Part three, titled, “Apply the moves,” provides writers with outlines for building their own essays, along three categories. These categories are: explanatory and descriptive projects, analytical projects, argumentative projects, and reflective projects. Each of the categories directs the writer to clarify a term or concept, explain things in their own words or draw from a vital source, for example. These outlines are helpful and flexible enough for writers to adapt to their own projects. This book should not be merely a reference manual or a “recommended” book on a student’s syllabi. Because of the step-by-step approach to helping the writer achieve a well-organized, structured and critical essay, it merits being used along with other main texts. It does not include a chapter on mechanics, grammar or spelling, so instructors might need to include additional exercises or offer a list of common mistakes and how to avoid them. Elena Foulis The Ohio State University Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Towards More Sophisticated Academic Writing: Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay

Towards More Sophisticated Academic Writing: Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay

The Five-Paragraph Essay: Its Evolution and Roots in Theme-Writing

This essay traces the origins of the five-paragraph essay to a form of theme-writing that has deep roots in English education and classical rhetoric, long before the current-traditional period that has been commonly assumed to be the origin. The five-paragraph essay's history and evolution can inform our understanding of its role in writing instruction and why it has persisted for so long.