English I Comp.

User Generated

znexp

Writing

Description

English Comp. I Unit 3

Discussion:

Instructions using the research you wrote on Gun Control answer the following question in minimum word count of 250 words.

1.Share your thesis statement and introductory paragraph that you will use for your final research paper in Unit 5. Give a reason why you chose this particular topic to write about.

Complete:

1.Write a 500-700 word compare and contrast essay on the topic of Christmas in other countries vs Christmas in the United States. APA format.

2.Answer following question using the ideas in the research paper you wrote on Gun Control.

Journal Entry:

Your journal entry must be a least 2 paragraphs. Please begin to brainstorm ideas for your final paper. What direction are you leaning? Why does this interest you? Do you have a good idea of what direction to go in terms of your research?

Unformatted Attachment Preview

English Comp. I Unit 3 Discussion: Instructions using the research you wrote on Gun Control answer the following question in minimum word count of 250 words. 1. Share your thesis statement and introductory paragraph that you will use for your final research paper in Unit 5. Give a reason why you chose this particular topic to write about. Complete: 1. Write a 500-700 word compare and contrast essay on the topic of Christmas in other countries vs Christmas in the United States. APA format. 2. Answer following question using the ideas in the research paper you wrote on Gun Control. Journal Entry: Your journal entry must be a least 2 paragraphs. Please begin to brainstorm ideas for your final paper. What direction are you leaning? Why does this interest you? Do you have a good idea of what direction to go in terms of your research? 181 C 12 Comparison and Contrast H R In his plays, William Shakespeare creates characters, families, and even plot lines that mirror each other. As a result, we see I Hamlet in relation to Laertes and the Montagues S in relation to the Capulets. In the process, we do precisely what the writer wants us to do—we compare and contrast T the subjects. The result is clarity and insight: by thinking aboutI both subjects in relation to each other, we understand each oneAmore clearly. But writers in college and in the workplace also use N To help you comparison/contrast as an analytical strategy. read and write such documents, the following , pages include instructions and four model essays. J A M I E Learning Outcomes ▶ Understand how to read carefully for comparecontrast strategies in essays. ▶ Structure subject-bysubject and trait-by-trait comparisons. Audio Audio Video Video Web Link ▶ Use details and transitional words to support and clarify compare-contrast claims. ▶ Practice revision and editing strategies that strengthen compare-contrast writing. ▶ Develop an essay that effectively uses comparecontrast strategies. 5 5 6 7 B U Visually Speaking Look closely at the photograph above. What does it suggest about how comparing and contrasting help explain a topic? Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 182 Analytical Writing ■ Reading Comparison-Contrast Writing When writers use compare-contrast, what should you as a reader look for? The instruction below will help you read essays like those that follow. Video Web Link Exercise Model Interactive Consider the rhetorical situation. Think about how a writer might use comparison-contrast to achieve her or his purpose, C address an audience, and analyze a topic. ■ Purpose: Writers compare and contrast subjects in order to understand their H similarities and differences. Their purpose may be to stress the similarities between R between things that seem quite similar. seemingly dissimilar things or the differences ■ Audience: A compare-contrast writer may I have virtually any reader in mind—the instructor for a student essay or potential S clients for a marketing document. Whatever the situation, the writer sees readers as people whose understanding of a topic, an issue, or a phenomenon can beTdeepened with comparative analysis. ■ Topics: Writers address a wide range ofItopics through compare-contrast: people, events, phenomena, technologies, problems, A products, stories, and so on. The writer simply thinks through what aspects of the topic may be illuminated through N comparison and/or contrast. , Consider the compare-contrast practices used. As you read an essay using compare-contrast, look for the following: J ■ Criteria Used for Comparison: Writers anchor their analyses in specific points of comparison. For example, a comparisonAof two characters in a play might focus on their backgrounds, their actions in the play, M their psychology, their fate, and so on. As you read, trace the features compared, thinking through the writer’s choices. I ■ Organization of the Comparison: Such writing is generally structured either Etopic fully and then the other) or trait by subject by subject (first dealing with one trait (holding up the topics side by side, feature by feature). ■ The Point of the Comparison: Writers use comparison to illuminate topics through 5 a key idea about connections and distinctions. Identify the essential insight of the comparison, whether the writer states it5at the beginning or leaves it to the end. 6 7 Reader’s Checklist B Is the goal to stress similarities, Why is the writer comparing these topics? differences, or both? How does the comparison speak to specific readers? U What features or traits of the topics are compared? Why? How does the writer present the topics and the criteria for comparison? What conclusion does the writer develop through analysis? Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 183 Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast Comparison and Contrast In the essay below, student writer Rachel De Smith analyzes characters from two novels by comparing and contrasting their history, cultures, experiences, and personalities. Essay Outline Introduction: Sethe and Orleanna as surprisingly similar characters 1. Living and isolation and loneliness C 2. Haunted by the past H 3. Grueling journeys of escape Conclusion: Sethe and Orleanna as sufferingRbut strong women The title identifies the topics compared and the traits examined. Introduction: two seemingly different characters share similar lives. 