Tips for writing 5 page essays?

Ricemarine

Lifer
Sep 10, 2004
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Well, I have to write a 5-page analytical argumentative essay about how the southern legal system shaped the relations of race, gender, and power in the Antebellum south. But I have not written an essay that long before, the max I've written was 4 (high school max was 3 pages)... So if anyone has any general tips to give, thanks :)...
 

James3shin

Diamond Member
Apr 5, 2004
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76
is this double or single? Regardless, just start writing on the topic. Start early, and make a mess. Making a mess can be hard work so don't worry about hitting walls, just come back to it. However, if you're pressed for time - BS that motherfvcker and pour it on thick. Man sometimes I wish I would take my own advice, but I'm too busy exploring around.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
Choose a side, put up arguments, then switch sides and give some arguments for the other side, switch back and say why the other side's arguments suck.
 

SarcasticDwarf

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
9,574
2
76
5 pages? I wish. I have a 10 page to write this week, am gone on the weekend, working, and have three grad school apps to get out by Thursday.

At graduation I will have written the following:

1 30 page
1 20-60 page (next semester, is a research project, not sure what the final result will be)
~8 8-10 page
~25 5 pagers
50-60 2 pagers
 

imported_bum

Golden Member
Jan 15, 2005
1,402
1
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Three pages in high school? Damn, I had a 10+ page research paper in 8th grade.

edit: Research paper is much easier to BS than persuasive essay. Meh.
 

chrisms

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2003
6,615
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First, collect as much information as you can.

Second, make an outline.

Your first draft will likely end up only 2 pages or so. From here go ovre each paragraph and see how you can expand on the subject of that paragraph. For example, if I wrote about how John Wilkes Booth ran away after shooting Lincoln and then included only one sentence about his execution, I could actually fit in there a whole story about the manhunt for him, his trial, and the execution of his conspiritors.

Don't lose confidence. Just about any subject, no matter how tiny, can be made into a paper hundreds of pages long. Five pages is nothing. Just go with what you think is good right now and expand with details later.
 

redgtxdi

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2004
5,464
8
81
5 pages???


Sheesh......I remember I had one professor that loooooooved 15 page minimum essays. (SUCK!!!) Only thing that was nice was the sense off acomplishment. Other than that.....it just plain sucked!!!
 

BrownTown

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
5,314
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0
It really depends on the subject, 5 pages is usually not enough to say anything really meaningfull on a subject, so you basically just have to go and state the standard points that are brought up in every run of the mill textbook or decent source on the subject. I'd say just go research the subject, find the main points and copy them down. That is usually enough to make 5 pages, if not then just salt in the appropriate amount of BS until it is the right length.

Personally when I write a paper I just write what I think is nescecarry to answer the question correctly, then change the font/size/spacing/BS in order to get the correct length. So if you need 5 pages and you wrote 3 then jsut use a larger font and some more BS. IF you wrote 8 pages then just use a compact font and maybe tweak the margins a bit and you are good.
 

spunkz

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2003
1,467
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Originally posted by: ChaoZ
BS, BS, and more BS.

QFT. and what you write is not as important as making sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. other than that, i'd say the best way to fill a lot of space is with examples and quotes. what i would do is to compare the way men treated their women and how they treated their slaves. that covers power, gender, and race. i'm sure it's been written about and your teacher will probably enjoy the topic. take an in-depth look at a couple legal cases if you can find some that relate to the topic and describe their results. if you can't find any that relate, then BS away!
 

dj2004

Platinum Member
Oct 8, 2004
2,246
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Originally posted by: BrownTown
It really depends on the subject, 5 pages is usually not enough to say anything really meaningfull on a subject, so you basically just have to go and state the standard points that are brought up in every run of the mill textbook or decent source on the subject. I'd say just go research the subject, find the main points and copy them down. That is usually enough to make 5 pages, if not then just salt in the appropriate amount of BS until it is the right length.

Personally when I write a paper I just write what I think is nescecarry to answer the question correctly, then change the font/size/spacing/BS in order to get the correct length. So if you need 5 pages and you wrote 3 then jsut use a larger font and some more BS. IF you wrote 8 pages then just use a compact font and maybe tweak the margins a bit and you are good.
Since when can you tweak the margins and use different sized fonts in college? Usually 1" borders are required, along with 12-point Times New Roman font.
 

SarcasticDwarf

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
9,574
2
76
Originally posted by: dj2004
Originally posted by: BrownTown
It really depends on the subject, 5 pages is usually not enough to say anything really meaningfull on a subject, so you basically just have to go and state the standard points that are brought up in every run of the mill textbook or decent source on the subject. I'd say just go research the subject, find the main points and copy them down. That is usually enough to make 5 pages, if not then just salt in the appropriate amount of BS until it is the right length.

