Question

I have to write a three paragraph essay for health about the effect of sleep on the immune system, can someone help me write it? I tried doing research but all the articles and blogs I found didn't help me write it at all.

Answer 1

Have you tried just researching the effect of having sleep and not having sleep? Then sort of piece it together with the effects of not having sleep.

Answer 2

You have at least gotten off to the right start: research. For obvious reasons, research is the key to writing a paper, but no amount of research will help you write the paper, unless you are researching “how to write a paper”. So here goes:

If you neglected to take notes during your research, go back to your sources and take some relevant notes. Pay close attention to anything (especially studies) that discusses the effects of sleep on the immune system. Also, whenever you come across an interesting bit of hard data or a statistic, jot it down (I'll tell you why in a minute).

After you have your research done and all your notes, you might want to take some time to go through your notes and organize them into categories. By that I mean that you want to have three points that you can talk about in the paper. For example, if you are looking strictly at the effects, you could break your notes down into:

Effect #1
Effect #2
Effect #3

Likewise, if you are wanting to discuss particular studies, you could organize them:

Study #1
Study #2
Study #3

Once you have your notes organized, you can start working on an outline. Beginning writers often skip this step, but I strongly advise against it. It may seem like a lot of extra "unnecessary" work, but believe me the payoff in quality alone is worth it. In addition, an outline will usually save you time in the long run because you are not organizing your paper as you go along and you will spend less time rewriting.

Not only that, outlines are very easy to write once you get used to writing them. I'll give you an outline template that you can use and then I will explain each part of the outline and how it translates to your paper. After that you should have no problem outlining this or any future paper.

A typical 5-paragraph paper outline will go something like this:

I. Introduction
A. Attention Getter
B. Roadmap
C. Thesis Statement
II. Sub-topic #1
A. Topic sentence
B. 2 or more supporting sentences
C. Transitional sentence
III. Sub-topic #2
A. Topic sentence
B. 2 or more supporting sentences
C. Transitional sentence
IV. Sub-topic #3
A. Topic sentence
B. 2 or more supporting sentences
C. Transitional sentence
V. Conclusion
A. Non-summary (more on this in a minute)
B. Closing statement

Let's start with the introduction. As you can see the Introduction has 3 parts. The Attention Getter is what you use to grab the reader's attention. Remember those statistics I had you jotting down during your research? They can make for great attention getters if they are interesting or shocking enough. For example, "Each year 356,000 people die from immune related diseases and 23% of these could have been prevented with proper sleep habits." That is totally made up by the way, so don't use it. Other attention getters can include quotes from famous people or quirky or little known facts.

The Roadmap is the introduction to your talking points. Using just one to three sentences tell the reader the points that your paper will cover. As I stated above, these could be the effects or studies or whatever you decide to go with for your paper. Be brief and don't go into much detail. You will give the details in the body of your paper.

The thesis statement is a sentence that ties your paper together. It incorporates all of your talking points and aims them in the direction of the over all message you are trying to convey. Coming up with a strong thesis statement is arguably the most difficult part of writing papers, but I have a method for that too.

To develop a strong thesis statement start by deciding what your ultimate message is going to be. Are you going to advocate for getting plenty of sleep? Or maybe your research has led you to the conclusion that less sleep is better. Whatever it is write down one very brief, simple sentence that states your opinion on the topic.

Next: Using your research write one brief, simple sentence that states the strongest argument for your case. Again, you do not need to provide a lot of detail, just one sentence that sums up the strongest argument in support of your opinion.

Next: Write a brief, simple sentence that sums up the second strongest argument for your opinion.

Finally, write one simple sentence that sums up the strongest argument AGAINST your opinion. If you cannot find an argument against your opinion (rare), it is alright to use a third supporting argument, but really try to find an article or some other research that refutes your opinion. The reason that I say this is because it will show the instructor or reader that you are not being biased and that you have really looked at the issue from all angles. It will give your paper much more credibility and will usually, in the long run, sway the readers to sympathize with your opinion.

Once you have these four sentences, you can begin constructing a thesis statement from them using linking words. The strongest thesis statement will use all four of your sentences, but simpler statement are sometimes desirable especially if your instructor prefers them. The best way to find out what your instructor wants is to craft a thesis statement using all of your sentences and then bounce it off your instructor. He or she will tell you if you need to simplify it or not. I will give you an example now of how to go about actually constructing the thesis statement:

Message: Cats make better pets than dogs.
Strongest support: Cats are less high-strung.
Second strongest: Cats don't slobber all over the place.
Strongest opposing argument: Dogs are more loyal than cats.