1 Both women live in isolation and loneliness. (a) Sethe (b) Orleanna I S T Sethe in Beloved and Orleanna in Poisonwood Bible: I Isolation, Children, and Getting Out A Kingsolver’s Orleanna Price seem to be vastly Toni Morrison’s Sethe and Barbara different women, living in different N times and cultures, descended from different races. One has had a faithful spouse forced away from her by circumstances; the other lives in a devastating marriage. One,is a former slave, while the other is a comparatively 1 well-off minister’s wife. However, these two women are more alike than they first appear. Both live in isolation and loneliness, both are haunted by the past, both risk J everything to get their children out of devastating circumstances—and both reap the consequences of such risks. A Sethe lives in house number 124, a house generally believed to be haunted, “full 2 M of a baby’s venom” (Morrison 3). The child’s ghost inhabiting the house throws things I appear, shakes floors, and stomps up the stairs. around, makes spots of colored light The people of the surrounding community—remembering Sethe’s past, fearing E ghostly retribution, and resenting the long-ago extravagance of Sethe’s mother-inlaw, Baby Suggs—diligently avoid the house and its residents. Sethe’s one remaining daughter, Denver, will not leave the5yard (Morrison 205). The two of them live with the ghost, ostracized. 5 but equally isolated situation. When she and 3 Orleanna lives in a less malignant her daughters follow her husband on 6 his zealous missionary trip to the Congo, she is the only white woman in a village of people with whom she shares nothing, not even a 7 word of their language. Preoccupied with the troubles in her own house, she remains separated from the villagers by a gulf B of cultural misunderstanding—from how to behave in the marketplace to where to get her drinking water (Kingsolver 89, 172). U Even when she returns to the United States, Orleanna lives in isolation, hidden among her flower gardens, set apart by the stigma of her past (Kingsolver 407). The cause of all this isolation, for both women, is the past. When Sethe saw a slave 4 catcher coming for her, she attempted to kill all four of her young children in order Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 184 Analytical Writing 2 Isolation for both women is rooted in a haunting past. (a) Sethe (b) Orleanna 3 Both women take journeys to escape. (a) Sethe (b) Orleanna to prevent them from becoming slaves (Morrison 149, 163). She succeeded in killing only her second-youngest, known as Beloved. No one went back to the plantation; Sethe went to jail instead. Years later, her two oldest children (sons) run off, unable to face the specter of their dead sister knocking over jars and leaving handprints in cakes. Beloved’s death is thus the defining moment not only for Sethe’s haunted life but also for Denver’s, Baby Suggs’, and, in many ways, the entire community’s. Orleanna, like Sethe, has lost aC child, though not by her own hand. Her youngest 5 daughter, Ruth May, died of snakebite after an ugly disagreement (involving much H shouting and plenty of voodoo) between the Price family and the rest of the village. R Orleanna is not immediately responsible for Ruth May’s death—in fact, she has recently brought the girl miraculously through a bout with malaria (Kingsolver 276). I However, Orleanna still feels tremendous guilt about Ruth May’s death, and even S of Orleanna’s narration, she attempts to move about being in Africa at all. In much past this guilt, periodically asking her T absent daughter’s forgiveness. Sethe, also hoping for reconciliation, explains herself in a similar way to Beloved. But Beloved seems to feed off of Sethe’s remorse, whereasIRuth May, as portrayed in the final chapter of the novel, bears no such ill-will. Ruth May A says, “Mother, you can still hold on but forgive, forgive . . . I forgive you, Mother” (Kingsolver 537, 543). Beloved continually punishes N Sethe for leaving her behind, but Ruth May is willing to forgive. Both Sethe and Orleanna endure , grueling journeys of escape, though the journeys 6 begin very differently. Sethe has spent a long time planning an escape with her fellow slaves. When the opportunity finally comes, Sethe sends her children on ahead and then follows, pausing on the way to J give birth to Denver. Oddly enough, the final stage of her journey to “freedom” seems to Abe her time in jail, an episode that kept her from going back to the Sweet Home plantation. However, even after Sethe leaves jail and M of the plantation, she cannot escape the stigma begins a life free from the degradations of her past, particularly Beloved’s violent death. I Orleanna’s journey, though also long-anticipated or at least long-desired, is a 7 spontaneous event. Following RuthEMay’s tragic death (the impetus for her journey), Orleanna simply walks away: her daughter Leah recalls that “Mother never once turned around to look over her shoulder” (Kinsolver 389). Their unplanned journey ends up 5 as a fiasco, culminating in malaria during the rainy season somewhere in the depths of the Congo, but all of Orleanna’s 5 remaining daughters survive. Though obvious differences exist between the deaths of Ruth May and Beloved, both deaths allow their 6 families some form of escape. In addition, Orleanna, like Sethe, is willing to give up 7 she sends Rachel with Eeben Axelroot and her children in order for them to escape; leaves Leah with Anatole when sheB and Adah leave the country for good. Orleanna’s actions parallel Sethe’s, as Sethe sends her children ahead of her (in escape or death) in U Orleanna sees very little of Rachel and Leah for order for them to leave the plantation. the rest of her life, but they have escaped the devastation of their lives in the Congo, or at least their lives under Nathan Price, and that is—or must be—enough for her. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast Conclusion: these two haunted characters are strong women who eventually move beyond guilt. 