Teach all types of essays
within the thesis + support pattern

Standard English texts give a long list of types of essays. Outside English class, the likelihood of encountering any of them other than the persuasive essay and compare and/or contrast essay is about as good as your chances of seeing the Lock Ness monster.

It is far more likely that students will have to develop a paper using the thesis + support pattern overall and developing a paragraph or section of that paper using one of those other "essay types."

That being the case, the most authentic way of teaching all the types of essays is to begin by having students write a single paragraph that uses one of those other "essay types" as a replacement for one standard body paragraph.

Please note that students need to be competent at writing in standard thesis + support pattern before you start pushing them to flex the pattern. You will only confuse them if they are not competent writers.

Teach to the majority

Once they are competent expository essay writers, many students are quite happy using the standard five-paragraph essay pattern almost without change. They don't want (and may not need) alternative ways of supporting and developing their thesis statements.

Other students won't be happy with being just competent writers. They may fancy themselves a bestselling author in embryo.

Probably 60-80 percent of your students are in between those two extremes. Prepare your writing prompts with this middle group in mind.

It's much easier to tweak a prompt to give necessary accommodations to the exceptional students than to try to get the majority on board with assignments crafted for kids at either end of the scale.

Be subtle and sneaky

The stupid way to try this big group started writing different types of essays is to tell them write a different type of essay.

Writing an illustration essay or descriptive essay sounds so different from what they are used to that students will panic.

All that angst is unnecessary.

Instead of asking for totally different types of essays, give students the option of writing one body paragraph of a different type than the standard format. As students acquire confidence, you can move to requiring one paragraph of a different type.

Students who are already competent at using the standard expository paragraph formula can write an essay with one paragraph developed in some non-formula way without breaking a sweat.

If you told those same students they had to write an entire essay developing a thesis statement about a process, for example, they might fall to pieces.

If you word your writing prompt carefully, students need not be consciously aware that you are asking them to write in a way that is not what they are accustomed to doing.

The chart below gives you some alternatives to asking developing writers to produce different types of essays.

Instead of	You could ask for
A comparison or contrast essay	One paragraph of comparison or contrast within a standard essay
A definition essay	One paragraph of definition within a standard essay
A descriptive essay	A paragraph of description within a standard essay
A narrative essay	A summary of the plot of a literary work as one paragraph of a standard essay
A narrative essay	A paragraph of narrative as one paragraph of a standard essay
A narrative essay	An anecdote within a standard essay
An illustrative or example essay	A paragraph-long illustration example within a standard essay
An illustrative or example essay	A paragraph-long analogy within a standard essay
A process essay	A paragraph of narrative as one paragraph of a standard essay

If you'd like to learn more about writing prompts that force students to develop their writing, consider taking one of my workshops on writing prompts.

After you've had students write a few essays incorporating alternatives to the textbook persuasive essay approach to developing a thesis, you can congratulate them for the brilliant way they figured out how to write different types of essays without any help from you.

You can also silently congratulate yourself for the way you enabled students to learn a new way of presenting material without your having to do any teaching.

You can get more of these sneaky writing tips each month in my free Writing Points ezine along with articles on other resources for teaching writing.

Next step: Add more paragraph types

For the few students who want or need more diverse writing experiences, the logical next step is to have them write essays that incorporate more than one alternative means of developing a thesis statement.

Common combinations in essays include

• Definition and narrative within an overall thesis + support pattern.

• Description and narrative within an overall thesis + support pattern.

• Definition and analogy within an overall thesis + support pattern.

You can point out different paragraph types as part of your reading comprehension activities with students.

Writing body paragraphs of two different types within a thesis + support essay is less difficult and more practical for most students than different types of essays.

Final step for best writers

I hope you have a few students who want to try writing some of the less common essay types listed in the English textbook. If you give them a solid foundation in use of thesis + support and allow them to develop body paragraphs in various ways within that framework, motivated student writers should be well-equipped to write those more creative essays.