Austin Community College

ITV English 1301 Composition I

Assignments

Paper 3

See deadlines for this paper in the Key Dates link.

Write a textual analysis/evaluation of 850 words minimum. In this paper, you will compare the effectiveness of two published essays, considering each essay’s primary purpose/aim, chief method of development (mode), target audience, and other qualities (see list below).

Choose the two published essays from the list of published essays in the Detailed Contents, pages xviii and xix. Choose TWO essays from ONE of the Aims categories, Expressive, Referential, or Persuasive. In this essay, you will practice MLA style documentation. You’ll include in-text citations after quotes and paraphrases, and a Works Cited (bibliography) page at the end of your paper.

Your essay should include discussion of the following for each published essay:

Primary purpose/aim

Chief method of development

Audience for which the essay seems to be intended (does the essay seem aimed at a specific gender, ethnic or social group, age group, economic or political group, readers with a certain level of education, readers who have a common experience, readers who live in a certain geographic area?)

Title and author of published essay

Secondary purposes/aims

Other methods of development used across the entire essay or in specific paragraphs

Types of evidence used (personal experience, researched evidence…there may be various categories of researched evidence, observation, anecdote)

Structure of essay

Affect of essay on reader, at least in key paragraphs

Essay’s working thesis, which may or may not be explicitly stated in essay

Essay’s key points

Hints: From the purpose/aim common to both of the published essays, consider which essay is the most effective. It may be that both essays are highly effective or moderately effective, or that neither essay is particularly effective. After a thesis statement of one or two sentences early in your paper that establishes the level of effectiveness of each essay, it is your task to analyze/evaluate specifically how each essay is effective or less than effective. You will do this in a discussion of other aspects of the essay, such as methods of development, organization, types of evidence.

Be sure to cite examples/quotes from the text for each point you make in your discussion. This will make your textual analysis clearer and also help your draft reach 850 words. Since this is a comparison-contrast essay, you may organize it in one of two ways. The first organization method establishes an aspect, discusses each published essay under that aspect, then moves to another aspect, discusses both essays, then moves to a third aspect, etc. The second method discusses one essay completely for all the aspects, then moves to the second essay, with some comparison to the first essay as you are discussing the second essay.

There is a sample Essay 3 posted at http://www2.austincc.edu/gbrownin/sample3.htm

Note that the C test asks you to do a similar analysis/evaluation, but with a single published essay rather than comparing two essays, so Paper 3 is practice for the C test.

Include in-text citations and a Works Cited page. The Works Cited page will have three entries, since you are citing two sources from an anthology (your reader). The entries will contain the following information:

When you quote or paraphrase from the text of one of the published essays, include an in-text citation at the end of the quote or paraphrase:

“Hollerith adopted a concept of using punched holes…for census-taking” (514).

The last page of Paper 3 will be a bibliography page titled Works Cited. It will have three entries, one for each of the published essays, and one for the book. An extra entry, for the book, is required when you use more than one article from an anthology like our textbook. Here is the format for those entries:

Each article entry should look like:

Article Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” First editor’s last name Page range of article.

Liu, Sophronia. “So, Tsi-fai.” Gong 508-511.

The book entry should look like:

Editors’ names, Last, First, and First Last, Ed. Book Title Underlined. Place published: Publisher, Year.

Gong, Gwendolyn, and Sam Dragga, ed. A Writer’s Repertoire. New York: Longman, 1995.

Put your entries in alphabetical order by the first word of the first line of each entry.

There is a sample Works Cited page on page 582 and a discussion of MLA-style documentation from 656-663. You should double-space your Works Cited page. You can find more extensive MLA-documentation help and a sample Works Cited page at the ACC library site,

http://library.austincc.edu/help/MLA/

A possible format for Paper 3 would be:

*Paragraph 1: Introduce each essay by author, title, and topic. The last one or two sentences should establish how effective each essay was in achieving its purpose.

*Paragraph 2: Move more specifically to the first essay. Provide quotes or examples from text to support your determination of the essay’s primary purpose. Note the essay’s working thesis, target audience, and chief method of organization. You may discuss secondary purposes at this point, or save that discussion for later in your essay.

*Paragraph 3: Analyze/evaluate effectiveness of chief method of organization. You may also discuss secondary methods of organization here, and possibly move to a discussion of how the method of organization influences the structure of the essay’s key points. Provide examples/quotes to support.

*Paragraphs 4, 5: Continue with analysis/evaluation of other aspects of essay. You may also include discussion of tone and style, other strengths and/or weaknesses of the essay. In discussing the aspects of the essay, don’t forget your focus on how effective the essay was. Again, provide quotes/examples to specifically support your evaluation.

*Paragraphs 6,7, 8: Move to second published essay. In discussing each aspect, compare with the first essay. Be sure to include quotes to make your points clear.

*Paragraph 9: Conclusion. If you can’t think of any other way to conclude, you might give the reader a recommendation on whether the published essays are worth seeking out to read.

Instructions for essay format: Your essays must be typed and double spaced. Use either a 10- or 12-point type with an unjustified right hand margin. Title your essays with a title that introduces the content of the essay (Do not title essays Essay 1). Do not put your title in quotation marks unless the title is a quotation. In the upper left hand margin of the essay’s first page, type your name, the assignment, my name, the date, as below:

John Smith

Essay 3

Professor Browning

Jan. 28, 2003

Include in-text citations in the text where you quote or paraphrase the published essays, and include a Works Cited page at the end of your essay.