185 Sethe and Orleanna are both haunted women. The deaths of their daughters and 8 estrangement from their remaining children prevent these women from finding peace. Both are haunted by guilt—Sethe for her own actions in the murder of Beloved, and Orleanna for her complicity both in Ruth May’s death and in the chaos that enveloped the Congo at the same time. Both women are also isolated and lonely, distanced by distrust and misunderstanding from the people around them. And both women, in the long run, risk everything to gain freedom for their children. Distrust, rage, fear, C and bad dreams accompany that risk, but both women keep their children from the evil awaiting them—a plantation, H a father’s oppression. Paul D. questions Sethe on this point, wondering if other circumstances might be even worse than the plantation. R Sethe responds, “It ain’t my job to know what’s worse. It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what II know is terrible” (Morrison 165). Sethe is never able to achieve true reconciliationS with Beloved, but her relationships with Denver and Paul D. help to make up for this loss, while Orleanna is forgiven by Ruth May T with her other children. Despite the attendant and eventually reunited (albeit briefly) circumstances, both Sethe and Orleanna are revealed to be strong women, and both I eventually move past their paralyzing guilt in their efforts to “walk forward into the A light” (Kingsolver 543). N Note: The Works Cited page is not shown. For sample pages, see MLA (pages 526–527 , and APA (page 557). J A M Working by yourself or with a group, do the following: I 1. Review the title and opening paragraph, describe how the writer focuses her essay, Eintroduction well written. and explain why you do or do not find that Reading for Better Writing 2. A thesis is a type of contract in which the writers states what he or she will do in the essay. Review the writer’s thesis and explain 5 whether she does what she promises. 3. Select two paragraphs and explain why they 5 do or do not clarify the topic and develop the thesis. 6 4. Based on your reading of this essay, explain why you think that compare-contrast reasoning is or is not an effective strategy 7 for analyzing literature. 5. Explain why the writer’s voice is or is not B appropriate for this essay. For example is the voice informed or uninformed, objective U or manipulative, respectful or disrespectful? Cite passages that support your assessment. 6. Explain how you could use compare-contrast reasoning to complete specific writing assignments in your major, and describe why the strategy would be effective. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 186 Analytical Writing Comparison and Contrast Audio Video Gelareh Asayesh grew up in Iran before moving to Florida. She writes about her experiences in Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America. The article below appeared in the New York Model Web Link in November Exercise Times 2001. Interactive Shrouded C in Contradiction Two contrasting scenes appear in the first sentence. Italics distinguish hijab as a non-English word. Notice the one-sentence paragraph. I grew up wearing the miniskirt H to school, the veil to the mosque. In the Tehran of my childhood, women in bright sundresses shared the sidewalk with R women swathed in black. The tension between the two ways of life was palpable. I As a schoolgirl, I often cringed when my bare legs got leering or contemptuous glances.SYet, at times, I long As a schoolgirl, for the days when I could walk theT streets of my country I often cringed with the wind in my hair. When clothes were clothes. I when my In today’s Iran, whatever I wear sends a message. If it’s A bare legs got a chador, it embarrasses my Westernized relatives. If N leering or it’s a skimpy scarf, I risk being accused of stepping on the blood of the martyrs who died, in the war with Iraq. contemptuous Each time I return to Tehran, I wait until the last pos­ glances. sible moment, when my plane lands on the tarmac, to J don the scarf and long jacket that many Iranian women A wear in lieu of a veil. To wear hijab—Islamic covering—is to invite contradiction. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes IM value it. Most of the time, I don’t even notice it. It’s annoying, but so is wearing I pantyhose to work. It ruins my hair, but so does the humidity in Florida, where E I live. For many women, the veil is neither a symbol nor a statement. It’s simply what they wear, as their mothers did before them. Something to dry your face with after your ablutions before 5 prayer. A place for a toddler to hide when he’s feeling shy. Even for a woman like me, who wears it with a hint of rebellion, hijab 5 is just not that big a deal. 6 Except when it is. “Sister, what kind of get-up is7this?” a woman in black, one of a pair, asks me one summer day on the Caspian shore. B I am standing in line to ride a gondola up a mountain, where I’ll savor some ice cream along with vistas of sea and forest. U Women in chadors stand wilting in the heat, faces gleaming with sweat. Women in makeup and clunky heels wear knee-length jackets with pants, their hair daringly 1 2 3 4 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 187 Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast Contradictory feelings are pushed together in a compact list. The writer offers definitions of passion reflecting three different perspectives. The writer uses terms of limited certainty, such as perhaps and all I know. exposed beneath sheer scarves. None have been more daring than I. I’ve wound my scarf into a turban, leaving my neck bare to the breeze. The woman in black is a government employee paid to police public morals. “Fix your scarf at once!” she snaps. “But I’m hot,” I say. “You’re hot?” she exclaims. “Don’t C you think we all are?” I start unwinding my makeshift H turban. “The men aren’t hot,” I mutter. Her companion looks at me in shocked reproach. “Sister, this isn’t about men R and women,” she says, shaking her head. “This is about Islam.” I want to argue. I feel like Ia child. Defiant, but