For most school writing assignments, a five or six paragraph essay is the norm. You students need to learn to write a simple essay well and this can be done by thinking of the essay as the tour of a home given by one who is trying to sell his house.
Step 1: Introduction
At the first step, we welcome our visitor and introduce the home. We give a brief introduction and let visitor know what we’re going to show him. The introduction should feel something like this:
“Welcome to our home. We’re happy to have you visit with us and we’d like to provide you with all of the information you’ll need to decide if this is the best home for you. We built this home in 2015 and have lived in it for the past 7 years and it’s been perfect for our young family. Now that our first baby is getting into her toddler years and we’re expecting a second child, we need to find something a bit larger, so we’re looking to sell this summer. The house has four rooms–a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom–which we can look at one by one. Let’s take a tour.”
Step 2: Topic #1
After providing an introduction, we discuss the first topic. We can imagine beginning the tour of the house by describing the first room–the living room–in detail. The third paragraph might read like this:
“The first room we enter is the living room. As we enter, you can see that the area near the door is tiled and there’s a closet on the left. It’s a large, open room where we spend most of our time as a family. There is room for a large sectional couch and two chairs, providing plenty of space to host friends. There’s an internet, phone and television connection on that far wall, with shelving for electronics and books. The front window faces the west, providing a beautiful view of the sunset in the evening.”
Step 3: Topic #2
After discussing the first topic, we move on to the second. We can imagine walk through the living room and standing at the entrance to the kitchen in the diagram above. We can now focus on the second room–the kitchen–and describe it in detail. The third paragraph might read like this:
“On the far side of the living room is the kitchen. You can see that the kitchen opens to the living room, providing a nice open space for family meals and hosting. All of the appliances are electric, which keeps utility costs down and makes budgeting very simple.
