For our first official benchmark in English, we each had to write a 5 paragraph essay about The Odyssey. Our first paragraph had to include a thesis statement dealing with The Odyssey, relating it to "real life" and we had to tie it together. In our 3 body paragraphs we had to include a quote in each one and use examples in the story to prove our thesis statement.

Our first benchmark in Mr. Kay’s English class challenged us to write a five-paragraph essay with a thesis statement about “The Odyssey.”  Our thesis had to be very good- that is, it must be something that can be argued, and must be a creative thesis about the book.  The essay had to be exactly five paragraphs, no more, no less, and each paragraph had to be strong and backed up by quotes from the book, and then our analysis on said quotes.