Karen Gaffney
English Composition I
Essay #1 Assignment
ADD DATE
 Bring 3 printed copies of your draft of Essay #1 for peer workshop
 If you do not bring your rough draft or if you skip the peer workshop, your Essay
grade will be lowered a full letter grade, and you will lose the opportunity to revise.
ADD DATE
 Essay #1 due
 When you submit Essay #1, it should be in a folder with the following: peer
workshop sheets, rough drafts from peer workshop, rough draft with my comments,
and any other handouts from class related to the paper.
 Please mark your final draft “FINAL” so I know which version to grade.
 The final draft should meet the following criteria: 4-5 pages, double-spaced,
word-processed, proofread, spell-checked, 1 inch margins, Times New Roman,
font size 12, page numbers, in-text citation MLA style, with a Works Cited page
(this page does not count toward the page requirement).
 For every day you hand your paper in late, the essay’s grade will drop a full letter
grade, and you will lose the opportunity to revise.
Purpose of the essay:
In your first in-class essay, you had the opportunity to create an argument responding to one essay read for
class. In your first out-of-class essay, you’ll take this process a step further; you will have the opportunity to
create an argument analyzing a relationship you see between two essays read for class.
You may choose any two essays read for class so far: Hacker and Dreifus, Ungar, Addison, Carey, Murray,
and Rose.
While this essay is considered a “comparison/contrast” essay, that name can sometimes be misleading. Keep
in mind that your thesis, and your essay, should be an argument. Often, the term “comparison/contrast”
leads to an essay describing the similarities and differences between two texts; that is not an argument.
Instead, an argument would be an analysis of the relationship between the two texts. It can often help to
think about this assignment as either arguing that two texts that appear to be similar are in fact different or
that two texts that appear to be different are in fact similar.
Listed below are some sample thesis statements that would appropriately respond to this assignment:
 Even though Author A and Author B both address ______, Author A provides a more convincing
argument due to ________ (points of comparison).
 Even though Author A and Author B take two different approaches to ________, they are actually in
agreement about the important idea that ________. This common ground becomes clear through
__________ (points of comparison).
 Even though it might appear that Author A and Author B agree that ______, on a closer look, they
actually disagree about the important idea that ________, seen through _______ (points of
comparison).
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Important things to keep in mind:
 When you think about your areas of support, think about them as points of comparison. This will
help keep your analysis of each essay parallel. For example, imagine that you’re arguing that Ungar
provides a more effective and convincing argument than Hacker and Dreifus. One of your areas of
support might be that Ungar’s evidence is stronger. You would then need to explain in detail how his
evidence is stronger, and you should give examples of his effective evidence and explain why it is
effective. Likewise, you would also need to explain how Hacker and Dreifus’s evidence is not
effective, and you should provide examples of their weak evidence. This area of support, the
evidence in the essays, becomes a point of comparison because you are analyzing that point in both
essays. All of your areas of support should be points of comparison that you can discuss for both
essays; otherwise you will not be able to support your argument. If you are talking about why one
essay is weak because it lacks something, give an example from the essay of that lack and explain
why it’s a problem and how it could have been improved.
 Your thesis should not state the obvious because that is not an argument. Your thesis should be
arguable; someone else should hypothetically be able to disagree with it.
 Your reader has read the two essays you are discussing, but your reader has not analyzed them in the
depth that you have. Therefore, you do not need provide too much summary.
 Your topic sentences should introduce your point of comparison and link to your argument. If your
topic sentence states a fact, then it is easy to fall into the trap of summarizing throughout the whole
paragraph, rather than analyzing.
 You may weave in personal experience if you feel that it would strengthen your argument. However,
the focus of your essay should be on analyzing a relationship between the two texts.
 Make sure you are bringing in quotes from the essays and analyzing those quotes in depth. Talk
about the writer’s word choice and tone and how they relate to the effectiveness of the essay.
 It is probably to your advantage to discuss 3 points of comparison. Two points are probably not
enough, and four is probably too many.
 Don’t forget the basics: clear thesis that states your argument and points of comparison; thorough
introduction and conclusion; logical organization with topic sentences and transitions, and detailed
and well analyzed support.
 Feel free to use “I.”
 Use proper MLA style for in-text citation and your Works Cited page. In-text citation requires that
every time you quote from the book, put the author’s name and page number in parentheses.
The author wants the reader to recognize that “The community college system is America’s hidden
public service gem” (Addison 213).
 You should include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper that lists the two articles you are
using. Here is a sample entry:
Addison, Liz. “Two Years Are Better Than Four.” They Say/I Say with Readings. 2nd ed. Eds. Gerald Graff,
Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 211-214. Print.

Organization of this essay is very important. In general, it is most effective to be able to go back and
forth between your two authors. If you spend the first half of your paper discussing one and the
second half discussing the other, it makes it difficult for your reader to follow your argument, and it
makes it harder for you to connect the two texts together. Therefore, I recommend that you discuss
one point of comparison at a time, going back and forth between each author. The following page
provides one example of an effective organizational strategy.
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Karen Gaffney
Suggested Outline for Essay #1 (English I)
INTRODUCTION
● Start your introduction with some general comments (do
not dive into your thesis right away).
● Put your thesis at the end of the introduction
● Sample thesis: Even though Miller and Williams both blame the
media for women’s obsession with body image, Miller provides a more
convincing argument due to her use of personal experience, her wellresearched examples of the media’s role, and her proposed solution.
SUPPORT PARAGRAPHS
● Analyze how Miller’s use of personal experience can help
persuade the reader that the media is to blame for women’s obsession
with body image.
● Analyze how Williams’ use of personal experience (or lack
thereof) prevents his argument from persuading the reader.
● Analyze how Miller’s well-researched examples can help persuade
the reader that the media is to blame.
● Analyze how Williams’ poorly researched examples or lack of
researched examples prevents his argument from persuading the
reader.
● Analyze how Miller’s solution can help persuade the reader that the
media is to blame.

Analyze how Williams’ inadequate solution or lack of solution
prevents his argument from persuading the reader.
CONCLUSION
● Start specific and get more general
● Summarize your main idea(s)
● Suggest other directions for analysis
Note: Miller and Williams are not authors we have read for class; their names are used solely as an example.
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