The Five Finger Paragraph

By Danica Davidson

Writing an essay is something both challenging and very important to students. Unfortunately, countless people struggle with being able to express themselves well and in the correct format. Johnnie Lewis used to struggle herself with essay writing, claiming that she couldn’t write a good essay until she was twenty-four-years-old and back in college. Now she not only knows how to write great essays, she’s out there to help others do this as well. She has written a series of books that teach the secrets to essay-writing success and dubbed them the Five Finger Paragraph series.

Lewis says she has “cracked the code” and writing essays used to be so difficult for her because she made them too hard. Her books, using brain-based learning and mnemonics, are designed to help both students in public/private schools and those studying at home. The idea is to teach how to create an essay with five paragraphs, hence the name. According to Lewis, the Five Finger Paragraph is “the CONCRETE attention-getter needed to grab a student’s imagination long enough to pass along a few ABSTRACT basic rules, supplementing whole-language or traditional Language Arts worksheet instruction. The tactile use of the hand satisfies several of the Multiple Intelligences disciplines, especially the kinesthetic, linguistic, and math/spatial learning modes. Along with texts are various educational learning aids, Ancillary Materials, that augment the learning process.”

Anyone who takes the SATs is required to write an essay, and writing one for the ACT exams is vital as well. Colleges look closely at the writing styles of would-be students, considering these very important in making their decisions of whom to accept or deny. Just knowing this can make any test-taker sweat with nerves, and Lewis in her Five Finger Paragraphs has answers to that too. Once someone has read her advice, there’s no longer any need to worry before testing.

Lewis’s books and instructions caught the eye of Dr. Kathy Nesbitt, the Director of the Flint Area Learning Center in Georgia. “When [Lewis] presented a writing lesson to my class of middle school special education students, I was very impressed with the way the format of the lesson and the brightly colored materials held their attention,” said Dr. Nesbitt. “The overall information provided by this program is excellent for use with students who need instruction to be presented in a variety of ways. It would certainly be appropriate to use with general education students as well. The lesson plans and their accompanying materials really help students be able to determine a useful plan for organizing their writing. I believe these materials would be an excellent supplement to an effective language arts program and would help strengthen the writing skills of almost any student.”

Dr. Nesbitt is not the only one singing the praises for the Five Finger Paragraph books. Anyone who wants to take a look for themselves can go to the website and ask for free samples. The website is also where people can buy the various supplies offered. Suggested ages are given for the different books, and some are specially made for homeschoolers in mind. This includes the HomeSchool/HomeStudy Parents’ Edition, the HomeSchool/HomeStudy Student Edition and the HomeSchool/HomeStudy Kit. She even has a few books, suggested for grades second through sixth, starring her own character “The Writing Police.” Kids can have fun while learning grammar as they read the titles The Writing Police and the Case of the Missing Commas and The Writing Police and the Point of the Perplexing Periods.

Writing essays can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding. Students who write good essays catch the eyes of colleges instead of those who struggle with forming their thoughts into eloquent sentences. Outside of school, writing is important to countless jobs, including ones that aren’t even related to language. A person who expresses him- or herself well is a person who will find many doors opening with new possibilities. Just ask Johnnie Lewis about her experiences.