The english department at my school has always taught us to follow a TEEL paragraph structure that follows the larger over-arching structure of having an intro, followed by three body paragraphs and then a conclusion.

This works fine with most prompts for text response essays however, if the prompt is a little less broad (ie. more restrictive on what you can talk about), i find it difficult to think of a third body paragraph idea that is distinctly different to the others and yet, is still substantial enough to strongly support my contention.

What should i do when this happens? Should i just write about the ideas i have like normal, but make the paragraphs more detailed ie. longer, more quotes, etc, or should i try and bullshit a third paragraph that may be weak? ... or should i do something else completely?

I do not have lack of knowledge in the text so that is not the problem here.

Any tips from some competent english students would be very helpful!!!