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An Electronic classroom for English 081
Five Paragraph Essay: One common form the report takes—especially in English classes—is the Five-Paragraph Theme or Essay. The form was devised for two purposes. One purpose is to provide an effective way to organize and present or transmit information or data quickly and effectively to another person. The form is as utilitarian as the spreadsheet, the obituary notice, or the recipe for the latest chocolate dessert.
A second purpose is that the form, reduced to its minimum, is easy to learn, a model that provides a sense of order, a model to learn on, a model that can be expanded or embellished whenever the writer needs. To the writer, it is the equivalent of the bunny hill to the skier, the driving range to the golfer, the practice boulder to the mountain climber—a place to learn, to practice, and to perfect skills.
Purpose: In its many manifestations, in its many variations, the essay is designed to move information. Keep in mind: Because it is so varied as a form, nearly anything said about any one example may not always apply to the next example. But what follows are generalizations, common features often found in the form.
Focus: It focuses on the information. It may contain feelings and opinions, but the first concern is the data. Utilitarian, like the automobile chassis, it gets one from place to place—functionally, reliably, economically, like a Toyota or with flamboyance and excess, like a Ferrari.
Style and Stance: Because its purpose is utilitarian, the essay tends to be formal. To be formal is to be serious. The emphasis is on the information. This is serious business; this is like science, like banking, like international relations.
Form: To be formal is to have form. The basic form is five paragraphs. The first paragraph tells what it (whatever it may be) is all about. The next three paragraphs explain, expand, exemplify, or otherwise develop the topic. The final paragraph looks back to review the information and perhaps comments on the information.
The introduction: This contains the subject, the topic. The writer also has an attitude about the subject. Sometimes the writer makes this attitude clear, explicit, obvious. Other times this attitude may be implied, just suggested. The words the writer chooses in describing the subject are often the clue--words like good, positive, beneficial, important or bad, unimportant, overlooked, unreasonable--all these give a clue to implicit attitude. Remember in the summary assignment that the essay on third parties used the word "greatly" as part of its statement of purpose. Substituting almost any other word will put a different spin on the implied attitude of the author toward the subject.
Thesis: Another element is the thesis statement or statement of purpose or statement of the central idea. This statement contains the reason the writer is exploring this subject, why this information needs moving, why someone should care about this information.
Introductory paragraph: Inexperienced writers, being closely involved and caring about a subject, sometimes forget that the reader is not involved or caring. By assuming the concern of the reader, the novice writer sometimes forgets this essential element in the introduction and misses the opportunity to get the reader involved, to have the reader feel strongly about the subject. Finally, the introductory paragraph can include the points developed in the middle paragraphs, the points to be made, the divisions of the subject. A good introductory paragraph then helps the reader by setting the subject, suggesting an attitude, stating why the subject is important, and laying out the main points or divisions.
Middle paragraphs: There are usually three of these. Sometimes students wonder "Why three?" "Why not four or five or more?" There are good reasons for three middle paragraphs. One middle paragraph might not be convincing. It could be an exception an isolated instance or single bit of evidence. Two middle paragraphs, like many things in two's, may cause the reader to think in opposites: in black and white, good and evil, rich and poor. Three paragraphs or items avoid those problems and somehow suggest that there could be more reasons, but that these are typical and adequate examples. Three paragraphs are enough to make the point without extending the article.
Paragraph development: When it is necessary to extend the report, the number of middle paragraphs is extended, but then the report or essay often becomes longer than the standard 500 word assignment. If the writer includes six points, for instance, in a 500 word assignment, the supporting or middle paragraphs may seem inadequate, undernourished, lacking in completeness. In either instance, the original and additional middle paragraphs may be quite similar in their structure, their plan, the organization that they follow.
Patterns of development: For example, a middle paragraph may start with the origins, the time or place, followed by who was involved, why, and what was the outcome or result. One quick way to check for a development pattern is to list "who, what, when, where, why, and how." Do these categories occur in a particular, even repetitive, order? Writers, especially journalists, have used these "serving men" of author Rudyard Kipling for many years.
Concluding paragraph: The final paragraph of the report usually reviews the thesis or purpose and the main points. It is the writer's opportunity to sum up and convince the reader of all that has gone before and to provide a sense of ending, closure, or completion. This is will leave the reader feeling satisfied and more likely to agree with, believe in, or accept the information. We all recall how irritating it is to have to leave in the middle of the story or the program. This last paragraph provides resolution. It is also the writer's opportunity—and many use it to full advantage—to make the implied attitude clear and explicit, to say something that would have been too strong to say at the beginning.
