This handout guides students through a prewriting process and shows them how to apply their prewriting to an actual draft. I created it for my 3rd grade middle schoolers, as they have been practicing paragraphs for their entrance exams. However, I think you could use this for short essays as well. While this is designed for opinion writing, you can take the concept and apply it to other kinds of compositions.
Use this however you see fit. I've included space for up to 3 reasons/topics/whatever, but I don't believe that every paragraph ever needs to have 3 separate points. All this is meant to do is provide a framework to help students think and organize their thoughts into writing. I've also included an example. The example mostly uses full sentences. The students do not have to, especially on the first page. This is supposed to make their lives easier, not harder. Personally, I'd try to give them as much freedom as possible within the spirit of the assignment.