Have students struggling with exactly how to format essays? With the length (how many paragraphs does it need?). What parts all need to be included (a thesis what?). And don’t forget about how to make essays easier for the reader to digest (transition words go where?). It can be totally overwhelming to try to teach this area of the writing curriculum.
Check out this easy-to-understand essays format article to help better explain and teach this important writing component.
How to Format Essays
There are many different types of essays out there – persuasive, informational, argumentative, and the list goes on and on.
Regardless of the type, the essay text format usually contains 4 to 6 paragraphs.
In the school setting, it is almost always referred to as the 5 paragraph essay. This is the correct format of essays that is often taught and expected.
These main paragraphs are:
- Introduction
- 3 Supporting
- Conclusion
The introduction paragraph tells the reader what they are going to be reading about. It gives a little look at what the rest of the paper will contain.
Next, the three supporting paragraphs tell about different aspects of the topic. Sometimes there are only 2 supporting sections while other times the writer has so much to say that there are 4. It just really depends on how much they have to say. But again, the overwhelming amount of schools will put out that there should be three.
Lastly comes the conclusion paragraph. Here is where everything gets wrapped up. The large ideas are restated. Usually, there is also some type of takeaway to keep the reader thinking about the topic.
Format for Essays Paragraph
We spoke to the overall format of an essay first. Now let’s dig into the different paragraphs and the format to essays in those areas.
Introduction
The introduction should start off with something to grab the reader’s attention. This could be something like a quote or a fun fact or even a short personal story. Remember the point of this is to hook the reader in. It needs to be exciting enough that they will want to keep reading the rest of the paper.
Next, add in the main supporting paragraph ideas. This gives the reader an idea of what is to come. It starts their wheels thinking about what they are just about to read more in-depth about.
Lastly, end with a thesis statement. While the phrase ‘thesis statement’ sounds daunting, it isn’t at all. Basically, it is just the reason for the whole writing piece.
Supporting Paragraphs
All the supporting paragraphs are formatted the same way.
Start with what the whole paragraph will be about.
Then add in details that add to this topic.
End with a transition sentence. The main point of these transition sentences is to restate the main idea and lead into the next idea. This should include some type of transition word (also, besides, in addition, etc.) that ties the thought of the paragraph into the next paragraph’s thought. Having this transition word will help the essay be a smoother read. It will also help the reader maintain focus on the task and want to keep going.
Conclusion
The conclusion is the last part to discuss in the format of writing essays. This paragraph does exactly what it sounds like…concludes the paper.
Usually, the conclusion starts off by restating the thesis statement (remember that sentence from the intro paragraph that tells what the whole essay is about?). Be sure that the thesis statement is changed a bit so there isn’t the exact same sentence twice in the essay.
The next part of the conclusion should have a few sentences that again tell about the supporting reasons (these would be the main parts in the supporting paragraphs).
To finish out the paper, end it in a way that makes the reader keep thinking about what they read. This can be done by asking a question. Or the reader might be given one last compelling thing to think about (so great for a persuasive essay!).
Essay Format Example
If you are anything like me, you need to see something for it all to make sense. (Shout out to all you visual learners out there!)
Here is a picture of a 5 paragraph essay. You can see the different types of paragraphs that I chatted about above. Note in this example how the different paragraphs can be easily seen with the brackets on the side.
This can give you an idea of about how long a paragraph should be for a typical student. These paragraphs are all written with the 5 minimal sentences (which I spoke to in the “Format for Essays Paragraph” section above). Of course, more sentences aren’t an issue. More sentences could actually be great as they would add even more details to really paint a picture for the reader. But I think it is a good starting point to include at least 5 sentences per paragraph.
I’ve found it to be super beneficial to break up the different chunks of the essay. This makes the task much less daunting to students. These are the chunks that I use:
- Brainstorm the whole paper – come up with the main idea, supporting ideas, and details
- Write 1 paragraph at a time. Useing a graphic oranizer to breka apart this task is a great idea too!
- Pull all the paragraphs together into one large essay.
Format of Essays Writing Done For You
If you are looking for a done-for-you resource to help get your students on the right track with writing a formal essay, then check out this essay template outline resource.
Here you’ll find everything a student needs to write an organized 5 paragraph essay. Each paragraph has its own paper that contains brainstorming boxes along with where to write each type of sentence so it is in the correct spot.
There are even spots for a thesis statement and those transition sentences to help the writing flow. Have a student who gets stuck trying to come up with a way to hook the reader, end the whole essay, or come up with a transition word? There are included idea/word boxes for added student support.
Once students fill out the 5 paragraph pages, all they need to do is re-write it (or type it) indenting with each new page. So easy! Easy enough that you’ll be able to focus on helping students come up with great ideas as opposed to format for writing essays questions.
Find this great essay template outline resource here.
Need More on How to Essay Format Everything?
For even more resources on the topic of formatting this type of writing, check out these articles:
The Purdue Online Writing Lab is an excellent resource for what is a mla essay format. It gives great guidelines on how to write in MLA specific style. Looking for APA format of essays instead? Check this page out.
Plagiarism.org gives tons of information on essay citation formation in this article. There is some great information on how to quote things in a paper as well as listing references in the essay.
Need info on where to start teaching writing at the elementary school level? Check out this information-packed post by Teacher Writer.
Happy Teaching!
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