English Composition II
Susan Arvay
Comparison vs. Connection
The main purpose of any research paper in any field is to create and share new knowledge about a subject. As a researcher, you teach yourself new things about your subject through the process of discovering and applying new facts and ideas to whatever you’re studying; as a writer you share that new knowledge with other interested readers who can then use what you’ve written to create their own new knowledge by applying your ideas and insights to their own research topics. It’s this cycle of researching > creating > sharing that drives every field of inquiry, no matter what you may go on to study.
In order for your research paper to create new knowledge, you need to make sure you’re moving beyond just comparing the texts.
- A comparison between two texts, A and B, puts them side-by-side without generatingnew knowledge—the result is "A and B are similar" or "A and B are different."
- A connection between texts actually creates an encounter between their ideas or examples in a way that produces some kind of new understanding.
Here’s an example of a comparison that points out a similarity:
Both Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlequin in Ellison’s short story “‘Repent Harelquin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” act as heroes fighting against oppression in their respective societies. King recognized that “[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (491), and so when he saw injustice happening in the streets of Birminghamhe took direct action to confront it. Through acts of civil disobedience, such as lunch counter sit-ins, King and his supporters challenged the powers-that-be to change the way African –American citizens were treated. In Ellison’s story, the Harlequin also acts as a hero who opposes the injustice of the Ticktockman’s rules and regulations through civil disobedience, such as when he dumped jelly beans onto the public walkway, causing it to jam up and making everyone seven minutes late. In both instances, we see how one person’s decision to stand up to oppression can lead to a more just society for everyone.
Jot down here your thoughts about what this paragraph is accomplishing:
Now here’s an example of a connection between King and Ellison:
At first glance, the Harlequin may seem like a mere clown with his colorful outfit and the pranks that he pulls. For example, early in the story he buzzes a pedestrian walkway in his air-boat “and---inserting his thumbs in his ears—he stuck out his tongue, rolled his eyes and went wugga-wugga-wugga. It was a minor diversion. One pedestrian skittered and tumbled, sending parcels everywhichway, another wet herself, a third keeled slantwise and the walk was stopped automatically by the servitors till she could be resuscitated. It was a minor diversion”(365). Yet these “minor diversions” are an effective means for bringing about social change because they create what Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” calls “a type of constructive, non-violent tension which is necessary for growth” (492). King perceived that tension, which most people think of as inherently bad, can sometimes produce desirable results if it’s the right kind of tension—the kind that motivates people to question and change things, not the kind that provokes people to violence. In the context of the Civil Rights movement, King observed that society needs “nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood” (492). Although the types of injustice in the US South and Ellison’s fictional city are very different, King’s idea about nonviolent tension helps us to understand how one lone “clown” could so thoroughly upset an entire highly regimented social order. The Harlequin is an example of a “nonviolent gadfly” whose disruptive “diversions” cause the rest of the population to snap out of their robot-like existences and break the rigid schedule of the Ticktockman.
Jot down here your thoughts about what this paragraph is accomplishing:
Now I’d like you to take any one of your secondary sources and draft a paragraph that makes a connection between that source and your primary text. I’ll be happy to discuss this with you one-on-one as you work on it. I will collect your paragraph at the end of class.