powerless. Burning with injustice,Sbut also with a hint The veil of shame. I do as I am told, feelingTacutely conscious of masks erotic the bare skin I am covering. In policing my sexuality, freedom, but I these women have made me more aware of it. A but its advocates its advocates The veil masks erotic freedom, believe hijab transcends the erotic—or N expands it. In believe “hijab” transcends the West, we think of passion as a,fever of the body, not the erotic—or the soul. In the East, Sufi poets used earthly passion as a metaphor; the beloved they celebrated was God. expands it. Where I come from, people areJmore likely to find delirious passion in the mosque than A in the bedroom. There are times when I feelM a hint of this passion. A few years after my encounter on the Caspian, I go to the wake of a family friend. Sitting in a mosque I in Mashhad, I grip a slippery black veil with one hand and a prayer book with Ethere’s a stack of Koranic texts decorated with the other. In the center of the hall, green-and-black calligraphy, a vase of white gladioluses and a large photograph of the dearly departed. Along the walls, 5 women wait quietly. From the men’s side of the mosque, the mullah’s voice rises in lament. His voice 5 is deep and plaintive, oddly compelling. I bow my head, sequestered in my veil 6 while at my side a community of women pray and weep with increasing abandon. I remember from girlhood this sense 7 of being exquisitely alone in the company of others. Sometimes I have cried Bas well, free to weep without having to offer an explanation. Perhaps they are right, those mystics who believe that physical U love is an obstacle to spiritual love; those architects of mosques who abstained from images of earthly life, decorating their work with geometric shapes that they 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 188 Analytical Writing The final line summarizes the contradictions described in the essay. believed freed the soul to slip from its worldly moorings. I do not aspire to such lofty sentiments. All I know is that such moments of passionate abandon, within the circle of invisibility created by the veil, offer an emotional catharsis every bit as potent as any sexual release. Outside, the rain pours from a sullen sky. I make my farewells and walk toward the car, where my driver waits. C My veil is wicking muddy water from the sidewalk. I gather up the wet andHgrimy folds with distaste, longing to be home, where I can cast off this curtain of cloth that gives with one hand, takes away with R the other. Reading for Better Writing 14 I S T I A N , Working by yourself or with a group, answer these questions: J organization to take a position on 1. Sometimes writers use comparison-contrast an issue—in some cases to show that one A side is better than the other, but in others, to show the difficulty of choosing one side over the other. What do you M think is Asayesh’s position on hijab, and why? I 2. Find Asayesh’s one-sentence paragraph (paragraph 3). Why might the writer have constructed the paragraph in thisE way? How would this excerpt differ if that sentence had been part of either the preceding or the following paragraph? 3. What contrasts are listed in paragraph 5 4? How does the writer use sentence structure and punctuation to mark the contrasts? 5 4. In paragraph 13, Asayesh uses words that indicate limited certainty, such as 6 perhaps and all I know. How do these phrases temper her claims? 7 sentences alike? How are these 5. In what ways are the opening and closing similarities significant for readers? B U Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 189 Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast Comparison and Contrast Shankar Vedantam is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a science reporter for The Washington Post, and the author of the recent book, The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives. In this essay, Vedantam analyzes how people judge others based on the shade of their skin. (The essay was published in the New York Times on January 18, 2010.) The writer uses an anecdote to introduce and illustrate his thesis. He asserts that research supports his thesis, but he cites no sources. He offers examples. He supports his point by referring to his colleague’s research. The writer distinguishes racism and colorism by comparing and contrasting the nature and effects of each. C H Shades of Prejudice R LAST week, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, found himself in trouble I for once suggesting that Barack Obama had a political edge over other AfricanAmerican candidates because he S was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Mr. T Reid was not expressing sadness but a gleeful opportunism that Americans were still judging one another by the color of I their skin, rather than—as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy we A commemorated on Monday, dreamed—by the content of their character. The Senate leader’s choice N of words was flawed, but positing that black candidates who look “less black”,have a leg up is hardly more controversial than saying wealthy people have an advantage in elections. Dozens of research studies have shown that skin tone and other racial features play powerful roles in who J gets ahead and who does not. These factors regularly determine who gets hired, who gets convicted and who gets A elected. Consider: Lighter-skinned Latinos M in the United States make $5,000 more on average than darker-skinned Latinos. The education test-score gap between I light-skinned and dark-skinned African-Americans is nearly as large as the gap E between whites and blacks. The Harvard neuroscientist Allen Counter has found that in Arizona, California and Texas, hundreds5of Mexican-American women have suffered mercury poisoning as a result of the use of skin-whitening creams. In India, 5 where I was born, a best-selling line of women’s cosmetics called Fair and Lovely 6 has recently been supplemented by a product aimed at men called Fair and 7 Handsome. This isn’t racism, per se: it’sBcolorism, an unconscious prejudice that isn’t focused on a single group like blacks so much as on blackness itself. Our brains, U shaped by culture and history, create intricate caste hierarchies that privilege those who are physically and culturally whiter and punish those who are darker. 