ENGL 101/A: Introduction to College Writing
Instructor: Matthew Decker
Essay #5: Comparison and Contrast w/ Documentation (150 points)
Essay Prompt:
Student life can be hectic, and, when you finally discover free time in your schedule, reading for fun or personal enlightenment may not be at the top of your list. However, whether you are aware of it or not, you are always reading. You are always making sense of letters and digesting words and immersing yourself in ideas.
Think about the last article you read, for instance. How did you find this article? Did a friend share it on Facebook? Did a celebrity tweet about it? Do you happen to remember theauthor of the article, or where it was published? Did you, at any point during your reading process, question the authenticity of what you just read? In other words, was the article "fake news"?
In the last year or so, you've become familiar with this phrase. President Donald Trump often accuses the media and major news outlets of proliferating fake news. There are also numerous individuals and websites that treat fake news as an art form, creating false stories to provoke readers, earn ad revenue, or spout hate speech. Finally, countless casual and avid readers are duped every day by a fake news headline that they then share with peers.
For our final assignment of the semester, I would like you to build a comparison between two articles—one fake and one authentic. I have provided five topics complete with paired articles below for you to read and then choose from for this assignment. Using our recent class conversations as well as the MC Library's “How Can News Be Fake?” Research Guide, you must argue which one of your selected paired sources is fake and provide three supporting points to defend your claim.Comparing the weaknesses of the fake source to the strengths of the authentic source should help you select your supporting points too.
· Topic Areas (Choose 1 Topic Area.):
o American Politics – Two articles about Trump and Clinton and ISIS.
§ http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/moab-trump-afghanistan/
§ http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/isis-leader-calls-for-american-muslim-voters-to-support-hillary-clinton/
o American Politics 2.0 – Two articles about Trump and the Wall.
§ http://nbc.com.co/trump-to-build-wall-out-of-homes-for-veterans/
§ http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/trump-s-border-wall-catastrophic-environment-endangered-species-activists-n748446
o Bizarre News Stories –Two articles that share unusual news.
§ http://www.celebtricity.com/daycare-busted-running-toddler-fightclub-parents-outraged/
§ http://www.livescience.com/58807-recall-hash-browns-golf-balls.html
o Muslim and American Relations – Two articles that explore xenophobia.
§ http://time.com/4715966/virginia-muslim-family-hate-crime/
§ http://www.usanewsflash.com/muslim-family-arrested-keeping-white-couple-slaves/
o Nature – Two articles about animal poaching.
§ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-39545186
§ http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/zimbabwe-pride-of-lions-kills-5-poachers-and-injures-3-others/
What will I be looking for?
· Consistent awareness of purpose and audience
· Your paper should be controlled by the blueprint thesis (or a thesis that presents your main idea and subtopics that will appear in your body paragraphs).
o Your paper must forward an arguable purpose. You should logically and succinctly present that purpose/claim in the thesis of your essay and develop it throughout.
o Your paper must compare and contrast two of these articles according to at least three points of comparison (your three subtopics). You will use these three points to structure the development of three body paragraphs.
§ Detailed description and examples from the articles should be employed to develop the similarities and differences you recognize between them.
· Varied sentence structure (This means you shouldn’t write the same type of sentence over and over again. I’m looking for variety and style.). Be sure to avoid sentence fragments, run-ons, dangling modifiers, mixed constructions, use of the passive voice, and other previously discussed grammar snags.
· Organization and flow. Your paper should flow logically from one sentence to another and from one paragraph to another without choppiness issues or awkward jumps in topic. You should be mindful of paragraph coherence by incorporating conjunctive adverbs, transitional phrases, and repetition and restatement for clarity (see Rules for Writers pgs. 314-315 or Section 34b).
o Strong, seamless transition sentences must connect each body paragraph (see Rules for Writers pgs. 59-64 or Sections 3d-3e).
· This essay requires documentation. You must appropriately summarize, quote, and paraphrase the two articles you have chosen to compare/contrast. You must also provide a properly-formatted MLA Works Cited page.
· Your paper should be proofread before it is turned in. There should be little to no distracting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
Length: 3-4 double-spaced pages in MLA document format + Works Cited
Due Date for Early Peer Review: May 2nd (Have an electronic copy of your paper accessible.)
Due Date for Final Essay: May 9th, 2017 before 5 PM
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Useful Tips and Templates!
Use Strong Transitions for the Comparison and Contrast Essay: like, unlike, same as, more, different from, similar to, similarly, less, likewise, whereas, and, as well as, however, also, too, but, just as, as do, as did, as does, as opposed to, both, on the other hand, in addition, instead of, another difference between, despite these differences, despite these similarities
· Both X and Y deal with the subject of Z, and both of their stories do M.
· Z and Y write stories that make similar claims about R, but with the difference that
· Where X does A, Y does B.
· Like X, Y ACTIVE VERB
· X does A; however, Y prefers B.
· Instead of taking X’s approach, Y does ACTIVE VERB