Topics: Unless the writer is assigned a topic, often the case in many classes, selecting a subject may be a problem. Student writers often complain, "I don't know what to write about."
Consider the assigned topic for a second. What the instructor wants is for the writer to demonstrate knowledge of some topic in an organized manner so the instructor can be reasonably sure the student knows the material. Instructors also know that organizing information and actually working to present it in written form will cause students to learn the material better, to gain insights into information, and to retain the information longer. The notion here is that involvement equals learning and retention.
The student writer needs to display that kind of knowledge in the essay. Instructors and some students also viewed this as preparation for professional life. People have to share what they discover for it to have value. Lost paintings, manuscripts, and great works only have value when they come to public light. Students may be able to draw on a subject they know well for writing if they have been in school for a while, but if not, then what?
Generating a topic: The difficulty in generating our own subjects is that we are so close to what we know that we do not recognize it. Someone once said, "We don't know who discovered water, but we're sure it wasn't a fish." Same problem here. Student writers know things to write about, but they have trouble recognizing good subjects. Consider the following: Do you have any hobbies? What have you worked at? What do you like to read about? What do you know a little about, but want to know more about? What strikes you as curious or interesting? Any of these openings may provide an excellent beginning to the discovery of a great report.
Examples: Nearly everything we read that is not fiction or poetry might be an example of the report or essay, but the following examples were written by students who wrestled with the form and won. These reports show the variety of subjects and approaches to the form; both are more than five paragraphs, but they succeed in clearly communicating, using the basic essay form as a place to start. As before, these examples are 1.5 line-spaced. Your submissions will be double line-spaced.
Powerlifting
by Mike ChurchPowerlifting is the ultimate sport when it comes to strength. It is not as popular as body building, but it is more popular than Olympic style lifting. Unlike the Olympic style lifting, powerlifting tests in three lifts: the squat, the bench, and the deadlift.
In the squat the lifter must descend until the top of his thighs go below parallel. In the bench, the bar is lowered to the chest, where it must stay until the head judge says "Press." Then it must go up. In the deadlift, the bar is simply picked up off the floor. At the end of the lift, the lifter's knees must be locked and his shoulders locked back.
Olympic lifting tests in only two lifts: the snatch and the clean and jerk. To perform these two lifts the lifter must have speed and agility more than pure strength. Powerlifting is the opposite, it requires pure strength more than anything else.
Powerlifting is also a better sport for both the competitor and the audience than is bodybuilding. The fan knows exactly what to look for: the one who lifts the most weight wins. In body building, the winner is the one who the judges think looks best, but the average fan does not know exactly what the judges are looking for. In powerlifting the winner is the one who lifts the most. The only lift in which there is really any judgment call is the squat. The three judges have to decide whether or not the lifter went below parallel.
Powerlifting has several rules designed to take away the effects of momentum and keep the competition strictly one of strength. In the squat the point at which the hip bends must go below the top of the knee. On the bench the bar must be lowered to the chest where it must come to a complete stop, before coming up, usually for about one second. The deadlift is basically a lift performed with just strength as there is not as much technique involved, as in the other two lifts. However, in all three lifts the bar must make one continuous upward movement and cannot stop at any time, or the lift will be disallowed.
Muscle Joe in the local gym may be able to bounce more weight off his chest than the record at his weight class, but the strongest men and women in the world for their relative size are powerlifters. A few examples include: Fred Hatfield, Ted Arcidi, and Lamar Gant. Fred Hatfield, weighing only 250 pounds, squatted 1008 pounds. Ted Arcidi, weighing 290 pounds, benched 705 pounds. And Lamar Gant, weighing only 123 pounds, deadlifted 638 pounds.
Although the International Olympic Committee recognized powerlifting as a sport in 1986, the first step in its being part of the Olympics, the Olympic campaign to have powerlifting included has not yet been successful. The "Cyclops campaign petition, sponsored by Powerlifting.com," is available at their web site. The campaign hopes to collect enough electronic signatures to "demonstrate the popularity of the sport and the demand for its inclusion in the Olympics." In the meantime, the popularity of powerlifting continues to grow.P.M.S.
by Linda WeberFor years women have battled the distresses and the sometimes violent reactions from Pre-Menstrual Syndrome or P.M.S. The syndrome, given its name because of the symptoms and the time of its occurrence, is a hormone deficiency in women. It has just recently been taken seriously, researched in Europe, and diagnosed as a physical, not psychological disorder. Beyond myths, some tracing as far back as the Greek Semonides, there are now two hypotheses which help explain why this disorder afflicts up to forty percent of all women, some severely.
