The conclusion paragraph of the five paragraph essay is often the hardest to write. You have already stated all your facts in the body of your essay, and now you have to draw a conclusion? What should you write in your last paragraph?
Power Zeros and Power One
When you write the conclusion paragraph of a five paragraph essay, you will use power zero and power one statements if you are doing power writing. Basically, you are restating what your paragraph was about and drawing a conclusion based on the information that you provided in the body of your essay. For example, if your essay is about your three cousins, you might have statements like this in your conclusion paragraph:
- Even though Betty, Julie, and Frank are all my cousins, they are each unique. I love spending time with each of them for a different reason. I love to play baseball with Frank. Julie and I like to read books on her front porch while Betty and I like to collect rocks by the creek behind my house. My cousins are the best!
In this example, the power one idea restated is that you have three cousins whom you do different activities with. Your power zero statements are that they are each unique and that your cousins are the best.
Power Twos
Using power writing to write a five paragraph essay can help with the organization and what to write in the body of the essay. But do power twos belong in the conclusion paragraph? Yes! Just like with the introductory paragraph, you will mention your power twos in your concluding paragraph since one of the main goals of this paragraph is to restate the main points of your essay.
In the example above with the last paragraph about three cousins, there are three power two ideas in this paragraph. Can you find them? They are:
- I love to play baseball with Frank.
- Julie and I like to read books on her front porch
- while Betty and I like to collect rocks by the creek behind my house.
These three statements are the topics or main ideas of the three body paragraphs. That is why they are mentioned again in the conclusion paragraph of your five paragraph essay.
Things to Avoid
When you are writing the last paragraph of your essay, try not to do the following things:
- Do not repeat your introductory paragraph. The introductory paragraph introduces the topic. The conclusion paragraph wraps it up. Since they have different jobs, they should not be the same.
- Do not say things like: “Now you know about my three cousins.” or “Thanks for reading. The End” or “That’s all I know about my cousins.”
- Do not make it one sentence long. Your last paragraph should contain about as many sentences as your introductory paragraph. Be creative! End with a bang!
This post is part of the series: Writing Tips for a Five Paragraph Essay
This series focuses on how to write a five paragraph essay. The tips will help you write a five paragraph essay. Sometimes, the hardest parts are the introdcutory and concluding paragraphs.
