Essay+Workshop


 * NOTE FOR ALL: as you finalize your essays, make sure to eliminate any sentences that say things like, "Although there are similarities between the stories, there are more differences," or "Here we see that the stories are more similar than different," etc. You need to SHOW me with your examples and analysis that the stories are similar or different. In fact, I doubt that any good sentence contains the word "SIMILARITY" or "DIFFERENCE," although you may say things like, "Similarly, in the second story . . ." or "'s story is much different, because . . ." The problem with the sentences I'm mentioning is that they don't contain any specific information about the stories, which is what these papers should all be built with.
 * **PLEASE READ YOUR ESSAY OUT LOUD TO YOURSELF! Please believe me when I say that this will help you eliminate a great number of errors with comma placement & missing words / punctuation. Many of you have begun to overcompensate for comma errors by using too many of them; an oral reading is your best way to fix this.**

**I.** **Academic honesty review & pledge** a. **Why academic dishonesty distresses me; why it is too frequently ignored** b. **What is academic honesty?** c. **How to cite sources appropriately in an academic paper** d. **How to cite sources appropriately in informal work**
 * __In-class Essay workshop:__**

**II.** **Setting up your document appropriately** a. **Margins: “Normal,” “Narrow,” or “Moderate” on “Page Layout”** b. **Font: 12 point for all sections; choose one of the normal fonts** **i.** **Times New Roman** **ii.** **Arial or Arial Narrow** **iii.** **Cambria** **iv.** **Calibri** c. **Double space** d. **Put two spaces between sentences** e. **Put a space after commas, semi-colons, dashes, etc.** f. **Whenever you mention the title of your story, use quotation marks -** Capitalize all words except articles and prepositions in titles in English. g. **Whenever you refer to the authors you’re discussing, use their last names only. You may use the first and last name //one time// – the first time you mention each writer. Avoid using “the author” – his or her last name will sound better.**

**III.** **Some miscellaneous ground rules and tips:** a. No “I”, “me”, or “the reader” – and no personal reflection at all before the conclusion. b. Use the present tense to write about literature. Even if a quotation is in the past tense, return to the present in your analysis and commentary. c. Avoid empty statements: //This is an excellent, eye-catching poem. This story has a strong message. The ideas in this story are unique.// d. Use strong adjectives: significant, powerful, descriptive, intense, jarring, unusual, monumental, visceral, suspenseful, etc. (not nice, bad, good, great, interesting); use some adverbs, too. e. Avoid the following pronoun agreement error: “This idea of death would lead the character to peruse **their** life.” Instead of “their,” please write “his or her.” Better still, use the character’s name, and avoid sloppy generalization. **Whenever you’re discussing multiple characters at the same time – especially when they have the same gender – it’s wise to use their names to avoid confusion.** f. Answer the question; stick to the thesis and your argument. g. Don’t talk about how difficult, easy, or obvious the main ideas are. h. Keep ALL personal commentary about your approach to writing the paper out of the essay. i. Practice DIRECT writing – short, concise sentences; later, go back and combine some to improve fluency (ask me to check any sentence with more than 7 words unless you are getting 6’s!). j. Run-on sentences and incorrect comma use is a major issue – read your entire essay out loud, and make sure you are including commas where natural pauses occur. k. Concision is a virtue – eliminate extra words, i.e. i. García Márquez revisits this theme often. //not Gabriel García Márquez can be argued to write about this primary theme on repeated occasions in quite a few of his stories.// ii. Allende incorporates a good deal of descriptive imagery. //not Allende describes almost everything that occurs in her stories using a plentiful assortment of many visually imaginable descriptive terms and other imagery.//

**IV.** **Framing your paper:** The basic question you will be answering in your comparative essay is as follows (do not include this in your paper):

The two stories you read are alike in some ways, and different in others. Consider the overall impact or message of both stories, and decide whether their differences or similarities are more significant. **Choose a central similarity or difference to analyze, and explain it in your introduction / thesis.** Write a 5+ paragraph essay in which you compare and contrast the two stories based on the central idea you identified, explaining what it is that makes them __fundamentally similar or dissimilar in their overall impact.__

**V.** **Choosing a title:** Come up with an interesting title that includes either the titles of both stories, or the name of your author: i.e. a. **__The importance of salvation in “Two Words” and “The South”__** b. **__Politics and corruption in García Márquez’ Latin America__** c. **__Fantastic transformations: Cortázar’s subconscious wonderland__**

**VI.** **Introduction and THESIS STATEMENT (1 paragraph with the thesis toward / at the end)** a. Your thesis needs to contain both a main idea and some kind of indication of the paragraph progression of your essay. A thesis is normally the last sentence in the introduction. **In it, you should introduce works and make a connection between them. Then, explain the central idea that makes them the same or different - this is your thesis statement.** b. [|**http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/intros.htm**] c. [|**http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/thesis.htm#**]

**VII.** **Essay body 3 – 5 paragraphs** **i. Body paragraph 1: Compare OR contrast one thing (the least important thing) in both texts that demonstrates the central idea you stated above in your thesis. Use 1+ quote from each story (i.e., 2+ quotes total) to support your comparison.** **ii. Body paragraph 2: Compare OR contrast a second thing (a more important thing) in both texts that demonstrates the central idea you stated above in your thesis. Use 1+ quote from each story (i.e., 2+ quotes total) to support your comparison.**

