Writing Homework Help

You will write a comprehensive APA compare/contrast analysis paper using all that you’ve learned in ENG1021. For your essay, you will choose two literary works from Units 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to compare and contrast. You may choose from poetry, short stories, essays, or even drama; you could select two texts in the same genre, or you can select two texts from different genres (e.g., a poem and a short story). Your two literary texts may come from different units. Select a different comparison from the one you wrote in week 3. Do not self-plagiarize from previous weeks. 

Begin by selecting two literary texts that can be compared and contrasted from the authors’ point of view, literary style, or other points of comparison. Once you have selected two literary texts, it’s time to decide what within each selection you will compare. For instance, you may choose to compare/contrast the use of food or the portrayal of grandmothers in Baca’s”Green Chile” and Rios’ “Nani” (poems). You could choose to compare/contrast the use of the grotesque in Faulkner’s”Rose for Emily” and O’Connor’s”A Good Man Is Hard to Find” or the coming-of-age theme in Kincaid’s”Girl” and Updike’s”A&P” (short stories). If you decide to mix genres, you could focus on a shared theme, such as assimilation in Mora’s”Immigrants” (poem) and Staples? “Black Men in Public Space” (essay) or stereotypes in “We Real Cool” and “Black Men in Public Space.” The possibilities are many.

Ultimately, when writing a literary comparison, you will answer the question: So what?

In other words, you will not only explain the similarities and differences between the two literary works but also explain the significance of your comparison. A comparison intends to inform readers of something they haven’t thought of before. Therefore, for a comparison to be illuminating, the things compared typically appear different but have significant similarities or appear similar but have significant differences.

You must have a purpose for your comparison. The reader of the comparison should not have to ask, So what? at the end of your essay. To help you with this, your essay should be anchored by a strong thesis statement that makes a claim about these two works and how they compare and contrast with one another.

Your essay’s introduction should contain:

• the names of the texts to be compared
• the purpose of the comparison
• what is being compared and/or contrasted

Sample Thesis Statements:

Weak thesis: – I am going to compare the similarities and differences between the stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily.”

Strong thesis – A close examination of the grotesque in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and in “A Rose for Emily” demonstrates that… [insert your idea here].

Another strong thesis – Comparing the imagery and word choice in Mora’s poem “Immigrants” and Staples’ essay “Black Men in Public Space” demonstrates how each writer presents the stark realities of being a minority in contemporary American society.