Eight Semi-Painless Steps
to Writing a Coherent
Five Paragraph Essay

Step 1:  WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE.
Write a short, simple, declarative sentence without detail.  
For example, 
Topic sentence -- "Fairhope, Alabama is the best town in the world."
	Put your topic sentence at the top of your paper.

Step 2:  WRITE 3 SUB-TOPIC SENTENCES ABOUT THE TOPIC SENTENCE.
Write three sentences about the idea of the topic sentence.  Make your 
three sentences short, simple, declarative sentences without detail.  
Take the topic sentence and ask "why" (for example, "Why is Fairhope, 
Alabama the best town in the world?")  The answers to your "why" question 
should form the basis for your  three sub-topic sentences.  
For example, 
Sub-topic sentence 1 -- "Fairhope has exciting places to go."
Sub-topic sentence 2 -- "Fairhope is full of friendly people."
Sub-topic sentence 3 -- "Fairhope is on the bay."
	(Put Sub-topic sentence 1 right under your topic sentence.
	Put Sub-topic sentence 2 half way down the front of your paper.
	Put Sub-topic sentence 3 on the back of your paper at the top.)

Step 3:  WRITE 5 SUPPORTING SENTENCES ABOUT SUB-TOPIC SENTENCE 1,
	 (Put them under sub-topic sentence 1.)
	 WRITE 5 SUPPORTING SENTENCES ABOUT SUB-TOPIC SENTENCE 2,
	 (Put them under sub-topic sentence 2.)
     and WRITE 5 SUPPORTING SENTENCES ABOUT SUB-TOPIC SENTENCE 3.
	 (Put them under sub-topic sentence 3.)
(So you're writing 15 new sentences to add to the 4 that you already have.)
Make these fifteen supporting sentences longer and more complex with much 
more detail.  Take each sub-topic sentences and ask the "why" question.  
The answers to your "why" questions should form the basis for your  
fifteen supporting sentences.  (Remember, you are writing complete 
sentences, not fragments.)

Step 4:  REVISE THE SENTENCES THAT YOU HAVE SO FAR.
Revise your 19 sentences looking for these particular problems: "you," 
"thing," "stuff," "good," "nice," "neat," run-on sentences, fragments, 
and sentences ending in prepositions.  Add more sentences if you want 
to.  Replace vague and lifeless adjectives with colorful and descriptive 
adjectives.  Add new adjectives.


___________________________________________________________
Take a break.  You now have 3 paragraphs.  We will add the 
last two paragraphs soon enough.
___________________________________________________________

Step 5:  ORDER YOUR ESSAY
Renumber your paragraphs (they look like sentence chunks at this point) 
according to their importance (from least to most, usually), or according 
to their chronological sequence.  Once you have your three paragraphs 
(chunks) in order, go into the chunks and put the supporting sentences in 
order.  At this point, you can mark out any supporting sentences that you 
don't need, and you can combine sentences that should go together.

Step 6:  ADD THE INTRODUCTION AND THE CONCLUSION
	Add the introduction.  The introduction is one sentence which 
combines your topic sentence with your three sub-topic sentences (put all 
the sentences in forward order).  This one sentence will be the first 
paragraph of your essay.  (Yes, you have my permission to have a 
paragraph with just one sentence.)
For example,
Introduction -- "Fairhope, Alabama is the best town in the world because 
it has exciting places to go, it is full of friendly people, and it is on 
the bay."
	Add the conclusion.  The conclusion is one sentence which 
combines your topic sentence with your three sub-topic sentences (this 
time, put the three sub-topic sentences in reverse order).  This one 
sentence will be the last paragraph of your essay.  (Yes, you have my 
permission to have another paragraph with just one sentence.)
For example,
Conclusion -- "Fairhope, Alabama is the best town in the world because it 
is on the bay, it is full of friendly people, and it has exciting places 
to go."
You may now remove your topic sentence.  It has served its purpose.  Write 
your introduction and your conclusion on the back page of your rough draft, 
underneath your third paragraph.  (You will put the introduction and the 
conclusion in their proper places when we get to step 8.)

Step 7:  REFERENCE YOUR PARAGRAPHS AND YOUR SENTENCES.
Make sure that each paragraph has a clear reference to its preceding 
paragraph.  There are a couple of ways to do this.
     A) You can use number words in your sub-topic sentences.
	For example, "Second, Fairhope is a wonderful city because of its 	
        friendly people."
     B) You can include a few words from the preceding sub-topic sentence 
        in your current sub-topic sentence.
	For example, "Not only does Fairhope have exciting places to 
        visit, but it also has friendly people."
Also, make sure that your supporting sentences reference each other as 
well.  You want to avoid choppiness.  Use transition words like "next," 
"then," "also," and "finally."
A bad example:  "My Aunt is one of the friendliest people I know.  The 
people at the drug store are friendly."  (Note the abrupt jump from one 
sentence to the next.)
A good example:  "My Aunt is one of the friendliest people I know.  The 
people in the drug store are also friendly."  (Note how the word "also" 
connects the two sentences and lessens the jump.)
Finally, avoid writing "Last, but not least."  Just write "last."

Step 8:  REVISE THE SENTENCES THAT YOU HAVE SO FAR.  
Make any revisions necessary for a smooth essay.  Add more examples if you
need them.  Add vivid verbs and specific nouns.  Add words that appeal to
the five senses.  Check your spelling with a dictionaary.  Remove your
paragraph numbers.  Indent each paragraph.  Once you are satisfied,
rewrite the whole essay neatly and in order, then turn it in for a grade. 
Your introduction should be your first paragraph.  Then write your middle
three supporting paragraphs in order.  Your conclusion should be your
fifth paragraph.