1. A Five-Paragraph Essay
The Research Paper
A Five-Paragraph Essay

2. Introduction Paragraph

3. Effective Leads
Effective Leads

4. Sentence 1: Grab the reader’s attention with a statistic, fact, or anecdote (short story).
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy watched the tornado twist and twirl as people, buildings, and items flew haphazardly through the air.

5. Write your own attention grabber!
1. Interesting Fact: 2. Anecdote (short story):

6. Sentences 2 and 3: Following your attention grabber sentence you must give some BACKGROUND INFORMATION on your topic.
Tornadoes are rapidly spinning tubes of air that touch the ground and are sometimes referred to as twisters. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 100 miles per hour..

7. The final sentence in your introduction is the THESIS STATEMENT (topic + special parts to emphasize = THESIS) It is the LAST sentence of the introductory paragraph.
(Example) The 1980 Grand Island, NE, night of the twisters included many details common to tornadoes and caused damage and destruction to property and lives that affected the region, but the area has recovered in its aftermath.

8. Example Introductory Paragraph
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy watched the tornado twist and twirl as people, buildings, and items flew haphazardly through the air. Tornadoes are rapidly spinning tubes of air that touch the ground and are sometimes referred to as twisters. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 100 miles per hour. The 1980 Grand Island, NE, night of the twisters included many details common to tornadoes, created damage and destruction to property and lives that affected the region, but the area has recovered in its aftermath.

9. Body Use the outline to plan before you write.

10. Now write the body.
Start each middle paragraph with a topic sentence that covers your key idea.
Your key idea will come from your thesis statement. It’s one of the special parts that you wanted to emphasize or tell us about. For example, included many details common to tornadoes, the damage and destruction to property and lives your disaster created, and how the area recovered afterwards would all be good key ideas to start a paragraph.
Use the outline to plan what you’ll write before you start writing. The other sentences in each paragraph will stop and explain the topic sentences.

11. Included many details common to tornadoes
Created damage and destruction
The area has recovered
The 1980 Grand Island, NE, night of the twisters included many details common to tornadoes (first body paragraph topic), and created damage and destruction to property and lives that affected the region (second body paragraph topic) , but the area has recovered in its aftermath (third body paragraph topic) .

12. Conclusion
Use the planning sheet to write the points to include in your conclusion

13. Now write the Conclusion
Your ending paragraph should bring your report to a thoughtful close. Try one or more of the following ideas in your closing paragraph.
Remind the reader about the overall point or thesis of the report. (Don’t rewrite the thesis word for word, however. Restate it using different words.)
Tell one last interesting fact about the topic.
Briefly explain the recovery from the natural disaster. (Use different wording if you discussed it in a paragraph in the body.)

14. Example of Conclusion
The Grand Island tornadoes on June 3, 1980, left their mark on Nebraska. The tornadoes were typical in some ways, and sections of town were destroyed and lives were changed; however, the community recovered quickly. Tornadoes leave broken lives, damaged property and rebuilding for communities, but just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we discover through a tragedy like this that there really is “no place like home.”

15. Bibliography
Use citationmachine.net to create your bibliography following directions.