1 2 3 4 5 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 190 Analytical Writing To support his claim, he gives an example and cites a study. The writer compares and contrasts how people are treated by the legal system. He cites a similarity and a difference. He compares colorism in the legal system with colorism in politics. To support his claim, he offers an example. Colorism is an intraracial problem as well as an interracial problem. Racial minorities who are alert to white-black or white-brown issues often remain silent about a colorism that asks “how black” or “how brown” someone is within their own communities. If colorism lives underground, C its effects are very real. Darker-skinned African-American defendants are more than twice as likely to receive the death H penalty as lighter-skinned African-American defendants for crimes of equivalent R This was proven in rigorous, peer-reviewed seriousness involving white victims. research into hundreds of capital I punishment-worthy cases by the Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt. S Take, for instance, two of Dr. Eberhadt’s murder cases, in Philadelphia, T involving black defendants—one light-skinned, the other dark. The lighter-skinned I defendant, Arthur Hawthorne, ransacked a drug store for money and narcotics. The pharmacist had complied with A every demand, yet Mr. Hawthorne shot him when he was lying face down. Mr.N Hawthorne was independently identified as the killer by multiple witnesses, a family member and an accomplice. , The darker-skinned defendant, Ernest Porter, pleaded not guilty to the murder of a beautician, a crime that he was linked to only through a circuitous chain of evidence. A central witness J later said that prosecutors forced him to finger Mr. Porter even though he was sure A that he was the wrong man. Two people who provided an alibi for Mr. Porter were mysteriously never called to testify. During M his trial, Mr. Porter revealed that the police had even gotten his name wrong—his I the court stuck to the wrong name in the real name was Theodore Wilson—but interest of convenience. E Both men were convicted. But the lighter-skinned Mr. Hawthorne was given a life sentence, while the dark-skinned Mr. Porter has spent more than a quarter5 century on Pennsylvania’s death row. Colorism also influenced the52008 presidential race. In an experiment that fall, Drew Westen, a psychologist6at Emory, and other researchers shot different versions of a political advertisement 7 in support of Mr. Obama. One version showed a light-skinned black family. Another version had the same script, but used a B darker-skinned black family. Voters, at an unconscious level, were less inclined U the ad featuring the darker-skinned family to support Mr. Obama after watching than were those who watched the ad with the lighter-skinned family. 6 7 8 9 10 11 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 191 Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast To restate his thesis and unify his essay, the writer refers to the anecdote used in the opening. Political operatives are certainly aware of this dynamic. During the campaign, a conservative group created attack ads linking Mr. Obama with Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit, which darkened Mr. Kilpatrick’s skin to have a more persuasive effect. Though there can be little doubt that as a candidate Mr. Obama faced voters’ conscious and unconscious prejudices, it is simultaneously true C that unconscious colorism subtly advantaged him over darker-skinned politicians. H In highlighting how Mr. Obama benefited from his links to whiteness, Harry R Obama’s election signaled the completion of Reid punctured the myth that Mr. the Rev. King’s dream. AmericansImay like to believe that we are now color-blind, that we can consciously choose not S to use race when making judgments about other people. It remains a worthy aspiration. But this belief rests on a profound T misunderstanding about how our minds work and perversely limits our ability to I discuss prejudice honestly. Reading for Better Writing 12 13 A N , J Working by yourself or with a group, answer these questions: A 1. Describe how Shankar Vedantam uses an anecdote to open and close his M find that strategy effective. essay. Then explain why you do or do not 2. The writer asserts that (a) colorism andI racism are different and that (b) colorism is both an intraracial problem E and an interracial problem. Explain what he means by each assertion and why you do or do not agree. 3. Review paragraphs 7–10 in which the writer compares and contrasts penalties meted out by the legal system.5Then explain why these passages do or do not develop his thesis. 5 4. Note how the writer uses dashes in paragraphs 8 and 9, and then explain 6 why that use is or is not correct. 7 5. In January 18, 2010, the writer published this essay in the New York Times. Bvoice is or is not appropriate for Cite words or sentences showing that his his subject and audience. U Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 192 Analytical Writing Comparison and Contrast Peter Baldwin, a history professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, has written a number of books, including The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike. In the essay below, adapted from that text, he compares and contrasts Europe and America. As you read the essay, use underlining or highlighting, as well as notes in the margin, to trace and respond to Baldwin’s compare-contrast thinking and writing. As you read the essay, use this column to record your observations and questions. C H The Likeness Across the Atlantic R The Atlantic gets ever wider. Not just in a physical sense, as oceans rise and I coastlines recede, but also in ideological terms. Europe and America appear to S before. On one shore, capitalist markets, be pitted against each other as never untempered by proper social policies, T allow unbridled competition, poverty, pollution, violence, class divides, and I social anomie. On the other side, Europe nurtures a social approach, a regulated labor market, and elaborate welfare A networks. Possibly it has a less dynamic economy, but it is a more solidaristic N model,” the voice of British left-liberalism, and harmonious society. “Our social , way, as opposed to “feral capitalism” in The Guardian, describes the European the United States. That major differences separate the United States from Europe is scarcely a J new idea. But it has become more menacingly Manichaean over the past decade. A Foreign-policy disagreements fuel it: Iraq, Iran, Israel, North Korea. So does the more general question of whatM role the world’s one remaining superpower should play while it still remains I unchallenged. Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment E for International Peace, has famously suggested that, when it comes to foreign policy, Americans and Europeans call different planets home. Americans wield hard power and face the nasty 5 choices that follow. Europeans, sheltered now from most geopolitical strife, 5 enjoy the luxury of approaching conflict in a more conciliatory way: Martian unilateralism confronts Venusian 6 multilateralism. But the dispute goes beyond diplomatic and military strategy. It touches on the nature of these two societies. 7 Does having the strongest battalions change the country that possesses them? B After all, America is not just militarily strong. It is also—compared with U Europe—harsh, violent, and sharp-elbowed. Or so goes the argument. 1 2 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast The idea that the North Atlantic is socioculturally parted is elaborated in both Europe and America for reasons that are as connected to domestic political needs and tactics as they are to any actual differences. American criticism of Europe, when it can be heard at all, typically concerns foreign policy or trade issues. American conservatives occasionally make the old Cas the excesses of the welfare state and continent a symbol for what they see statutory regulation. But the longstanding H European criticism of America has become more vehement and widespread and is now shared by right and left R alike. Europeans are keen to define an alternative to American hegemony, I now that Europe no longer needs the protection of the United States in a postcold-war world. Beset with internalSfractures and disagreements, they have rediscovered the truism that nothingTunites like a common enemy. A small library of books has beenIpublished over the past few years debating whether a sociocultural chasm separates (continental) Europe from the A (Anglo-) American barbarians. America’s unregulated capitalism is a danger N and sociologist Emmanuel Todd. The to Europe, warns the French historian , notion of a unified West has lost whatever meaning it once had, adds Claus Offe, a professor of political sociology at the Hertie School of Governance, in Berlin. A recent letter-writer to the Financial Times agrees, although placing J Britain on the side of the Continentals. A common language should not, this writer claims, obscure the distanceA between Britain and the United States: M Americans carry guns, execute prisoners, go bankrupt, drive large cars, and live in large houses. Their men are circumcised and their working class is poor. I The humanist and secular Europeans, E by contrast, enjoy socialist hospitals, schools, and welfare systems. They pay high taxes, live longer, and take the train. One ponders what unspoken motives inspire such letters. Andrei S. 5 politics and German studies at the Markovits, a professor of comparative University of Michigan at Ann Arbor5and author of one of the most interesting recent books on the subject, Uncouth 6 Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America (Princeton University Press, 2007), suggests that anti-Americanism helps fire 7 the engines of pan-European nationalism. Europeans have less in common than the aspiring empire builders ofBthe European Union would like. But at Ufrom the Americans. Or can they? least they can agree on being different 193 3 4 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 194 Analytical Writing Polemic and vituperation abound in the discussion of trans-Atlantic difference; caricature, rather than portrait, is the dominant genre. It is time to examine more closely what it is we do know. It is time, in other words, to bring a little empirical meat to the table. The evidence shows two things. First, Europe is not a coherent or unified C within even Western Europe is much continent. The spectrum of difference broader than normally appreciated. Second, with a few exceptions, the United H States fits into the average range of most quantifiable measures that I have R been able to find. We may therefore conclude either that there is no coherent I European identity, or—if there is one—that the United States is as much a S European country as the usual candidates are. We might rephrase this by saying that both Europe and the United T States are, in fact, parts of a common, big-tent grouping—call it the West,I the Atlantic community, the developed world, or what you will. America is not Sweden, for sure. But nor is Italy A Sweden, nor France, nor even Germany. And who says that Sweden is Europe, any more than Vermont is America?N Consider the following examples: 5 6 , Social welfare: As a portion of the total economy, American public social expenditures narrowly make it intoJthe European norm, sneaking in above Ireland. But because the AmericanA gross domestic product is greater than those of most European nations, the per capita spending is higher than M this rank suggests. In terms of how much money is paid out on average for I in the lower middle of the European each person, the United States ranks E spectrum, above most of the Mediterranean countries and Iceland and in the same league as Britain, the Netherlands, and Finland. Beyond that, a complete accounting 5 of welfare efforts cannot focus only on what the state does through social policy. Other avenues of redistribution 5 are also important: voluntary efforts, private but legally mandated benefits, and taxes. If we include all those, the6American welfare state is more extensive than is often realized. By taking account of all these components of social 7 welfare—public, voluntary, and mandatory—the total effort made in the B United States falls into the middle of the European spectrum. 