A five paragraph essay is one with five paragraphs. This simply means that all the ideas of the chosen topic are organized to fit into just five paragraphs. It consists of the introductory paragraph containing a thesis statement.
This statement tells the general idea of the essay. For example, if you were to write a five-paragraph sample essay on exam malpractice in medical studies, the introduction might be “The problem of exam malpractice in medical studies is one that has rejected all the strategies adopted to eradicate it. This situation has caused a lot of problems for medical studies in all aspects.”
The introduction above tells anyone what the essay is about and at the same time hints at what is to come in the following paragraphs: how poor exam practice has caused problems in medical studies. The following paragraphs in a five-paragraph essay then select the points and then discuss them with supporting details, giving examples where necessary. Each of these paragraphs carries a topic sentence that is a summary of the idea in that particular paragraph.
For example, in the following paragraph you could say “children who engage in poor test practice grow up to be dangerous to society”, that is the topic sentence and it simply tells the reader what is going to be discussed. I could go ahead and back it up by explaining that “kids who do poor test practice at school may cheat at school and pass their tests probably at the top of their class, but when it comes time to practice, they’ll have nothing to offer.” They end up getting jobs and getting fired from their jobs. They eventually end up jobless and may become thieves or gangsters.
The same applies to the other two paragraphs of a five-paragraph essay. The details that support the ideas must be linked and the events must follow a logical order as seen above. The last stage of this five paragraph essay example is the conclusion. The conclusion carries the thesis statement only paraphrased and leaves the reader with something to remember. For example, the five-paragraph sample essay might end like this: Poor exam practice is not something anyone should get involved with, especially if that person wants to be great and recognized in the future.