Compare & Contrast

“Dover Beach”

&

“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”

Four Steps for Effective Essay Writing

1. Discover your point, and advance a clear thesis statement.

2. Support your thesis with specific evidence.

3. Organize & connect your specific evidence.

4. Revise, edit, and proofread your essay.

Writing with Purpose

• Make a point (thesis) and then defend, explain, illustrate, or prove that point.

• Formula: topic + intention to compare and / or contrast + suggestion or statement of outcome / discovery gained from comparing and / or contrast.

• You may both compare and contrast if you like – ex: one similarities but two or three differences. OR, you may take a real stand and not sit on the fence – focusing solely on either similarities or differences.

Direct Quotations

• Use 5-8 direct quotes from the poems --- words, phrases, complete lines.

• Cite properly (poet’s name and line number IN the body of the essay).

• Works Cited page (use the Echoes textbooks that I supply and find the proper category on Citation Machine).

• Be sure to “work the quotes in”, “talk about” them, “set them up”, discuss them.– In the middle of the first stanza, Arnold introduces the

suggestion of conflict, and it’s from this point that the mood changes: “Only, from the long line of spray / Where the sea meets the moon-blanced land, / Listen! you hear the grating roar (Arnold, lines 7-9).

Goal

• In this case, I will want to see a) evidence of your understanding of the two poems b) a thesis statement c) support for the thesis statement (which must include a combination of YOUR ideas about the poem & direct quotations from the poetry).

• Fill out the essay map first. You will receive a mark of 5 on the map.

Topic Sentences

• In a paragraph, every sentence serves a purpose. The first is the topic sentence; it states the point of the paragraph. The point is the specific topic and your viewpoint on it. When you write your point in the topic sentence, you give a compressed version of your whole paragraph. It previews what will come in the rest of the paragraph.– Ex: Arnold begins his poem with light imagery and,

thus, a positive mood is established.• The rest of the paragraph will “discuss” this, weaving in

examples (which you get from your questions & answers and from your understanding of this topic, given our discussions).

Support

• The support in the sentences in the body of the paragraph is specific. The meaning is unified (in this paragraph) because each piece of support relates back to the single point of the topic sentence.

• This is where you share your understanding by “talking about” this particular thing about the poem and also where you weave in some direct quotes.

Methods of Development

• We have agreed that the two poems have a valid basis for comparison or contrast

• Develop a viewpoint about what you are comparing. In other words, decide what point you wish to make, what you have learned as you focus on similarities or differences. Suggestions: Is one poet more optimistic than the other? Does one use the contrast between light and dark more effectively? Is one poet using a better imagery to create meaning? Are they very alike? If so, in what ways?

Structure

• You have a choice: side-by-side or point-by-point.• Side by side means one side at a time – so, in this case,

you would look entirely at one poem (all things you want to say about it) and then transition to the other poem. So, two paragraphs on one poem and two paragraphs on the other. When you are looking at the one you chose to do second, you would be making comparisons or contrasts to the first one you looked at.

• Point-by-Point: with this structure, you would choose four “things” to look at (maybe imagery, diction, tone, mood, figures of speech) and write one paragraph for each, covering EACH poem in each section.

So, now, practice!

• With your group, use the piece of paper I am giving you, I am writing the thesis, your group will write a topic sentence and bullet supporting details (which includes direct quotes) for ONE paragraph in the essay that we are writing as a group. We will write the conclusion together, when we piece the essay together.

Practice Topic

Compare and contrast the two female Victorian poets we’ve studied: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson.

Thesis: Barrett Browning and Dickinson are alike in that both exhibit a sense of humor in their poetry, but, otherwise, they seem very different in two key ways: Barrett Browning’s style was similar to those of her contemporaries, whereas Dickinson was very unconventional, and whereas Barrett Browning wrote about social injustices, Dickinson avoided issues and focused on the individual.