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The 5 Paragraph EssayEnglish 9An essay is similar to a paragraph in many ways, but just longer. Both are pieces of writing that are about a single topic, and both can have many different purposes, such as narrative, descriptive, comparison, or explanatory. In grade 9, we are going to focus on the explanatory essay. The typical explanatory essay is made of 5 paragraphs.This chart shows you how the paragraph and the essay can be broken into the same parts:PARAGRAPHESSAYTopic Sentence =Thesis Statement1st Supporting Point = 1st Body Paragraph2nd Supporting Point=2nd Body Paragraph3rd Supporting Point= 3rd Body ParagraphConcluding Sentence=Concluding ParagraphNote the similarities. For example, a topic sentence tells you what a paragraph is about while a thesis statement tells you what the essay is about. Parts of the Essay:Introductory Paragraph: This paragraph starts with a “hook” - an opener that grabs the readers attention. An opener leads the reader to the thesis statement, which is just a fancy name for the topic sentence of as essay. After the hook, there may be 1 or 2 sentences that transition to the thesis statement. The thesis statement is near the end of the introductory paragraph. The last piece is the plan, which indicates the 3 points you will make about your topic.Body Paragraphs: There are three body paragraphs. Each body paragraph has a topic sentence, 3 supporting points, expansion for the points, and a concluding sentence. In other words, wach is its own complete paragraph. Use transitional words within the paragraph as always. Each topic sentence of each of the three body paragraphs is based on one of the areas covered in the plan for the thesis. Concluding Paragraph: The conclusion usually has 2 parts. The first part is reworded thesis. This reworded thesis may contain the topic and the plan or just the topic. However, the reworded thesis is expressed in a different way. The second part is a closing thought. The conclusion is often the shortest paragraph in the essay. Here is an example of an OUTLINE used to write an essay about the topic “Explain a bad job you had”:Hook: Begin by talking about a bunch of different jobsThesis: None of these jobs were as dreadful as my job at an apple plantPlan: 1. Hard work 2. Poor pay 3. Dismal working conditionsBody Paragraph #1 – Hard workTopic Sentence: First of all, the job was bad because it was so physically hard. 1. stacking heavy cartons 10 hours a night2. dragging bulky wooden skids3. setting up extra heavy metal trackConcluding Sentence: The job was very hard physically.Body Paragraph #2 – Poor payTopic Sentence: I wouldn’t have minded the difficulty of the work if the pay wasn’t so poor.1. minimum wage2. overtime3. setting up extra heavy metal trackConcluding Sentence: The pay was really bad.Body Paragraph #3 – Working conditionsTopic Sentence: Even more than the pay, what upset me about my job was the conditions.1. pace of work and no few breaks2. cold temperature3. no friendsConcluding Sentence: The pay was really bad.Concluding Paragraph 1. Restate thesis - stayed for 5 months, hating it – worst job ever2. Final thought - by the time I quit, I was determined never to do such degrading work again.This is what the actual essay looks like:My Job in an Apple PlantIn the course of working my way through school, I have taken many jobs I would rather forget. I have spent nine hours a day lifting heavy automobile and truck batteries off the end of an assembly belt. I have risked the loss of eyes and fingers working a punch press in a textile factory. I have served as a ward aide in a mental hospital, helping care for brain-damaged men who would break into violent fits at unexpected moments. However, none of these jobs was as dreadful as my job in an apple plant.?The work was physically hard; the pay was poor; and, most of all, the working conditions were dismal.First of all, the job was bad because it was so physically hard. It made enormous demands on my strength and energy. For ten hours a night, I took cartons that rolled down a metal track and stacked them onto wooden skids in a tractor-trailer. Each carton contained twelve heavy cans or bottles of apple juice. A carton shot down the track about every fifteen seconds. I once figured out that I was lifting an average of twelve tons of apple juice every night. When a truck was almost filled, I or my partner had to drag fourteen bulky wooden skids into the empty trailer nearby and then set up added sections of the heavy metal track so that we could start routing cartons to the back of the empty van. While one of us did that, the other performed the stacking work of two men. The job was very hard physically.I would not have minded the difficulty of the work so much if the pay had not been so poor. I was paid the minimum wage of that time, two dollars an hour, plus the minimum of a nickel extra for working the night shift. Because of the low salary, I felt compelled to get as much overtime pay as possible. Everything over eight hours a night was time-and-a-half, so I typically worked twelve hours a night. On Friday I would sometimes work straight through until Saturday at noon -- eighteen hours. I averaged over sixty hours a week but did not take home much more than one hundred dollars. The pay was really bad.However, even more than the low pay, what upset me about my apple plant job was the working conditions. Our humorless supervisor cared only about his production record for each night and tried to keep the assembly line moving at a breakneck pace. During work I was limited to two ten-minute breaks and an unpaid half hour for lunch. Most of my time was spent outside on the truck loading dock in near-zero-degree temperatures. The steel floors of the trucks were like ice; the quickly penetrating cold made my feet feel like stone. I had no shared interests with the man I loaded cartons with, and so I had to work without job companionship. And after the production line shut down and most people left, I had to spend two hours alone scrubbing clean the apple vats, which were coated with a sticky residue. The working conditions were terrible.I stayed on the job for five months, hating all the while the difficulty of the work, the poor money, and the conditions under which I worked. By the time I quit, I was determined never to do such degrading work again.ASSIGNMENT:You are going to choose ONE of the topics below and fill in an outline for as essay. This can always be changed and adapted later, but the point is to realize the plan is a detailed one, and must be done before writing any essay. Here are your choices:3 good habits that teens should have3 ways that technology has improved our lives3 reasons why school does (or does not) educate kids3 ways that participating in sports changes lives for the better3 reasons why teens love video games so much3 things teens can learn about life from the older generation (grandparents)3 ways teens can help their familiesFirst, choose ONE topic. Next, copy and paste the outline below to a google doc, fill it in, and submit it in the google classroom. Each point only needs to be a couple of words or a phrase, like the apple plant job essay one was above. You will make it into sentences and add to it later. This is just the guideline, and can always be ic:Hook: Thesis: Plan: 1. 2. 3. Body Paragraph #1 – Topic Sentence: 1. 2. 3. Concluding Sentence: Body Paragraph #2 – Topic Sentence: 1. 2. 3. Concluding Sentence: Body Paragraph #3 – Topic Sentence: 1. 2. 3. Concluding Sentence: Concluding Paragraph 1. Restate thesis - 2. Final thought - ................
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