7 Foreign travel: Americans are often thought to take little interest in the world around them, except perhaps when invading it. The paucity of Americans with passports is often held up as an indication of uninterest. Eighty-five 9 U 8 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast 195 percent of American tourism and travel is domestic. If it follows that 15 percent is international, then Americans join the company of the Greeks, Spaniards, and French, among whom, respectively, 12, 13, and 17 percent of holidays are taken abroad. And that does not take into account the distance needed to travel before the Great Abroad begins. That more than 99 percent of Luxembourgeois vacations of fourCnights or more were enjoyed outside the nation’s borders does not surprise; where H else could they possibly have been taken? Assuming that for a European to leave Europe is an effort roughly R analogous to that of an American leaving the United States, the figures I become more comparable. In 2006, 9.7 million Western Europeans visited the United States, and 13 million S Americans visited Europe. Thus, in the realm of travel, Americans were proportionally more interested in Europeans T than the other way around. The same I year, significantly more Americans (30 million) traveled overseas (other than to Mexico and Canada) than overseas A visitors came to the United States (22 million). N Reading, writing, and culture: Americans do not need to read, Simone , they do not think. Thinking is hard de Beauvoir was convinced, because to quantify, reading less so. And read the Americans do. There are more newspapers per head in the United J States than anywhere in Europe outside Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The circulation of American A newspapers is higher per capita than in most of the Mediterranean countries M States is also well equipped with and in Ireland and Belgium. The United I libraries. The long tradition of municipally supported public libraries in the United States means that average American readers are better supplied with E library books than their peers in Germany, Britain, France, Holland, Austria, and all the Mediterranean nations. Americans also make better use of those 5 public-library books than most Europeans do. Average Americans borrowed 5 peers in Germany, Austria, Norway, 6.4 books each in 2001, more than their Ireland, Luxembourg, France, and throughout the Mediterranean. And with 6 America’s amply endowed universities, 7 it is no surprise that the supply of books per capita in college libraries is higher than in any European country B other than Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Not content with borrowing, Americans also buy more books perU head than any European population for which we have numbers. Proportionately more Americans claim to read a book per month than anyone but the Swiss, Swedes, Germans, and Irish. And 10 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 196 Analytical Writing Americans write more books. Per capita, they come in at the high end of the European spectrum as authors, measured in terms of volumes in print. It is true that the American government spends less as a percentage of gross domestic product than almost any European government on what the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines as “recreation and culture,” though notCless than Greece and only a bit less than Britain and Ireland. Those figures,H it should be noted, include government payments to Europe’s established churches. American households spend more R on recreation and culture privately than any Europeans but the Icelanders, I the Austrians, and the British. Add state and private money together, and total American outlays on the finer S things in life fall in the upper half of the European middle ground. T In short, for most of the quantifiable I measures of socioeconomic reality, the divergence within Europe is greater than that between Europe and A the United States. Hand on heart, which cities more resemble each other: N Stockholm and Minneapolis or Helsinki and Thessaloniki? And as the , European Union widens eastward—possibly even to accept Turkey, a Muslim country mostly in Asia—the most recent newcomers (many from regions once called European Turkey, which were part of the Ottoman Empire) efface J many of the issues that do distinguish the United States from Europe. These A recent immigrants from Asia and new arrivals, along with Europe’s many Africa, are very religious, skepticalM of a strong state, unenthusiastic about voting, and allergic to high taxes. From I the vantage of old Europe, they are, in other words, more like Americans. E How odd, really, that Europeans seek to identify an enemy in a culture with which they have so much in common, just at the moment when they are being joined by ones with whom they actually share even less. How odd to5 turn their backs on a country which, like their own continent, espouses the 5 Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, democracy, liberalism, free but appropriately regulated 6 markets, and religious toleration. 