**iii. Body paragraph 3: Compare OR contrast a second thing (the most important thing) in both texts that demonstrates the central idea you stated above in your thesis. Use 1+ quote from each story (i.e., 2+ quotes total) to support your comparison.** b. Evidence, evidence, evidence – stick to the text! For this paper, each paragraph must have at least 2 quotes – a paragraph dealing with both works should have at least one from each work. **Any body paragraph with fewer than two quotations will cause you to lose points, unless you've chosen to divide a paragraph into two, dealing with each work in a separate paragraph - then, 1 quote might be sufficient (but 2 would be better); of course, if this is the case, your essay would be longer than 5 paragraphs total.** c. **Integrate your quotations:** they must form part of your sentences, i.e. **i.** As the protagonist, Lionel, states, “The heat was so great that. . .” (p. 19). **ii.** Allende makes this clear repeatedly; for example, in “Speak to my Heart,” Leana says, “We could never go back, back to where we came from” (p. 14). d. Avoid the use of the words “quote” or “quotation,” as in “this quote shows. . . .” Instead, identify the quality of the quotation: is it a declaration, a plea, an assertion, a denial, a complaint? e. Avoid overly long quotations. A good rule of thumb is to quote no more than two lines of text. If you quote more than three lines, you need to single-space the quotation and indent it one inch from the essay’s regular margins on both sides. f. Organize your paragraphs from the least to the most persuasive idea or from the weakest to the strongest argument. If each of your body paragraphs is based on a character, then your final body paragraph should deal with the character who is the best example of what you are arguing in your essay. g. Feel free to talk about literary devices as we did with poetry: if one of your stories uses an interesting symbol, simile, metaphor, image, etc., it would be highly appropriate for you to comment on its use. However, be careful to __explain the effect__ of the device – don’t just acknowledge its existence. (If you identify a symbol, you need to explain what it is a symbol //for// as well!) h. __Avoid writing lengthy paragraphs of summary__ followed by one overly long quotation at the end. This is not how a paragraph of literary analysis is organized. Embed your [brief] quotations into your essay, followed by incisive analysis and commentary.

**VIII.** **Conclusion (1 paragraph in which you** rehash / extend material from your introduction, including your own reflection of its impact (but with NO I, ME, or THE READER!) This would be the appropriate place to generalize your thesis further than you did in your introduction; for example, "Evidence of the phenomenon that Allende describes is evident in modern politics throughout Latin America. Just as the Colonel first controlled his people with violence and then attempted to win their hearts, leaders of several South American countries have tried to do the same.")

**IX.** A few additional resources: a. Academic Essays (from Harvard): [|http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Begin.html] b. Comparison Essays: i. [] ii. [|http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CompAnalysis.html] iii. []


 * Misspellings to avoid:**
 * 1) definately
 * 2) peice, recieve, beleif
 * 3) where / were / we’re
 * 4) its / it’s
 * 5) they’re / their / there
 * 6) untill, hopefull, etc.
 * 7) whilst
 * 8) writting
 * 9) where as, in side, straight forward, never the less


 * SAMPLE COMPARATIVE ESSAY (I'll add more to the body of this sample over the weekend):**

//Note: In class, I had you use boldface and underline your title. However, after a conversation with Ms. Stefanides, I realized that this was a bad idea because it could lead to confusion about underlining book titles in the future. **Please use regular, unbolded font for your title, and do not underline it. There is no need to make it stand out except by centering it on the page.** Your introduction should start immediately below the title - i.e., hit 'enter' only once.//

Women in patriarchal societies: “Two Words” and “The Red Stockings”

Isabel Allende and Emilia Pardo Bazán, two authors from very different regions and cultural contexts, both address the plight of women in male-dominated societies. Belisa Crepusculario of “Two Words” and Ildara of “The Red Stockings” find themselves poor, alone, and desperate in harsh environments that are controlled by brute force wielded by men. Both search for alternate means of controlling their destinies: while Ildara chooses to rely upon her physical appearance to escape her seemingly hopeless existence, Belisa harnesses the power of words to exert control over hers. Ildara’s method meets with failure; however, Belisa manages to improve not only her own plight, but that of her entire nation as well. **__Ultimately, Pardo Bazán’s assessment of women’s prospects is dismal, but Allende delivers an optimistic message about the ability of love and words to conquer violence and corruption.__ [THESIS STATEMENT - no need to boldface or underline in your real paper!]**

[BODY PARAGRAPH ONE: Compare and contrast Belisa & Ildara’s humble beginnings *** this is relatively similar – I’ll talk about similarities and differences, but emphasize the similarities.**] Ildara and Belisa Crepusculario are victims of humble births with poor prospects for happiness or, in Belisa's case, mere survival. Ildara is born into a bleak Galician town during the Industrial Revolution (to be continued!). ..

BODY PARAGRAPH TWO: Compare and contrast the male powers in Belisa’s and Ildara’s lives *** this is half similar / half different: I’ll first talk about the similarities between Uncle Clodio & El Coronel (such as their coldness and their loneliness, as well of the lack of connection with female figures in their lives), then explain how El Coronel is more sinister because he exerts control (via violence) over everyone in his nation.**

BODY PARAGRAPH THREE: Compare and contrast the means Belisa & Ildara choose to escape from their circumstances. *** this is the most important difference – words vs. beauty as a means of escape.**