For the final exam in this class, you will write an extended mini-paper just as you have been doing throughout the entire course. I find this is better for students because it allows you to showcase the skills you have honed over the course of the last three months, and it’s not timed, which is a plus. To this end, the final paper will be what is called a comparative analysis — comparing and/or contrasting two works that we have read in this course. With this type of essay, you are able to utilize both textual and contextual analysis.
Below, I have included commentary about comparative analysis essays from Goscik and Hutchison in Writing about American Literature. Take their advice:
“A comparative study requires that you look at specific elements in each text and compare or contrast their qualities. Two strategies tend to lead to success with this type of assignment. First, you might take two texts assumed to be very similar but then show important differences between the two. For example, Joel Chandler Harris’s “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” and Charles W. Chestnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine” are both dialect stories from the 1880s. Yet there are crucial differences in tone and characterization between the two stories. Second, you might take two texts assumed to be very dissimilar but then show important similarities between them. For example, you might take an influential religious text like Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and show its similarities to Ginsberg’s “Howl” — a poem often described in profane rather than sacred terms.”
“Whatever strategy you choose, remember: for a compare/contrast essay to be effective, the writer must be sure to limit the comparison to the most salient points. A paper that articulates carefully a few important similarities or differences and then analyzes their significance will fare much better than a paper that simply presents a laundry list of similarities and differences with no analysis of commentary” (23-4).
The instructions for this paper are the following:
- Decide which strategy from Goscik and Hutchison you will take — will you choose two texts that are assumed to be similar and then show important and significant differences between the two; or, will you choose two texts that are viewed as dissimilar and show important similarities between them
- Select two texts from this semester’s reading, texts you think can be fruitfully compared/contrasted based on the essay path you chose. You may choose any two texts from this semester’s readings. However, you are only allowed to use one text from a previous paper. You cannot write about the same two texts from your textual and contextual analysis mini-papers. Also, you cannot recycle papers. You may extend a previous analysis, but it must be substantially different than the analysis from a former paper.
- Write a paper that compares and/or contrasts two texts, showing why the points you make are significant, why they matter. YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION “SO WHAT?”
Requirements:
- Academic style (12 point font, Times New Roman or Garamond, double-spaced, header with page number, etc.)
- Works cited page
- MLA Citation style for in-text citations and works cited page
- 1400 – 1600 words
- The use of two peer-reviewed sources in addition to the two primary texts
- A title that is creative and reflects the scope of your paper
- A clear thesis that communicates your main claim
- Each paragraph has a clear topic sentence that guides the reader into the point of the paragraph
- Sufficient textual evidence from the primary texts in order to support your analytical argument
- Your own voice and analysis — do not simply parrot or repeat ideas and connections you have read. Make your own connections; formulate your own ideas
- Formal language, grammar, and punctuation
Rubric
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Thesis
The thesis is clear and discernible. It provides direction for the essay and the reader and is an original debatable idea.
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20 pts
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Analysis/Argument
The essay analyzes textual and contextual aspects of two works of literature, providing analytical and argumentative commentary as to why it/they are significant. The writer utilizes appropriate textual evidence, examples, illustrations, comparisons, etc. to illuminate the thesis as well as the supporting points. The author uses two peer-reviewed sources as secondary evidence to support and illuminate analytical points. The argument is interesting, perceptive, relevant, focuses on only a few salient points, and exhibits the writer’s own voice, analysis, ideas, and connections.
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50 pts
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Organization
The essay has a discernible structure that is in keeping with assignment guidelines; the writer provides clear topic sentences that he or she fully develops at the paragraph level; the writer provides clear transitions between paragraphs that lend coherence to the essay as a whole; the structure of the essay contributes to a cohesive reading experience and cogent argument or exposition; overall, the writer demonstrates knowledge of structural conventions typical of college-level writing, analysis, and argumentation
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15 pts
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Style & Mechanics
The essay follows all proper formatting of MLA citation style. It follows all stylistic conventions of academic prose. The essay contains no grammatical errors that detract from the essay’s meaning or the author’s credibility; the essay contains no mechanical errors that detract from the essay’s meaning or the author’s credibility; the writer cites sources consistently and correctly throughout the essay; overall, the writer demonstrates knowledge of grammatical and mechanical conventions typical of college-level prose writing and argumentation
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15 pts
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Total Points: 100
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