Compare and Contrast Writing (Point-by-Point Method)
As you begin to complete all the required short readings in the “Language Module,” you are required to choose 3 articles/stories which will serve as the basis for the Compare and Contrast (Point-by-Point) essay you will write. There are resources in the Language module which speaks broadly about writing this type of essay, along with some guides and information to help you begin to build the structure.
A word about structure: Because you are using 3 articles/stories, you will be dealing with a good deal of material. You must also choose 3 major points/topics/themes/ideas from these materials to compare and contrast. Within the Point-by-Point style, you must show how there are similarities and differences across the 3 articles/stories and use evidence to support your essay’s development.
Your introduction will broadly introduce the overall topic of language diversity, along with introducing the authors, titles of their work, and you will provide a brief synopsis about each story you chose for your focus. Within your introduction, you will also have an explicit thesis statement that should tell the audience what three points/topics/themes/ideas will structure the body of your essay. These three points serve as your thesis statement and will serve as the topic for the topic sentences you will write to introduce a discussion of each authors’ work and ideas related to language.
You are required to quote and cite as you write, so this means that you will use the rules of MLA to quote and cite evidence to support the points/topics/themes/ideas you will develop. Your evidence must be discussed thoroughly for the audience to understand how the information that you quote and paraphrase supports the development of the paragraph’s ideas (Point). In addition, please note that as you write and because you are using three authors, your body paragraphs will become too long, which means that you must begin a new paragraph on a given point, reintroduce the topic sentence, and continue the discussion of the point with the additional evidence and discussion that is required.
All three authors must be discussed in relation to each point that you have selected for your thesis. For example, if one of my essay points will discuss the role that family plays in shaping the authors’ language experiences, then I must find concrete evidence from all texts to support this; I must engage in discussion of each author’s writing and the evidence that is within the text to support this point, and I must engage in a discussion of how this point/topic/theme/idea is similar or different from the other authors.
Consider this Framework
Introduction: Unit Topic is Language Diversity, so what should my audience know about this topic to bring them into an area of academic study with which they may not already be familiar. And, how does this topic relate to the three stories/articles that I will use for my paper? Note: Your introduction may be longer than one paragraph because you are introducing information, authors, titles, a brief synopsis of what the authors’ writings are about; and you are including a thesis statement that will tell the audience what three points you will compare and contrast.
Body:
Topic sentence which will introduce the first point from your thesis statement
Evidence and discussion of the first author you are using; quoted and paraphrased information from the reading; discussion of how the evidence supports the point being discussed. Repeat these steps for the second and third author. NOTE: your body paragraph for this first point will become too long as you develop the paragraph with discussion and evidence. Because of this, you will need to begin a new paragraph whereby you will use transition words to remind the reader of the topic (the point) and continue the discussion. In essence, you will likely have two paragraphs per point to successfully accommodate all authors and the required discussion of their work.
2. Topic sentence which will introduce the second point from your thesis statement
Evidence and discussion of the first author you are using; quoted and paraphrased information from the reading; discussion of how the evidence supports the point being discussed. Repeat these steps for the second and third authors. NOTE: your body paragraph for this first point will become too long as you develop the paragraph with discussion and evidence. Because of this, you will need to begin a new paragraph whereby you will use transition words to remind the reader of the topic (the point) and continue the discussion. In essence, you will likely have two paragraphs per point to successfully accommodate all authors and the required discussion of their work.
3. Topic sentence which will introduce the third point from your thesis statement
Evidence and discussion of the first author you are using; quoted and paraphrased information from the reading; discussion of how the evidence supports the point being discussed. Repeat these steps for the second and third authors. NOTE: your body paragraph for this first point will become too long as you develop the paragraph with discussion and evidence. Because of this, you will need to begin a new paragraph whereby you will use transition words to remind the reader of the topic (the point) and continue the discussion. In essence, you will likely have two paragraphs per point to successfully accommodate all authors and the required discussion of their work.
Conclusion:
See handouts in the Language module to help you think through your conclusion. Yet, essential is to signal to the audience that you are wrapping up. As such, signal language such as In conclusion, … In short,…In summary,…Finally,….are important guideposts are critical to use. Also, you should ensure that your conclusion is a minimum 5-7 sentences in length.
Works Cited:
Your paper must not only use quotes and citations in accordance with MLA style, but your must also provide a Works Cited list (as the very last page of your essay). All works on the Works Cited must be alphabetized by authors’ last names and must adhere to the rule which applies to the type of source you were provided. You will not that some sources have bibliographic information provided to you in terms of the book it was copied from and all the required information to properly cite the work according to the rule. For instance, the Kilgour Dowdy and Smith stories from books called collections/anthologies, which require that MLA rule. Yet, the readings from Liu, Tan, and Rodriguez must be treated as a class handout and use the MLA class handout rule, although these works were originally published in other mediums. The reason we use the class handout rule for these sources is that the works were downloaded by me as Fair Use documents and were distributed by me to you. You were not given the original bibliographic information for these sources. As such, you are still required to cite them because they were distributed through a course. MLA has a rule for this which can be found in the MLA module.
All work on a Works Cited page must be double spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman. The first line of a citation is aligned left; subsequent lines are indented using the hanging indent feature within your word processing program.