Personally when I write a paper I just write what I think is nescecarry to answer the question correctly, then change the font/size/spacing/BS in order to get the correct length. So if you need 5 pages and you wrote 3 then jsut use a larger font and some more BS. IF you wrote 8 pages then just use a compact font and maybe tweak the margins a bit and you are good.
Since when can you tweak the margins and use different sized fonts in college? Usually 1" borders are required, along with 12-point Times New Roman font.

Hey, if it doesn't list a font, you are free to use Arial, which is slightly larger.
 

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Ugh. It's not about length. Concentrating on word count or length will get you nowhere. If you know what you're writing about and can find an angle that interests you, you just let it run free from your mind.

5 pages is nothing.
 
Aug 16, 2001
22,510
8
81
Originally posted by: Ricemarine
Well, I have to write a 5-page analytical argumentative essay about how the southern legal system shaped the relations of race, gender, and power in the Antebellum south. But I have not written an essay that long before, the max I've written was 4 (high school max was 3 pages)... So if anyone has any general tips to give, thanks :)...

16pt fonts
0.5" narrower margins

:)
 

ttown

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2003
2,412
0
0
Pretty weird that in college you are forced to word it up and go on and on and on with as many "smart" words as possible.

Where I work now, people get sent to "plain talk" class -- where the emphasis is to cut out every unnecessary word and dumb it down.
 

mwtgg

Lifer
Dec 6, 2001
10,491
0
0
Wow, your high school English teachers failed you miserably. If you cannot muster up five good pages, give up now.
 

Toonces

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2000
1,690
0
76
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Ugh. It's not about length. 5 pages is nothing.

It's much harder to write a good 5 page essay than a good 15 page essay.

Sure it won't take nearly as much time, but you have to be so careful with every word you'll find trying for clarity and consistency from paragraph to paragraph is much more important than some rambling 15 page brain-dump.

My longest essay at university was somewhere around 30 pages in 2nd year. The higher you go, the less important word count becomes and more important actual structure and sourcing of the argument that you wish to present.

Find a topic, choose an angle to approach it from and stick with that. Don't do anything but keep the essay in line with your general approach to the topic/thesis.

 

fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
5,204
21
81
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Ugh. It's not about length. Concentrating on word count or length will get you nowhere. If you know what you're writing about and can find an angle that interests you, you just let it run free from your mind.

5 pages is nothing.

I don't think that last comment was very helpful to the Op. It really depends on what you are writing about and the magnitude of how well you need to write the paper, not to mention the resources available to you according to certain rules.

For example, your professor may say that you need to write about the discovery of possible use of batteries in Iraq, many thousands of years ago. And he may also include that half of your paper need to be from sources that involve newspaper articles and encycopedias, thus excluding the Internet and perhaps interviews with people who's studied it. Then he may ask you to write in a format from a political point of view.

When you say that 5 pages is nothing, you demonstrate that all 5 page papers are easy to you and that you know exactly what the understanding is to just about anything a 5 page can go for. If that's the case, so be it.

Anyway,
-brainstorm
-research, refer to brainstorm assesment to stay focused
-gather materials and perform a more controlled and guided research, at the same time keep in mind that you need to write a paper
-draft 1 - write what you can and try to make sense
-draft 2 - have someone look a it and perform more research if necessary, then write it again
-evaluate your thoughts and see if you are where you need to be with your paper before you put more effort into polishing it the way you want it
-draft 3 - write your paper more seriously, strong points of views and grammer counts also!
-final draft 4 - have someone (people) proof read your paper and look it over once more
-final paper - you're set! look things over, make your final corrections, and turn this one in!

=intro, body and conclusion=
intro - what you're going to write about

body - say what you want to say, and support it with quotes and back up, suggest alternatives and stay focused on the main topic
-you are trying to reinforce your intro, and this is where you get to talk about the core

conclusion - yeah, sum everything up in one or two paragraphs, this time you suggest the intro in a more conclusive and decisive way.

=paper type=
you have to write it a certain way. examples include not using the words "I." you normally never use slang and make sure you have zero grammical errors.

usually your instructor will tell you at the beginning of the course or before he gives the assignment to you _ may also be in syllabus.

So good luck with your paper!!!!
I always encourage college level classes in high school. that way you learn early what college may be like, and become more well rounded to matters around you. you never know if you're going to get slammed with 5 hours of homework when most of the homework you've done in high school was at most, 50 minutes.

p.s. don't focus entirely on your grade or trying to get the word count minimum (though there may also be a maximum), try to learn as much as possible and remember resources and hardwork. you don't need to use complicated words to make your paper look good unless you for sure know what they mean. stay awake for the worse, not turning in a paper is telling everyone else that you are incapable of performing on your own and that the language you are writing in is too hard for you to understand.