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Thoughts on the Five-Paragraph Theme (5PT) Format

Dr. Humble
Here is one teacher’s response to a thread of questions teachers were having on the topic of the
failure of the Five-Paragraph Theme (5PT).

I think of the five paragraph essay as training wheels on a bike. It helps students master
the component parts of a persuasive essay until they can find their voice and their balance.
It shows them what a persuasive essay should do, present solid evidence that is solidly
supported; three strong pieces of evidence (ideally), each followed by at least three strong
reasons (ideally) why that evidence is meaningful and reasonable. It is a very mechanical
process. The hope is, I suppose, that students internalize the process to the point that they
can incorporate the process without having to think too much about process and can focus
on voice and craft. Like learning to drive with clutch. You internalize what you do with
the brake and the clutch and the gas pedal so that your feet do what they need to do
instinctively so that you can focus on driving the car. I think within a year or two of
learning the 5 paragraph format we should move on to other things, take the focus off the
formula and put it on content and craft. That is just my thinking.

Cordially,
J. D. Wilson, Jr. (​Massachusetts)

First, you can see Mr. Wilson’s analogies: training wheels on a bike and learning to drive a
standard shift. Second, you can see where he would want his students to end up, with content and
craft:

1. Presenting solid evidence,


2. Explaining why the evidence is meaningful and reasonable,
3. Finding voice and balance,
4. Internalizing evidentiary support, and
5. Focusing on content and craft.

It’s all good. I use a metaphor of the life preserver: If you are under water, struggling for your
breath, in terms of a composition, the 5PT may be a life preserver that saves you. So, if the 5PT
helps you cope in a stressful disequilibrium, use it! Five-Paragraph Essays can, of course, be
thoughtful, detailed in providing and arguing from evidence. The AP readers are always judging
your thinking. If your deep and abstract thinking is conveyed via a 5PT, fine. Too often, I would
say, 5PT are conveyance belts for superficiality (shallowness) and formulaic thinking. Would
you be willing to demonstrate to your AP Reader, in each essay, that you are a thoughtful reader
and writer? Good. I knew you would.
The 5PT is a formulaic, mechanistic, mechanical (machine-like), neat approach to organizing
information. There’s the word--​organizing.​ The 5PT ​seems ​to generate an organization of a
composition. In an AP Reading, a 5PT will most likely result in a score of 5, maybe 6. You
might wonder, “Hey! I’ll take that.” Careful! Is that really what you want?

What is better than formula and neatness? Messiness, thoughtful messiness. As long as you are
working out your thinking and your thoughtfulness in your essay, as long as you are displaying
your thinking for your three AP readers to see and to appreciate, then you are winning, even if
the results appear messy. At least your writing might be thoughtful, in ways that the 5PT is not.
5PT is not necessarily winning.

Here is a conventional structure of a five-paragraph essay.

1. Introduction, with generalization and announcement of structure, I, II, III


2. Topic I
3. Topic II
4. Topic III
5. Conclusion, with recap of I, II, III

I hope that you see the redundancies in this formulaic system: redundant, boring, formulaic, less
thoughtful, and … convenient.

In a less formulaic product, however neat an organization (or not), you are working out your
thinking in a draft. Remember: Every AP FRE is a draft! Accept and love that fact, you bunch of
wanna-be, imperfect perfectionists. That’s it: a 5PT ​appears o​ rganized. But it is shallow. Ideas in
each paragraph are caged: Don’t let Topic I out of paragraph 2. Stay in your cage! No, no. We
can do better.

Now, what might a nice thoughtful analysis, in an AP context, look like? Remember that most of
your energy ought to headed in the direction of abstraction (that is, subordinate summary and
other concretions to abstractions).

In a synthesis, the chief abstraction is your central argument that is grounded in your defense or
challenge of at least three of the six or seven sources. In an analysis, the chief abstraction is your
definition of the analysis that is called for in the prompt. In an argument, the chief abstraction is
your argument grounded in the specific, appropriate evidence you have marshalled from your
reading, your observation, and your experience. (By the way, can you see the possibilities for the
5PT in the argument essay?)
Synthesis
1. Introduction = one sentence that defines your position (your focused argument)
2. Abstraction I, with treatment of at least two sources in conversation with each other
3. Abstraction II, with treatment of at least two sources in conversation with each other
4. ?
5. ?
6. Conclusion (optional with no more than one sentence)

Conversation between and among sources defined: Do the sources


● Support each other?
● Contradict or negate each other?
● Elaborate upon another source?
● Qualify another source?

Analysis
1. Introduction, = one sentence that defines an author’s attitude, characterization, tone,
thesis, position, or other abstraction offered in the prompt.
2. Topic I
3. Topic II
4. Topic III
5. ?
6. Conclusion (optional with no more than one sentence)

Argument
1. Introduction = one sentence that contains your defined position to defend, challenge, or
qualify an assertion offered in the prompt.
2. A topic that may be grounded in reading or experience or both
3. A topic that may be grounded in observation or experience or both
4. A topic that may be grounded in reading or observation or both
5. ?
6. Conclusion (optional with no more than one sentence)
Why “one sentence,” you may ask? Haven’t you been trained to write elaborate introductory
paragraphs? Yes, perhaps, you have, but these paragraphs were designed for essays written out
of class, with many days for planning, drafting, composing, and revising your essay. In our AP
World, you have 40 minutes per essay. Draft your essay and demonstrate as much thinking as
you possibly can in your 40 minutes. Therefore, one sentence will adequately state your position
(your concise argument or your precise analytical position) so that you can devote all the other
ink to demonstrating your thinking. Show your work; show your thinking.

That concept also means that


● you do not need a conclusion or
● one concluding sentence will suffice.
Put your energies (and ink) into arguing or analyzing, as the case may be.

Really, AP Readers are judging your thinking. All they have to go on is your writing (for those
who are pencraft-challenged: just write legibly the words you want your Reader to read). Vapid,
formulaic introductions and conclusions represent ink that is not given to thinking. Let your ink
equal think. INK = THINK.

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