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Prompt
A thesis-driven, multimodal comparative essay of 1,000-1,500 words, including annotations, that analyzes two articles about resilience. Can be written in either MLA, APA, or Chicago Style.
In this essay, you will research and analyze how resilience is defined and applied in two distinct discourses—academic disciplines or in public, private, or non-profit sectors—and evaluate commonalities and differences in usage. For each context, you will provide multiple examples that are thoroughly explicated, and you will use either the Block Method or Point-by-Point Method to structure your essay.
It is entirely up to you how you pick your two articles, but I want to encourage you explore categories that interest you. If you are interested in the psychological dimension of resilience, looks for popular and scholarly articles about that. If you are interested in the environmental contexts of resilience, then focus on that. Perhaps you’ll want to examine how resilience is used among philanthropic organizations, NGOs, and/or government agencies. As you’ve already come to recognize, resilience has found its way into most of our discourses, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding articles in just about any niche.
I recommend that you use at least one scholarly article (an essay published in an academic journal), but it is not a requirement. You have complete and total freedom to use whatever you think is relevant to your research interests for the purposes of this assignment.
What is a Comparative Essay?
The Comparative Essay
Comparison is a fundamental part of all reading. Not surprisingly, then, one of the most common types of essays is one that considers similarities and differences within a work, between two works, or among several. One might, for example, write an essay comparing different characters’ interpretations of of the conch shell in Lord of the Flies or one comparing an argument in support of solar energy to one that favors wind energy. The key challenges in writing effective comparison essays are achieving the right balance between comparison and contrast, crafting an appropriate thesis, and effectively structuring the body of the essay.
“Comparison-contrast” is a label commonly applied to comparison essays, but it’s a somewhat misleading one: Though some comparative essays give greater stress to similarities, others to differences (or contrast), all comparison has to pay at least some attention to both. Contrast is thus always part of comparison.
Where the emphasis falls in your essay will depend partly on the essays that you are comparing; there might be a lot of similarly between the two pieces with little difference between them, or they might have little in common. In any case, you need to be able to articulate that there are at least some similarities and differences between the essays in your analysis.
The Comparative Essay Thesis
Like any essay, a comparative essay needs a thesis–one argumentative idea that embraces all the things being compared. You might be tempted to fall back on a statement along the lines of “These things are similar but different.” Sadly, that won’t cut it as a thesis. It isn’t arguable (what two or more things aren’t both similar and different?), nor is it specific enough to give your comparison direction and purpose: What such a thesis promises is less a coherent argument than a series of seemingly random, only loosely related observations about similarities and differences, desperately in search of a point.
Therefore, it is important that your thesis in a comparative essay makes clear and argumentative claims about what you view as the commonalities and differences among the sources. Moreover, in this essay, your thesis might also indicate which of the two articles you find more compelling and convincing and why you feel this way. Below is an example of such a thesis:
On the topic of artificial intelligence, both X and Y worry that innovations in this area signal the beginning of the end for human civilization; however, while X believes that self-aware robots will violently overthrow and enslave humanity, Y argues that AI will merely make humans dumber, lazier, and completely dependent on technology to perform all physical and intellectual labor for them. While X raises from valid concerns, Y’s argument is more compelling and convincing because there is already mounting evidence to prove that we are becoming overly reliant on technology to do everything for us.
Comparative Essay Structure
In structuring the body of a comparative essay, you have two basic options, though it’s also possible to combine these two approaches. Depending on the class, prompt, and subject of your analysis, you’ll pick the option that best suits your needs. The first option is called The Block Method, and the second option is The Point-by-Point Method
The Block Method
This option tends to work best for essays in which you want to stress differences at least as much as similarities. As its common label, “the block method,” implies, this approach entails dividing your essay into “blocks” or sections, each of which lays out your entire argument about one of the things you’re comparing. To knit the two halves of the essay together, a transition paragraph that discusses both sources is critical to making the “block” method work.
In addition to a strong transition paragraph, effective use of the block method also requires that you
make each block or section of your essay match the other in terms of the issues it takes up or the questions it answers, so as to maintain clear points of comparison
order and present the blocks so that each builds on the last: Though your blocks should match, their order shouldn’t be random; rather, each block should build on the one that came before, just as should each paragraph/topic sentence in any essay.
The Point-by-Point Method
The Point-by-Point Method of structuring a comparative essay requires you to integrate your discussions of the texts that you are comparing. Each section of your essay (which might be one paragraph or two) should begin with a topic sentence that refers to all the texts you’re comparing rather than exclusively to one. This is also referred to as the Integrated Method or Side-by-Side Method.
Possible Essay Structure Using Point-by-Point Method
I. Introduction
Frame the conversation or debate. Summarize general views before introducing the two sources that you’ll be analyzing in your essay. Briefly provide context and describe each author’s argument. Transition to and conclude with a detailed and specific thesis statement that makes claims about the similarities and differences between the texts that you will explicate in your essay. Additionally, the thesis should let the reader know the reason(s) for why one of the readings is more compelling or convincing than the other.
II. Summaries
Write detailed and separate summaries of the two sources. Be sure to use plenty of key and relevant quotes that are properly integrated into the essay (context, tagline, citation, analysis). What are they about? What is the central focus, claim, or goal of each text? What kind of evidence is offered? What conclusions do they offer?
III. Compare
Write body paragraphs that compare, through cross-analysis, similarities between the texts. Do they use similar rhetorical appeals? Similar evidence and examples? Do they have the same tone? Are their concerns, focuses, messages, and conclusions aligned? With each paragraph, focus on one thing that the two texts have in common and explain it in detail using evidence from the sources.
IV. Contrast
Write body paragraphs that explicate where the texts diverge. Do they use different rhetorical appeals, evidence, and tones? Do they arrive at different conclusions? Are they problematizing different topics or advocating for dissimilar solutions? In other words, where do you see disagreement or contradiction between the two texts? In each paragraph, focus on one thing that the two texts do not have in common and explain it in detail using evidence from the sources.
V. Evaluation
Based on your analysis of the two texts, which of the two did you find more compelling or convincing? Provide your reasons. Is it the quality of evidence or argumentation? The tone and rhetorical approach of the author? Did one author seem more credible than the other? Did one author come off as too biased or opinionated? Did one text resonate with your more than the other? Was one author’s recommendations more feasible than the other’s? Are your personal values or beliefs more aligned with one author’s than the other’s?
VI. Conclusion
DO NOT begin with an unnecessary phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” DO NOT restate your thesis verbatim. DO NOT recap or summarize your entire essay. DO NOT include new evidence or quotes that should be in the body of the paper. Instead, synthesize the information while echoing your main points using new language. Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. Point to the broader implications of the topic. Go beyond the confines of the paper to show a new direction for the conversation. Leave the reader satiated by what you have provided while also offering food for future thought.
