Flee Map Planning

Once you’ve gathered the materials for to build a house, you need a blueprint before you start pouring cement and driving nails. Composing an essay requires planning as well, and doing a small amount of planning once you’ve brainstormed can help tremendously by making the task feel less overwhelming and providing you with a step by step guide for the writing process. Creating a flee map, or a combination of a flow chart and a tree map is one popular method for planning a 5 paragraph essay. Start by drawing 5 boxes to represent your five paragraphs as shown here. The three in the middle represent your three body paragraphs while top left and bottom right boxes represent your introduction and conclusion respectively. This method offers a great deal of flexibility because you can just fill out the bare minimum, or you can use it as a form of graphic rough draft if you choose to plan out that many details. Begin by writing your thesis in or just outside of the first box. For information on how to use your planning to write a thesis, see the thesis video. Next, translate the three thesis points into topic sentences with transitions that can be written in the body paragraph boxes in the same order as they appeared in the thesis. Transitions include things like “one reason to…” “Another purpose for…”, “The next problem with…” “A final point for…” etc. Each topic sentence should be a declarative statement that the rest of the paragraph will work to prove. View the examples provided here for how those transitions can create solid topic sentences. Once you have a thesis and three topic sentences, refer to your brainstorming sheets for some key points that you wish to cover that will support the claims of your topic sentences. You don’t need to write out the entire paragraph at this time; just provide a brief comment to remind yourself of what you want to cover in each section. In the conclusion block you can brainstorm a finishing line that you’d like to leave your reader with. Remember that the thesis and your body section are the most important part of your essay and should therefore be the parts you devote most of your planning to. If you wish to draft out a complete introduction and conclusion on your flee map, you have the choice to do so or not. One your flee map is well filled out, you will have a thorough blue print to follow as you draft out your essay.