English 2-3 pages comparing and contrasting between two topics

Title about Your Paper Assignment: For this paper, you will write a comparison/contrast essay about two of the course readings by two different authors. You may choose one of the suggested topics below or come up with your own based upon two of our readings. Comparison shows how two or more things are alike; contrast shows how they are different. The two are often used together to illustrate the characteristics of disparate things/people/ideas, as part of the process of classification, and as a strategy for evaluating (choosing the best of) different choices presented to us. To begin a comparison and contrast, first establish that a basis of comparison exists between the different subjects of your study. In other words, make sure that they have some meaningful shared characteristics. Without some common element between the different things, there can be no comparison. Make your basis of comparison as narrow as possible. Both “Why I Write” by Didion and “Why I Write” by Wiesel are about writing, and that is a base comparison. Compare and Contrast things that might be logically grouped together. Get beyond the obvious. For example, “Why I Write” by Joan Didion and “Why I Write: Making No Become Yes” by Elie Wiesel are both non-fiction essays, both written in English, and both have the same titles. Anyone who looks at them can tell that. Your job as a writer is to get beneath the surface and analyze the different things, compare and/or contrast what the authors are saying, how they are saying it, and not just summarize how they look. Clear transitions are especially important in a compare/contrast essay because readers need to be able to tell which subject you are discussing and whether you are discussing similarities or differences. Assignment: For this paper, you will write a comparison/contrast essay about two of the course readings. You may choose one of the suggested topics below or come up with your own. Possible topics ideas: Compare and contrast Didion’s “Why I Write” with Wiesel’s “Why I Write” Compare and contrast the relationship with the reader as explained in LeGuin’s “Where Do You Get Your Ideas from?” with Didion’s “Why I Write.” Compare and contrast Wiesel’s writing, descriptive style in the excerpt of Night with Didion’s descriptive style in “Goodbye to All That.” Compare and contrast Terry Tempest William’s personal and political purpose in “Excerpt from Refuge: An Unnatural Thing” and Gloria Anzuldua’s personal and political purpose in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Essays should be 2-3 pages, double spaced, and stapled. You need to be sure you properly cite the texts you’re examining and include a works cited page, using MLA format. Examples of MLA can be found on the Perdue OWL website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (Links to an external site.) - or google “owl MLA format”