Essay Planning: Essay #2 Comparison Guidelines

The Woman Writer

Guidelines for Essay #2

A Comparison/Contrast of Two Works

Deadlines: Blog for May 16; Essay due May 23 (draft in class discussion May 21.)

Choices:

1.     You may compare a technique in two writers, for example, magical realism in Ferre and Danticat.

2.     You may compare two poems or stories by the same writer, for example the poems we have read by Alvarez or Angelou—you will need a theme.

3.     You may compare a theme in two different writers, for example, identity or language in Anzaldua and Alvarez.

4.     Women’s oppression; women’s self-affirmation has been a thread throughout the course and we will return to that in new ways in the last two readings: “The Yellow Wallpaper” and In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play. Both these texts are based on real events, so another angle is to examine how real events are used fruitfully, productively to create fiction. (This also works for “The Youngest Doll,” “1937”and Trifles.)  You may choose any two texts you have not already written about to explore a feminist-type theme.

As with the previous essay, I am asking you to research your authors, and, in some cases, the historical or social issue surrounding the story or play or poem.

I will post a blog after our class May 14, so that you can begin to share ideas about your comparison contrast essay.

Simple structural advice:

·      First establish what the two texts have in common; then clearly define how each text approaches the theme differently;

·      The opening of your essay should create a structural frame for the comparison, so that you and your reader know exactly what is coming next

·      Each body paragraph should be devoted to one aspect of the theme, should have textual support that is clearly introduced, related to the theme and commented on in depth.

·      Your conclusion should make some kind of social, psychological or philosophical observation, comment on the importance of the theme and the specific way the writer chose to advance our understanding.

Example of the comparison contrast thesis:

Gloria Anzaldua and Julia Alvarez both struggle to describe the relationship between language and identity.  Both use Spanish and English in the same text and both express complex emotions about living in two languages.  However, Anzaldua writes in prose, Anzaldua in poetry.  Anzaldua wants her reader to think about how Latina women can make their voices heard in the world, while Alvarez gives us a more intimate, private analysis of an individual’s identity—between worlds.