Does everyone write five-paragraph essays?

Abstract

This chapter considers and provides evidence-based answers to several important questions: How widely is the five-paragraph essay really taught around the world, in English-speaking countries, other first languages, and EFL classes? What circumstances surround its adoption or rejection? What values and ideologies are passed on through the teaching of the five-paragraph essay, to what effect, and how can we show students what lies beyond the curtain of the five-paragraph formula?

Before examining EFL contexts, we should first note that the five-paragraph essay is not taught everywhere in English-speaking countries. In the U.S., “the essay”--very loosely labeled--is taught or assigned most frequently, and it encompasses almost any multi-paragraph written text (as also mentioned in Caplan, Tardy, and Johns in this volume and Melzer, 2014). Often, various assignment types (e.g., research paper, essay, report) (Johns, 2011) are conflated under the “essay” category based on perceived shared structural features (Tardy, this volume).