Research Essay Two
Your next essay will a Compare and Contrast type.
Criteria for Essay
MUST be five to six pages in length NOT including the Works Cited page
MUST properly use at least two in-text quotations from your resources
MUST include at least THREE resources (ONE MUST be the textbook, one MUST be an academic/peer-reviewed journal article, and another may from a college website)
These resources should be properly formatted and listed on your Works Cited page.
You MAY NOT use first narrative (any instance of “I”, “me”, “my”, etc…). Your essay MUST be third person narrative
ONE resource MUST be an academic article (from a peer-reviewed journal). These can be found online through the Barstow Community College Library list of databases (Links to an external site.)
Extra credit will be offered for tutoring assistance with your rough daft
Must contain a proper introduction with thesis statement, body paragraph, and concluding paragraph
Must adhere to proper grammar conventions. TIP: tone should professional and academic, avoiding such everyday phrases as “Nowadays” or “At the end of the day”. Do not begin sentences with “But”.
Wikipedia may NOT be a source for ANY college essay.
Note: Wikipedia is sometimes a great place to begin learning about your topics, but it should NEVER be used on your college work.
Purpose:
NOTE: You will use your primary readings from the textbook.
Suggested Topics:
Topics
Choice One: Compare the Writing of Lao-tzu and Martin Luther King Jr.
Choose a stanza or two from Lao-Tzu’s “Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching” and explain how they relate to one of the following concerns:
Virtue
the Sage
Non-action,
Moderation
Next: Read through Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” here Download here.
As you read through “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” identify themes that align with Lao-tzu
Consider how each text appeals the reader and audience
Though stylistically different, consider their philosophies with emotion.
Assignment: Compare and Contrast the writing of Lao-tzu and King Jr. Consider similarities in tone, delivery, and mechanics (poetic form, unique and creative phrasing. How do the backgrounds of each writer inform their rhetoric and presentation? How do their respective beliefs set them apart or expose similarities.
Remember: With a Compare and Contrast essay your not simply pointing out similarities and differences. The goal is to persuade the reader. Therefore, a thesis is still need.
NOTE: It may be prudent to lean heavily upon either comparison or contrast, but not both. Consider the framework for a Compare and Contrast essay below as your begin your draft.
Choice Two – Declaration Independence and the Bill of Rights
You can find the Bill of Rights hereLinks to an external site..
Compare and contrast the “Declaration of Independence” and the “Bill of Rights”. Consider
Which document is more significant?
Consider that the “Declaration of Independence” was written before the Constitution.
Spend one or two paragraphs discussing the drafting of each document and who authored them
Does the writer’s background influence the rhetoric. If so, how?
You are free apply MLA Section Headings in your essay – this will help you to organize and present your ideas better. Consult either a MLA website or tutor of insight on how to apply this in your work.
Works Cited
Jefferson, Thomas. “The Declaration of Independence”. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers, edited by Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford/St. Martin, 2019, 89-96.
Choice Three: Contrast Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir
French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Married to existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.Links to an external site.
Both Wollstonecraft and de Beauvoir considered among the early foundations of modern feminism. However, both writers delivered varying expression of equality and equity. This essay choice allows from more freedom in direction than the other choices, but will require heightened levels of academic research and understanding. This essay would more toward a contrast of each writer, but you still compare their respective approaches within that conflict of approaches.
Consider three factors that Wollstonecraft says are the source of true happiness for both men and women.
Consider the distinction that Beauvoir makes between sex and gender.
Domesticity was a restraint for Beauvoir. How does this differ from Wollstonecraft.
Find Beauvoir’s reading here Download here.
What Is A Compare and Contrast Essay
Some assignments use words—like compare, contrast, similarities, and differences—that make it easy for you to see that they are asking you to compare and/or contrast. Here are a few hypothetical examples:
Compare and contrast Frye’s and Bartky’s accounts of oppression.
Compare WWI to WWII, identifying similarities in the causes, development, and outcomes of the wars.
Contrast Wordsworth and Coleridge; what are the major differences in their poetry?
Notice that some topics ask only for comparison, others only for contrast, and others for both.
It’s not always so easy to tell whether an assignment is asking you to include comparison/contrast. And, in some cases, comparison/contrast is only part of the essay—you begin by comparing and/or contrasting two or more things and then use what you’ve learned to construct an argument or evaluation. Consider this example, noticing the language that is used to ask for the comparison/contrast and whether the comparison/contrast is only one part of a larger assignment:
Choose a particular idea or theme, such as romantic love, death, or nature, and consider how it is treated in two Romantic poems.
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