Let me put this out there. I once researched and wrote a ten page research paper in three hours. I didn't time myself. A friend did in 2009. The reason? I said I had to research and write a paper and I'd be at his party when I was done. He thought I'd never get there and when I showed up three hours later he didn't believe me. I showed him my library books and my time-stamped paper later that week.

If you've already declared a thesis, all you have to do is figure out the average size of your paragraphs, figure out how many you have to write to fill the page requirement, divide the thesis into provable points, and then give each sections equal weight.

Thesis: [Despite evidence to the contrary] point one [new research suggests that exercise has little impact on weight loss] point two [without considering diet] point three.

Five pages? Chalk up a good 3/4 to a full page for title, intro and conclusion? I need to write four pages for three things, meaning I need each idea to be probably two paragraphs per idea assuming we're writing double-spaced.

Each paragraph needs to have the following things.

*Restatement of what part of the thesis I am addressing * Introduction of the source material * Longest quote I can use to eat up space * My analysis of the quote.