Supplementary Information

To synthesize interpretations of different literary works and develop an understanding of political and aesthetic movements that contributed to their writing.

This assignment requires you to choose two different works from the course syllabus and to write a comparison/contrast essay about these two works. The key to a successful comparison/contrast essay is to organize carefully and to pay close attention to similarities as well as differences between the two works.

Be sure to develop a clear and arguable thesis that addresses a key difference or similarity between the two works and to organize your argument around sub-topics that contribute to your thesis.

You may choose from the following topics or choose one of your own (though, please, talk with me about the topic before you start writing the paper if you are choosing your own topic):

• Gender—Gender relations have changed a great deal between the time of the works we are studying and the present day. Explain how gender has changed between the two chosen works. Consider overt statements about gender in the chosen works as well as more implicit depictions of gender difference.

• Empiricism—How do we know what we know? The concept of reality has changed dramatically over the past two hundred years. Explain what empiricism is, and compare and contrast works of two empiricist or post-empiricist writers. How do they verify the truth of their observations?

• Romanticism—The early nineteenth century introduced us to a new fascination with the more mysterious workings of the human soul. Compare two works that have romanticist qualities. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a new subject-oriented definition of reality?

• Americanism—Analyze efforts to identify a single, unified American identity (or to create such an identity) in literature. Inevitably, different writers will define America in different ways. You may wish to explain the deep-rooted philosophical differences underlying such disagreements, or you may choose instead to address the consequences of such disagreements.

• Puritanism—Identify this religious and philosophical orientation and explain its influence in two different works of literature. Is a common Puritan origin the defining feature of American literature, or is that too narrow an interpretation of American literature?

• Abolitionism—The argument about slavery dominates many areas of literature leading up to the Civil War. Examine this debate in two different works. How do conflicting understandings of free will and cultural difference influence this debate?

1. Choose a topic from the above list and two works that genuinely interest you and that have connections that you can work with.

2. Read through the works again and take notes on their similarities and differences.

3. Formulate a preliminary thesis about these works and the relationship with the chosen topic.

4. Break that thesis down into between two and four subtopics that are likewise arguable (three, of course, is the standard number of subtopics). Think about the most logical arrangement of subtopics for the structure of you argument.

5. Write a draft of your argument. Go back and reconsider your thesis statement. Revise it.

6. Bring the draft to class on December 6 for peer-editing. If you cannot attend class on that day, let me know. You can regain some of the points lost to an absence on peer-editing day if you can exchange papers with another classmate and edit it before turning in the final draft.

7. Be sure to include a Works Cited List on the last page of the paper.

8. Be sure the paper is at least six pages long. Six pages is the absolute minimum length, and papers under six pages will lose some points. That is, please write six full pages of text (not six pieces of paper with some writing on them).

9. Revise and proofread the paper over the weekend and turn in the final draft on December 11.

I have based many of these tips on my comments to you on your previous papers.

1. In most cases, you first thesis statement will not be arguable enough. Keep revising it until you have a statement that truly arguable and truly interesting. Do not hesitate to revise it after you have written a complete draft of the paper. The thesis statement should directly address your two chosen works.

   Examples:

   FIRST TRY: Coming of age is not an easy thing to do.

   SECOND TRY-NOT THERE YET: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a boy who comes of age, whereas Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie is about a woman who comes of age.

   A GOOD THESIS: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie are both typically American tales of the coming of age, but Dreiser's novel does not allow its main character to define herself the way Huck Finn does, because Dreiser is part of the naturalist tradition.

   Notice the evolution from an overly general, though accurate, statement about the two works to a statement about the difference between the two works to a precise explanation of how these books compare.

2. Instead of covering a pre-established set of points, organize your paper around the thesis statement. Consider the following outline for an argument supporting the above thesis:

   THESIS: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie are both typically American tales of the coming of age, but Dreiser's novel does not allow its main character to define herself the way Huck Finn does, because Dreiser is part of the naturalist tradition.

   1. America thought of itself as a country that had recently come of age, and Twain's and Dreiser's novels both recreate that movement in the lives of their characters.

   2. The setting of Huck Finn's adventures is separate from civilization, whereas the setting of Sister Carrie immerses its characters in the community.

   3. Dreiser complicates the notion of free will that we find in Twain's novel, but still allows for the possibility of heroism in the character Carrie.

   I would then do my best to turn each of these subtopics into a unified paragraph with supporting evidence in the form of quotations. If a paragraph got too long, I might have to break it down into two paragraphs, but I would make careful use of transitional phrases to keep the logic clear to the reader.

3. Follow standard paper format:

   1. 1-inch margins.
   2. Pages numbered in the upper right-hand corner with your last name (use the header function).
   3. 12-point standard font (Times, Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Garamond, etc.). Unconventional fonts are needlessly distracting.
   4. The first page of the paper should include your name, the course number (English 3563), my name (Prof. Schwetman), and the date in the upper right-hand corner (do not use the header function for this). Next, center you paper's title (you can use a larger font for this) and then begin writing. A separate title page is not necessary.

4. Follow MLA format when using quotations or paraphrases to support the argument:

   1. Use blended quotations for quotations under four lines and block quotations for quotations over four lines. Remember the tricky punctuation rules for each type of quotation. If you have questions about this, ask me or look it up in a style manual such as Keys for Writers.

   2. Write a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. The last name of the author comes first, then the title of the selection. Then, if applicable, the title of the book in which you found the work (i. e.: The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol I). Notice that I italicize the name of a book whenever I mention it.

      Examples:

      Brown, Charles Brockden. 1799. Edgar Huntly: Or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker.
           New York: Penguin, 1988.

      Wheatley, Phillis. 1773. "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth,
           His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North-America &c." The
           Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol I. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton,
           Mifflin, 1998. pp. 1099-1100.

      NOTE: Preserving correct indentation for a bibliography on a web page is next to impossible. Please consult the hard copy of the assignment sheet to be sure.

      Alphabetize works cited according to the author's last name. The year of original publication after the author's name in the above two examples is optional, but the year of publication after the publisher is required. There are many other rules for MLA format for peculiar instances that will come up, but the above two examples should serve as useful models for the vast majority of cases for this class. Do not hesitate to look this up.

5. Grammar points:

   1. Avoid the passive voice whenever possible.

      PASSIVE VOICE: Ichabod Crane was chased out of Sleepy Hollow.

      ACTIVE VOICE: The Headless Horseman chased Ichabod Crane out of Sleepy Hollow.

      Notice that the passive voice sentence does not tell us who chased Ichabod out. Leaving out the subject makes the sentence less interesting, and doing so repeatedly will bore your readers.

   2. Avoid contractions in academic writing. Contractions say "casual" and academic work tends to be more serious. The same rule applies to business letters. So, replace they're with they are and replace don't with do not (just two among many examples of contractions).

   3. A grammatically complete sentence has at least one subject and one verb. If it is missing a subject or a verb, it is a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, but only if you mean to use them.

   4. Comma rules are complicated, so look them up in a style manual if you had trouble with them on the previous paper. A comma splice is what happens when you try to separate two grammatically complete sentences with only a comma. Comma splices are bad. Avoid them.

      Example:

      WRONG: I hope it starts snowing soon, snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

      See that poor little comma? It is just dying under the strain.

      CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon, because snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

      ALSO CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon. Snow would make Duluth so much prettier.

   5. The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it.

In grading this assignment, I will use the following criteria. Late papers will lose points according to how late they are. Papers under seven pages long will lose points as well. In other words, consider six pages (not counting the Works Cited list) the bare minimum.