Five Paragraph Essay Assignment Guidelines
Spring 2006

  1. This essay should be five paragraphs of 100 words each.
  2. The essay should have a title that reflects both the theoretical theme and the name of the show used as an example.
  3. The essay should have your name as author, and a hyperlink to your home page.
  4. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, three substantive sentences, and a concluding or transitional sentence.
  5. It must follow the five paragraph essay format:
    1. Introductory Paragraph :  The first sentence should introduce ONE theoretical idea from Schiller, Gitlin OR Newcomb and Hirsch (see the powerpoint on "Are American Values Shaped by the Mass Media").  The next three sentences should elaborate on three aspects or sub-points of this general idea.  The fourth sentence should explain the transition to the examples.
    2. First Example -  NOTE:  The examples should be Episodes or Characters from one show, unless I authorized an exception in my comments on your outline.  The first sentence should introduce the example, e.g, the episode of November 12, 2003, or the character Mindy on Boobs on the Tube.  The next three sentences should explain how this episode or character does or does not fit the ideas from the first paragraph.  Illustrative detail is needed, not abstract theoretical generalizations.  The last sentence is a transition and/or summary.
    3. Second Example
    4. Third Example
    5. Concluding Paragraph  The last paragraph goes back to the ideas in the first paragraph and summarizes how they were (or were not) illustrated in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4.
  6. The essay must contain at least five working hyperlinks to WEB sites about your show.  These should be incorporated in the text, not listed separately.  For example:   "Howdy Doody was a children's show from the 1950s."
  7. The essay must be in html format with a a one-word file name, e.g,  HowdyDoody.html.  You can write the essay in Word or another word processor if you wish, but save it in html or "web page" format.  I find Mozilla Composer convenient for writing essays in html with hyperlinks.  This is available with the free Mozilla Suite. 
  8. The essay should be submitted to the Assignment Dropbox on WEBCT.  You will have the opportunity to make changes or corrections, if you wish, before posting it on your home page.
  9. The due date is Monday, February 13.  Strict rules as described in the syllabus will apply to late assignments, i.e., 20% off the grade for each day the essay is late.  One day late gets 80% of the grade, two days 60%, three days 40%, four days 20% and five or more days, 0%.