Debra Bronstein
English 1A
Take-home Essay: Comparison/Contrast
Essay Due Thursday 11/1 at the beginning of class
Please write a 5-page essay on one of the following prompts. The paper should be typed
in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
Note: All essays should examine how the author uses certain rhetorical techniques in
order to drive his argument home (the how). All essays should analyze those techniques
in relation to what the author is saying (the what) and the author’s purpose (the why). All
essays should include quotes from the text and analysis of those quotes. This is what will
move our essays away from the summary writing we were doing earlier in the semester.
Prompt:
Write a comparison/ contrast paper in which you analyze the role of the sovereign and the
type of government the sovereign will sanction in one of the following groupings of texts:
 Lao-Tzu’s “Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching) and Machiavelli’s “The Quality of
the Prince,”
 Machiavelli’s “The Quality of the Prince,” and Jefferson’s “The Declaration of
Independence”
 Rousseau’s “ The Origin of Civil Society” and Jefferson’s “The Declaration of
Independence.”
Which type of relationship between the sovereign and the citizens do you find to be the
most effective/plausible and why?
Process:
In order to answer this prompt, you will need to follow the format for
comparison/contrast that we discussed in class. You will need to address the texts in the
order I have placed them (for example, Lao-Tzu must be in the first half of the essay and
Machiavelli in the second, otherwise this essay would be anachronistic). You will need a
thesis paragraph that explains the main argument of Lao-Tzu’s text and connect that to
(by means of comparison and/or contrast) the main argument of Machiavelli’s text. You
will then need to address how each author uses rhetorical techniques to drive his point
home and will wrap the paragraph up with the Why: what is the purpose of these
text/what is the author trying to convince you of? The last sentence of the thesis
paragraph will address which viewpoint you find most compelling and why;
however, you may NOT use I in this sentence, or anywhere else in the essay. Instead,
state, “Machiavelli’s argument is more compelling because it is more realistic” (or
whatever you believe). In your essay, the last sentence of the thesis paragraph will
become the basis for the conclusion of your essay.
Note: If you are writing on Rousseau and Jefferson, then it won’t be a true
comparison/contrast paper. Instead, it will be an explication of Rouseau (leading up to the
formation of a social compact), and then you’ll need to show how Jefferson builds upon
that/extends the argument when he discusses what must be done if the ruler in place is an
unjust ruler.