Schaaf WR 98
Paper 2: Comparative Analysis
First Draft for Peer Review: Wednesday, October 22nd in class
Draft Uploaded to Blackboard: Wednesday, October 22nd by 8:00 p.m.
Final Version Uploaded to Blackboard: Saturday, November 1st by noon
Purpose: This second paper will give you an opportunity to continue improving your ability to
create a strong central claim and organize your paper. It will also introduce the new challenge of
writing about two texts in relation to each other.
Assignment: Write a paper of between 950 to 1100 words that addresses an issue by analyzing
two different essays through a strong central claim.
Format: Double-space and paginate your paper. Use the MLA documentation style. (unless you
have a strong attachment to another style of documentation, you are sure you can use that style
accurately, and you receive my permission to use it.)
Essay Choices: You may choose to write about any of the two essays we have read so far this
semester, EXCEPT the essay on which you focused for Paper 1.
Argument Structure
Introduction *Introduce pertinent points from each of your chosen essays directly in the
introduction. Be sure to include the titles and authors of both essays.
*The introduction of your paper should clearly state your purpose and central claim. The claim
is usually the last sentence of the introductory paragraph; that’s where readers expect to find it.
*To be convincing, the main claim needs to be supported by reasons, which are in turn supported
by evidence. Reasons are the logic behind your argument; evidence is the data from the text
(quoted and paraphrased) that you interpret to show your point.
Improving Claims
The discussion claim: I will discuss the view toward language in Leonard’s “Death by Monoculture.”
Solution: Be more specific and take a position – the more nuanced the better.
Revised: Although Leonard’s veneration of minority languages is admirable and their conservation is
important, the desire to change and control the activities of individuals from another culture in order to
preserve their traditions is as oppressive as the globalizing forces Leonard criticizes.
The vague claim: Language’s influence on thought is an important part of both essays.
Solution: Bring in specific details and indicate why they are important.
Revised: Boroditsky argues about language’s influence on thought in abstract and fairly apolitical ways,
but Leonard’s unrealistic stance about the need to preserve minority languages at all costs reveals how
assumptions like Boroditsky’s easily lead to romanticizing of minority cultures that threatens to rob
individuals of the right to develop and change their cultures over time.
The grandiose generalization: Bures and Wasserstrom provide perfect sets of examples when they talk
about how people use products.
Solution: Avoid extreme value judgments -- stick to points you can argue for persuasively.
Revised: The analysis of product usage in both essays emphasizes that people will adapt products to local
uses; however, Bures reveals that there are limits to what consumers are willing and able to modify,
suggesting that products must be able to fill some need of the local culture fairly easily or they will not be
embraced.
Schaaf WR 98
Body Paragraphs
*Each paragraph should enable you to develop or refine an idea introduced in the previous paragraph.
*Remember that no quotation should stand alone. Introduce the quotation and comment on it; in this way,
you explain its relevance to your point.
*Structure your paper so that you do not just have a list of points, but a logical progression. If you find
yourself starting paragraphs with terms such as “Also” “In addition” or “Another . . .” it is often a signal
that you have a list rather than an argument and need to think about deeper connections.
*No paragraph should be longer than a page, double-spaced.
*Figure out an order of paragraphs that makes your argument as persuasively as possible.
*In your conclusion, restate your claim but also expand your ideas further and/or suggest some questions
for further consideration or research.
Guidelines: Making Comparisons
*All comparisons are clearer and stronger if they have a purpose beyond comparison itself.
*Avoid just describing similarities and/or differences for the sake of doing so (and basically making a
list) – write about the two essays in service of a specific claim.
Some Types of Comparisons
*Similarity against a background of difference to reveal a specific point about an issue
Start with a clear foundation of similarity but then identify a significant difference and explain what that
difference reveals about a specific issue.
*Difference against a background of similarity to reveal a specific point about an issue
Start with a clear difference but then identify a significant similarity and explain what that similarity
reveals about a specific issue.
Note: It is also possible in an introduction to have three steps and move from similarity to difference to a
more specific or deeper similarity OR to move from difference to similarity to a more specific difference,
but often this works more effectively in a longer paper. You need to be careful that you don’t confuse
readers with too many shifts in ideas.
*Using one text as a lens to reveal aspects of the other that would otherwise not be as obvious
Use a claim, concept, or theory from one text in order to interpret another text.
*Using both texts as lenses to reveal aspects of each other that would not otherwise be obvious
Use claims, concepts, or theories from each text as a way of interpreting the other text.
*Reframe the debate
If two texts take stances that are somewhat opposed, you can reframe their debate by suggesting what
they are both missing and/or by arguing that they are both focusing on the wrong problem or issue or on a
method of analyzing that issue that is not as useful as another approach you will use.
*Combining forces
Argue specifically why stances, claims, or aspects of both essays are needed to develop a reliable picture
of the issue you are discussing – explain how each essay supplies what is missing in the other.