Writing as a Conversation
Currently, the accepted form of institutional writing is the five-paragraph essay, which was popularized by Petrus Ramus’ work Dialecticae partitiones in 1555 (Tremell, 2011), which aimed to applied logic to writing, as college rhetorical teaching was being converted to written format; at the time all teachings were done orally. This approach was useful as it allowed for writing to be structured in a way that was similar to a conversation rather than for academic writing, preserving any loss of meaning between oral-written conversion. In its current form, this style allows for all writing to follow the same general structure; however, styles such as mine have developed to be less rigid than that of the traditional five-paragraph essay. I believe this format to be a good starting point, but strict adherence removes individuality, and adds unnecessary fatigue by making all writings sound similar. For example, if you were to read three essays in succession, and were all written exactly the same way, only differing in topic, the reader would get bored. The way I write aims to remedy this by changing this structure in three ways: moving the thesis to the end of a brief introduction paragraph, an emphasis on transitions, and separating the main subtopics into their own paragraphs. The goal of this method is to be less rigid, allowing the creativity and uniqueness of the writer to become more pronounced, while being written in a way that simulates natural cognition.
A mind-map of this structure is as follows:
Basic 5 Paragraph Essay Structure
Introduction:
First, the introduction; conventionally, the thesis comes as soon as possible, however I disagree with this sentiment. Speed-running to your thesis is meritless if it doesn’t transition into anything, or if it only continues your intro paragraph. Thus, my style has the following structure for an intro paragraph: historical or current context for the writing, background information in a logical order rather than chronological order, and a thesis statement as a transition rather than a statement at the end of the intro paragraph. I will elaborate on my intro for this post to explain this process.
To begin, I use the historical context of what problem I am addressing, in the order of what, who, when, and why; in this case the what is the five-paragraph essay, the who is Ramus, 1555 is the when, and the why is conversion from oral lectures to a written format. This order works to give a miniature thesis through the “what" being first, allowing for a natural transition from what I’m talking about to my reasoning for writing, and to have a natural flow to facilitate reading. Furthermore, this increases the speed at which a reader can become interested, and gives them more time to understand the technical content in the main paragraphs. Now that you have set the tone and flow for the reader, you can have a conclusion that transitions into the next paragraph so that the readers have all the necessary information to understand anything in the body paragraphs. In this case, the thesis statement would be considered to be split between two sentences, which would normally be frowned upon, however as there is a transition between the reasoning of my writing being similar to natural cognition, and the mind-map which the following paragraphs are based on, allows the thesis statement to be less rigid, and becomes it's own distinct body paragraph. Additionally, the use of headings gives a sense of structure, but one must be weary that the first sentence of the body paragraph must act as a transition between the previous paragraph, and the title of the heading to maintain the same flow.
One thing to note, is that if you are to use an image make sure it is used at the right place; if it comes between topics it must join the topics; if it comes during the topic, it should enhance only that topic; finally, if it occurs at the end of the topic, it should be used as an introduction for the sections following, and have all of its elements used to minimize confusion and space wastage. Additionally all images must have captions or headings depending on their placement. For example, if I used this mind map to only talk about how to choose a topic, it would be useless, as the space taken up by the image would be greater than the space necessary to explain the entire topic if it was written instead. Any wasted space will subconsciously effect the way that a reader perceives your work; if excessive it may seem like you don’t know what you’re talking about and are trying to reach a page count, or if you waste minimal time, your writing comes across as more organized and conscientious.
Body Paragraphs:
Now that there is an introduction in this manner, use the last sentence in the intro paragraph as a transition, and the beginning of the next as a intro for that paragraph using information from the previous section; if separated by headings you have the option to transition by heading tiles instead, which was done in this instance.
To develop the body paragraphs, order them in a logical order rather than a chronological order. For example, if you are writing a historical essay on the effects of WWII on Germany, multiple countries were acting at the same time, which would prove difficult to order in chronological order, while still making sense. If you arrange it in a way that shows the individual events importance, and how it led to the current situation, it would be more effective than a mess of timelines. Let’s say you have developed the following main topics: Germany’s global influence decreased, homelessness dramatically increased by the frequency of carpet bombings, and other countries expelled Germans that lived within its territories (Roos, 2023). All of these may have occurred at different times, but were effected by some of the same events or multiple distinct events at the same time; in chronological order, the timelines would overlap and become difficult to group. Using a logical order, we could set the following order: homelessness increases, Germany’s influence decreases, and countries expel Germans. You may ask why not put Germanys decreasing influence first as it is the most important topic? This is because if you were to assume a logical order, Germany’s influence decreased because of an event, and formally happened at the end of the war; thus, it should either be the middle or ending paragraph. The carpet bombing which increased homelessness, was a result of the Allied nations desire to decrease the length of the fight and decrease Germany’s fighting capabilities; its influence has not formally decreased yet, until the decision at the Nuremberg trials. Additionally, the Germans were expelled from other countries as a response from their actions during WWII, after the decision at Nuremberg. Using this, we can see that in a logical order of events, and due to the simultaneous actions of other nations, the most logical order of events is increased homelessness, Germany’s influence decreases, and other countries expel Germans; however, as the final topic also affects the standing of Germany, you could state this in the final sentence of the last paragraph, and as a transition into the conclusion.
Conclusion Paragraph:
This is the simplest, and shortest paragraph to write using a logical order as you should have been transitioning during the paragraphs. All that’s left to say in this example is that due to Germany’s crimes, the Allies carpet bombing of Germany increased homelessness, decreasing their influence, which led to other countries expelling Germans, which further reduced their influence. All that is necessary for a conclusion paragraph is to give your writing an ending by showing the relationships between your paragraphs as briefly as possible. This gives the reader a sense of satisfaction that a conclusion has been met, avoiding an abrupt end.
This mind map below shows the final structure for this example essay:
Example Logical Essay Structure
References:
Tremmel, M. (2011). What to make of the five-paragraph theme: History of the genre and implications. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 39(1), 29-42. https://doi.org/10.58680/tetyc201117294
Roos, D. (2023, October 4). How Germany was divided after World War II. History. https://www.history.com/news/germany-divided-world-war-ii
