This is a nice example of a five-paragraph essay. Please, check the source for further detail:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/five_par.htm
A Sample Paper
| 1Stephen King, creator of such stories as Carrie and Pet Sematary,
stated that the Edgar Allan Poe stories he read as a child gave him the
inspiration and instruction he needed to become the writer that he is. 2Poe, as does Stephen King, fills the reader's imagination with the images that he wishes the reader to see, hear, and feel. 3His
use of vivid, concrete visual imagery to present both static and
dynamic settings and to describe people is part of his technique. 4Poe's
short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story about a young man who
kills an old man who cares for him, dismembers the corpse, then goes mad
when he thinks he hears the old man's heart beating beneath the floor
boards under his feet as he sits and discusses the old man's absence
with the police. 5In "The Tell-Tale Heart," a careful reader can observe Poe's skillful manipulation of the senses. |
The introductory paragraph includes a paraphrase of
something said by a famous person in order to get the reader's
attention. The second sentence leads up to the thesis statement,
which is the third sentence. The thesis statement (sentence 3)
presents the topic of the paper to the reader and provides a mini-
outline. The topic is Poe's use of visual imagery. The mini-
outline tells the reader that this paper will present Poe's use
of imagery in three places in his writing: (1) description of
static setting; (2) description of dynamic setting; and (3)
description of a person. The last sentence of the paragraph uses
the words "manipulation" and "senses" as transitional hooks. |
| 1The sense of sight, the primary sense, is particularly susceptible to manipulation. 2In
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe uses the following image to describe a
static scene: "His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness . .
." Poe used the words "black," "pitch," and "thick darkness" not only
to show the reader the condition of the old man's room, but also to make
the reader feel the darkness." 3"Thick"
is a word that is not usually associated with color (darkness), yet in
using it, Poe stimulates the reader's sense of feeling as well as his
sense of sight. |
In the first sentence of the second paragraph (first paragraph of the body)
the words "sense" and "manipulation" are used to hook into the end of
the introductory paragraph. The first part of the second sentence
provides the topic for this
paragraph--imagery in a static scene. Then a quotation from "The
Tell-Tale Heart" is presented and briefly discussed. The last
sentence of this paragraph uses the expressions "sense of feeling" and
"sense of sight" as hooks for leading into the third paragraph. |
| 1Further
on in the story, Poe uses a couple of words that cross not only the
sense of sight but also the sense of feeling to describe a dynamic
scene. 2The
youth in the story has been standing in the open doorway of the old
man's room for a long time, waiting for just the right moment to reveal
himself to the old man in order to frighten him. 3Poe
writes: "So I opened it [the lantern opening]--you cannot imagine how
stealthily, stealthily--until, at length, a single dim ray, like the
thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the
vulture eye." 4By
using the metaphor of the thread of the spider (which we all know is a
creepy creature) and the word "shot," Poe almost makes the reader gasp,
as surely did the old man whose one blind eye the young man describes as
"the vulture eye." |
The first sentence of the third paragraph (second paragraph of the body) uses the words "sense of sight" and "sense of
feeling" to hook back into the previous paragraph. Note that in
the second paragraph "feeling" came first, and in this paragraph
"sight" comes first. The first sentence also includes the topic
for this paragraph--imagery in a dynamic scene. Again, a
quotation is taken from the story, and it is briefly discussed.
The last sentence uses the words "one blind eye" which was in the
quotation. This expression provides the transitional hook for the
last paragraph in the body of the paper. |
| 1The reader does not know much about what the old man in this story looks like except that he has one blind eye. 2In
the second paragraph of "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe establishes the
young man's obsession with that blind eye when he writes: "He had the
eye of the vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it." 3This
"vulture eye" is evoked over and over again in the story until the
reader becomes as obsessed with it as does the young man. 4His use of the vivid, concrete word "vulture" establishes a specific image in the mind of the reader that is inescapable. |
In the first sentence of the fourth paragraph (third paragraph in the
body), "one blind eye" is used that hooks into the previous
paragraph. This first sentence also lets the reader know that
this paragraph will deal with descriptions of people: ". . . what
the old man looks like . . .." Once again Poe is quoted and
discussed. The last sentence uses the word "image" which hooks
into the last paragraph. (It is less important that this
paragraph has a hook since the last paragraph is going to include
a summary of the body of the paper.) |
| 1"Thick
darkness," "thread of the spider," and "vulture eye" are three images
that Poe used in "The Tell-Tale Heart" to stimulate a reader's senses. 2Poe wanted the reader to see and feel real life. 3He used concrete imagery rather than vague abstract words to describe settings and people. 4If
Edgar Allan Poe was one of Stephen King's teachers, then readers of
King owe a debt of gratitude to that nineteenth-century creator of
horror stories. |
The first sentence of the concluding paragraph uses the principal
words from the quotations from each paragraph of the body of the
paper. This summarizes those three paragraph. The second and
third sentences provide observations which can also be considered
a summary, not only of the content of the paper, but also offers
personal opinion which was logically drawn as the result of this
study. The last sentence returns to the Edgar Allan Poe-Stephen
King relationship which began this paper. This sentence also
provides a "wrap-up" and gives the paper a sense of finality. |
