Almost every American high school student learns how to write five paragraph themes. In secondary school we learn that the basic short essay should be organized in the following five paragraph structure: 1. Introduction   2. Body Paragraph   3. Body Paragraph   4. Body Paragraph   5. Conclusion. The five paragraph theme is supposed to be a tool for beginning writers to master and then move on. But it's often very difficult for college students to break out of the five-paragraph mode. Over the years teaching my MCAT course, I have often noticed that the five paragraph theme is deeply ingrained with many premedical students, especially students who have spent the majority of their undergraduate careers tackling the hard sciences, and who have not done much writing at the college level. There seems to be a tendency to fall back on the five paragraph theme, to try to succeed on the MCAT essay with the form.

The problem is the MCAT is asking you to deliver critical writing, not the 'say what you're gonna say; say it; say what you said' of five paragraph themes. In critical writing, the ideas develop organically, but the five paragraph theme discourages strong connections between the ideas in the essay. Almost invariably, what students learn to write is some version of "We can see [thesis] through Example A, Example B, Example C," with the paragraphs about A, B, and C connected to each other with a string of "Also"s or "Moreover"s. In theory, you could use the five-paragraph template to come up with a critical essay whose body paragraphs go like this: "Let's take Point A as a premise (and here's why A is a reasonable starting point). Now, if we examine the assumptions behind A, we can see that B follows from it. However, we may not realize that we should also consider C (but here's why we should)." That would be critical writing because the ideas are developing.

Another problem with the five paragraph theme is that it encourages students to write the dullest, most formulaic introductions and conclusions ever. Students recognize how dreary it is to write a conclusion that restates everything that's been said in the introduction, but they've been taught over and over again to begin their last paragraphs with "In conclusion, this essay has shown that [insert slightly reshuffled sentences from introduction]." Why go through the process of writing if you're going to end up at the same place you began?

Here's another MCAT writing assignment:

The distribution of wealth in society should only reflect the free transactions of individuals not government policy.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which other factors besides individual economic activity should possibly influence the distribution of wealth in society. Discuss what you think should determine the distribution of economic benefits in society.

Every MCAT Essay has the same three basic assignments.

1. Describe the point of view of the statement.
2. Investigate a point of view critical of the statement.
3. Find a deeper insight or overall reconciliation.

The three basic tasks of the MCAT essay represent a classic rhetorical figure of critical philosophy, the dialectical progression from thesis, to antithesis, to synthesis. In the history of ideas, the dielectic has been the basis of grandly totalizing philosophical systems. For the purposes of writing MCAT essays, the dialectic describes the progression of ideas in a critical thought process that is the force driving your argument. A good dialectical progression propels your arguments in a way that is satisfying to the reader.

Thesis, anthithesis, and synthesis represents a compact way of expressing the process of critical thinking. Let us step back and think of writing the MCAT essay on these terms. This will help you learn to create a unified essay powered by ideas.