Although the exact cause of this disorder has not yet been pin-pointed through scientific testing, doctors are now able to treat the disorder with two different types of therapy. Stress management and vitamin B6 are used for the less severe cases, and a natural progesterone therapy program is used for others. Both have successful, documented results.
Dr. Ronald V. Norris, a neuroendocrinologist and psychiatrist from Boston, and Dr. Katherrina Dalton, a London physician, did research on women in prison and found that most of the crimes these women committed occurred when their progesterone levels were abnormally low. These documented studies were published in a prestigious medical journal and opened many further scientific studies on the syndrome.
The symptoms vary among cases. There are the less severe cases who suffer from simple bloating, swelling, irritability, and crying jags. For these women, Dr. Dalton and her colleagues hypothesize that the production of the hormone called progesterone, produced by the ovaries and controlled by the brain's central nervous system, slows down due to a deficiency of vitamin B6, and that the endocrine system cannot produce the proper quantities needed to keep its functioning "normal." By treatment of this deficiency with doses of B6, which has central affects on parts of the brain that deal with emotions, the body can then produce the hormone needed. Along with using a mild diuretic, a regular stress management program, proper diet, and exercise, doctors have found that treatment using vitamin B6 has been successful in helping thousands of women minimize the effects of the less severe symptoms of this disorder.
But for many women who face far more severe reactions and symptoms, the use of a second therapy is needed. For these women, the symptoms become disruptive in their lives. Along with experiencing the same symptoms of the less severely effected, these women are faced with devastating emotional effects that include depression, fatigue and anxiety which in many cases escalated to physical violence and abuse. It is theorized that there is not only an abnormally low level, in these women, but an actual halt of the needed progesterone being produced. This sends messages to the brain in the extreme.
In England, Dr. Dalton has successfully treated over 20,000 women with natural progesterone therapy. This is given either by weekly hormone injections or in the form of a suppository used daily. All the patients felt some form of control and relief, and they could go about their lives without the use of valium, lithium, and other tranquilizers. Today English and French courts even accept P.M.S. as a mitigating factor in criminal trials of women.
Although doctors can only hypothesize on the causes of P.M.S., their research and studies have enabled the discovery and use of two successful therapies: vitamin B6 and associated therapies and natural progesterone. These therapies have allowed thousands of successful results to be felt, studied, and documented. Women can now fight the distresses of this disorder without drugs or the fear of being regarded emotionally distraught, and they can now lead normal, fuller, healthier lives.
Both of these reports expand on the basic five paragraph structure by including additional information to clarify or expand the main points. The basic structure is still the same: introduction, middle parts, conclusion.
Assignment:
Write a report using the five paragraph structure. Submit your topic and
parts for approval before beginning to draft your paper.
Outcomes and
Assessment Criteria
I will assess drafts of the assignment using the following criteria.
Doing a good job
choosing and reporting on a subject, while certainly the most important part of
this assignment,
will not produce a "pass" on the assignment if the other
criteria are not met satisfactorily. When I receive this assignment, here
is what I look for.
Title: Is the title correct? The form, capitalization, spelling, accuracy?
Introduction: Does the introduction have the required elements--a statement of purpose (thesis) and give some sense of the major parts or points to be covered? Are these accurate?
Body: Does the body follow the plan set out in the introduction? Is the
information (the content) accurate? Is the presentation unified (sticks to
the point) and coherent (can the reader follow along)?
Are like things handled in like ways?
Does the body contain various methods of support, such as data, facts,
possibly quotes from others, description, and so on? Are these
introduced and worked in smoothly? Are transitions from point to point
clear. Are any necessary digressions handled
well?
Mechanics: Are spelling, grammar, and usage up to the standards of Standard Written English? Is the style adequately appropriate, varied and fluent?
All of these areas must be adequately handled, or you will not receive a "pass" on the assignment, and you will be asked to revise. Please do not resubmit a paper that you have not carefully and fully corrected and revised.
Revision
Thoughts about revising papers: Revision is part of the learning process.
I expect you to have more revisions at the beginning of the course than at
the end. You may have more trouble with one assignment than with another.
This is normal. However, the number and similarity of types of errors
should decrease overall as the quarter progresses.
Please do not expect me to correct and revise every problem until your paper is passing. That is your job. I will point out the errors and sometimes demonstrate how to correct them or refer you to materials to help you correct them.