Now I will take my sentences and turn them into a thesis statement like this:

Strong thesis example:

Even though dogs are more loyal than cats, cats make better pets because cats are less high-strung and don't slobber all over the place.

Simple thesis examples:

Cats make better pets than dogs because cats tend to be less high-strung than dogs.
OR
While dogs are more loyal than cats, cats make better pets.

Those are just a few examples, but there are numerous ways that you can use those four sentences to craft your thesis statement. As you do more and more papers this will become easier. Let's move on to the body of the paper.

As you can see from the outline template, the body of the paper will contain three paragraphs, one for each of your talking points. Although, each paragraph will be different, they will all follow the same basic structure.

They will start with a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a general statement of the topic of the paragraph. You can think of it like a mini introduction. It tells the reader what that paragraph is going to talk about. Note the topic sentence of this paragraph. It tells you what I am discussing here. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of the paragraph, but it does not always have to be. However, the topic sentence is ALWAYS followed by supporting sentences.

ALL supporting sentences MUST be be related to your topic sentence. If your topic sentence mentions cats being less high-strung and you start writing about cats being soft and cuddly, you will just confuse your reader. Stay on topic. The number of supporting sentences is going to vary depending on how long your paper is supposed to be, but a paragraph needs to be a MINIMUM of three sentences including the topic and transition.

Then transitional sentence is a sentence that links one paragraph to the next. It does not have to be complicated or anything, it's purpose to to make your writing flow smoothly. For example, look at the last sentence of the above paragraph. Notice how in that sentence I mentioned transitions and then went in to this paragraph to talk about transitional sentences. That is an example of a good transition (it could actually be better, but I’m writing informally here). Many times the transition will come naturally and that makes it easy, but sometimes (especially with contrasting paragraphs) it is not that easy. But don't worry about it too much on your first draft. When you go back to edit your paper read it to see how it flows and adjust your transitional sentences until your paragraphs flow nicely.

Last is your conclusion. Good conclusions can be tricky to write. You will notice that I put as the first part of the conclusion "non-summary". I use this term because ideally your conclusion should be a summary that does not seem like a summary. That is to say, you want to recap your talking points, but do it without being repetitive. You don't want to introduce any new information in your conclusion, but you also don't want to just re-present the information in the body. This is tricky, but will come in time.

And finally, you want to end your conclusion and your paper with a strong closing statement. A call to action is a common and good way to close a paper. For example, "So get your sleep and keep your immune system strong." Depending on the content, quotes can be good closing statements. Whatever you use, the closing statement should provoke your reader to continue to think about your thesis.

Once you have used your outline to write the first draft of your paper, you will want to proofreader it several times. Three to 4 drafts of a paper is common. With word processors, this is no longer a pain in the rear as it was when we had to write 12-50 pages with a typewriter or longhand just for one paper. During the editing process it is helpful if you can enlist a classmate, friend, or family member to do the last proofread on your paper. I say this because after writing your paper and proofing it a few times not only will your eyes be tired, but you will miss a lot of really simple mistakes. This is because your mind knows what the paper is supposed to say, so when it comes across a mistake it corrects it in your head without you even knowing it.

I have a very structured way of editing a paper that I will share with you if you wish, but since I have already gone on at some length, I will saved that until you want it or are ready to tackle that part of the writing process.

Answer 3

I just re-read your question and realized you are writing a 3-paragraph essay. The explanation I gave above was for a 5-paragraph essay. Fortunately for both of us, there is not too much difference between the two. They both have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Then main difference, other than the number of paragraphs, is the length. A three paragraph essay is generally going to be 300-700 words. A 5-paragraph essay is going to usually run around 750- 2000 words. More paragraphs means more details.

With a 3-paragraph essay you must focus your paper very tightly on one aspect of your overall subject because you only have one paragraph to convey your message in one paragraph. In the 5-paragraph essay you can be a little more broad and focus on three aspects of your subject. So with this in mind here is your 3-paragraph outline template:

I. Introduction
A. Attention Getter
B. Roadmap
C. Thesis Statement
II. Body
A. Topic sentence
B. Several supporting sentences. The number of sentences will depend on your word count requirement.
C. Transitional sentence
V. Conclusion
A. Non-summary
B. Closing statement

All the rules and explanation from the 5-paragraph version apply to the 3-paragraph essay, so if you did not read the above response, you will have to if you need further explanation on the things listed in the template.