Example of ripple strategy use
in planning a five paragraph essay

The classic five paragraph essay can be taught and learned as a series of problem-solving strategies. Together those strategies compose a strategic planning process for preparing expository nonfiction documents.

One problem all writers have to solve is figuring out what they know about their topic. An easy way to solve that problem is through ripple strategy.

Ripple writing strategy defined

Ripple strategy is a planning (or prewriting) strategy writers can use to identify material for body paragraph development.

Ripple strategy looks like brainstorming, but it focuses on one point of a writing skeleton™ at a time until the writer has applied the strategy to each point of the skeleton.

The traditional five paragraph essay pattern gives students three opportunities per essay to apply ripple strategy, one for each body paragraph represented by the points of the writing skeleton™.

A student's writing problem

Glenn has finished a writing skeleton™ for a five paragraph essay on the working thesis "computers can hurt you." Each of his three supporting points, which will become the topic sentences of his essay, mention a physical problem caused by computer use.

Glenn's next task is to identify potential body paragraph development material for each of those three topic sentences.

Ripple along each topic sentence

Instead of trying to think of everything he knows about computer related injuries, Glenn applies a systematic problem solving approach.

Glenn's first point is that "computers can hurt you because computer use can cause eyestrain."

Working with the first point of his writing skeleton™, Glenn uses ripple strategy, systematically working outward from himself and his personal network to increasingly distant sources.

Glenn's thoughts are set in brown type.

Personal experience

"Using the computer doesn't bother me except when I have to use one of those folding chairs in the computer lab. What hurts there isn't my eyes."

Personal network

"Mom had to get special glasses because the eye doctor said working at the computer was causing her headaches. I can use that in my first paragraph."

Wider network, secondhand information

"What else? Can't think of anything I've heard or read on eyestrain."

Published information

"Guess I'll have to look up eyestrain somewhere."

In a very few minutes, Glenn has mined his personal experience and his network and came up with one definite piece of evidence (his mom's experience) his fallback plan of doing some research.

Depending on the assignment specifications, two sources may give Glenn all the evidence he needs to develop his first body paragraph for his five paragraph essay.

But wait; there's more.

Before Glenn gets finished noting those potential information sources in his outline template, he gets another thought.

Wider network

"Wait a minute. That eye doctor at that place that just opened. Maybe I could interview him. He's on my paper route."

After Glenn finishes rippling through the first point for his five-paragraph essay, he will apply the same strategy in turn to the second and third points of his writing skeleton™, which you can see on this page.

Ripple strategy is built into the 40 questions of my peer learning activity Talk It Out. The materials are designed for repeated reuse so students master efficient, effective strategies for planning essays.