Thinking in Threes: The Power of Three in Writing

This practical resource helps students see the importance of “the rules of three” in writing successful essays. The student-friendly activities in this book give students essay-writing strategies organized in easy-to-remember groups of three. The book includes many activities and games that help point out the importance of the number three in our language.

With Thinking in Threes, powerful writing strategies are as easy as 1-2-3! Some of the rules of three explained in this book include:

• three steps for brainstorming,
• three “Ps” of a thesis statement,
• three parts of an essay,
• three paragraphs in the body of an essay,
• three ways to connect paragraphs and sentences,
• three types of evidence to support topic sentences,
• three qualities of a good example,
• three things to include in a quotation,
• three ways to hook the reader in an introduction,
• three ways to write fluent sentences,
• three ways to write successful conclusions, and
• three phrases for completing a timed writing assignment.

The goal of Thinking in Threes is to empower students to write great essays in your classroom!

Grade 5-Adult

Brian Backman grew up in Seattle, Washington. After high school, he served in the United States Army in Europe for three years. He then returned to Washington to attend Seattle Pacific University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in curriculum and instruction.