7 Even a few minutes watching the Eurovision Song Contest strengthens B of relations that span the Atlantic and both a belief in the continued vitality U diverse to the point of incoherence. a belief in a hugely variegated Europe, This must be the nightmare that keeps the empire builders in Brussels awake at night: a vastly expanded Europe, stretching from Kamchatka to 11 12 13 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast the Azores, from the North Pole (now festooned with Danish flags and Russian submarines) to the Dead Sea, with its pidgin English lingua franca and droning, generic, ritual Europol incantations of “Hello Europe” even as the voting descends into unabashed tribalism. Imagine now that Europe’s voters were given a choice also between the Australians and the Serbs. With C their lot? Place your bets, ladies and whom would, say, the Norwegians cast gentlemen. H Of course, this choice will never be on offer. The world is too complicated R a place for the binary clumpishness of all-or-nothing alternatives between I America and Europe. Both sides of this particular divide would do well S the two slopes of their supposed to consider how proximate and similar conceptual chasm in fact are. Whether T American conservatives or Europeans, each enamored of their own reflection, I unless we break this spell of selfenchantment, we risk suffering the fate of Narcissus. Readers will recall that A Ovid’s ill-fated hero dies of thirst, for fear that kissing the water’s surface will N him. disrupt the image that has so enthralled 197 14 , Reading for Better Writing J Working by yourself or with a group, answer A these questions: 1. First describe how Baldwin introduces M his topic and thesis, and then explain why the opening is or is not engaging and clear. I 2. In the opening 4 paragraphs, the writer focuses on differences between Europe and E the U.S; in paragraph 5, he builds a transition; and in the remaining paragraphs, he focuses on similarities. Review these organizational choices and then explain why they do or do not help the writer develop 5 his thesis. 3. Review paragraph 6 and explain how it (a) re-focuses the writer’s argument and (b) 5 introduces the claims in the remaining paragraphs. 6 writer classifies “examples” of similarities 4. Review paragraphs 8-10, noting how the 7 into three types, each introduced by a boldfaced title. Then explain why his classification strategy does or does not B help him develop his argument. 5. Cite examples from the essay to prove or disprove that Baldwin’s document is U written in an academic style. (For information about an academic style, see pages 79–80.) Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 198 Analytical Writing Writing Guidelines Planning Exercise Model 1. Select a topic. List subjects that are similar and/or different in ways that you find interesting, perplexing, disgusting, infuriating, charming, or informing. Then choose two subjects whose comparison and/or contrast gives the reader some insight into who or what they are. Note: Make sure that the items have a solid basis for comparison. C (e.g., two rivers, two characters, two Comparable items are types of the same thing H films, two mental illnesses, two banking regulations, two search engines, two theories). 2. Get the big picture. Using a computer or Ra paper and pen, create three columns as shown below. Brainstorm a list of traits under each heading. (Also see the Venn I diagram on page 52.) Interactive Features Peculiar to Subject #1 Shared Features S T I A N , Features Peculiar to Subject #2 3. Gather information. Review your list of features, highlighting those that could J provide insight into one or both subjects. Research the subjects, using hands-on analysis when possible. Consider writingA your research notes in the three-column format shown above. M 4. Draft a working thesis. Review your expanded list of features and eliminate those I that now seem unimportant. Write a sentence stating the core of what you learned about the subjects: what essential insightEhave you reached about the similarities and/ or differences between the topics? If you’re stuck, try completing the sentence below. (Switch around the terms “similar” and 5 “different” if you wish to stress similarities.) Whereas and seem similar, they are different in several ways, 5 and the differences are important because . 6 5. Get organized. Decide how to organize your essay. Generally, subject by subject works better7for short, simple comparisons. Trait by trait works B better for longer, more complex comparisons, in that you hold U up the topics side by side, trait by trait. Consider, as well, the order in which you will discuss the topics and arrange the traits, choices that depend on what you want to feature and how you want to build and deepen the comparison. Subject by Subject: Introduction Subject #1 ■ Trait A ■ Trait B Subject #2 ■ Trait A ■ Trait B Trait by Trait: Introduction Trait A ■ Subject #1 ■ Subject #2 Trait B ■ Subject #1 ■ Subject #2 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 12 Comparison and Contrast 199 Drafting 6. Write your first draft. Review your outline and draft the paper. Subject-by-subject pattern: ■ Opening: get readers’ attention, introduce the subjects, and offer a thesis. C analyze the second subject, discussing ■ Middle: discuss the first subject, then traits parallel to those you addressedHwith the first subject. ■ Conclusion: summarize similarities, Rdifferences, and implications. Trait-by-trait pattern: I ■ Opening: get readers’ attention, introduce the subjects, and offer a thesis. S ■ Middle: compare and/or contrast the two subjects trait by trait; include T transitions that help readers look back and forth between the two subjects. I ■ Conclusion: summarize the key relationships and note their significance. A N Revising 7. Get feedback. Ask someone to read your, paper, looking for a clear thesis, an engaging introduction, a middle that compares and/or contrasts parallel traits in a logical order, and a unifying closing. J 8. Rework your draft. Based on feedback, revise for the following issues: A drawn from comparing and Ideas: The points made and conclusions contrasting provide insight into both M subjects. Organization: The structure, whether I subject by subject or trait by trait, helps readers grasp the similarities and differences between the subjects. E Voice: The tone is informed, involved, and genuine. Editing and Proofreading 5 9. Carefully edit your essay. Look for the following issues: 5 Words are precise, clear, and defined as needed. Sentences are clear, well reasoned,6varied in structure, and smooth. 7 formatted. Graphics are well-placed. The copy is correct, clean, and properly Page design is attractive and follows B MLA or APA guidelines. Publishing U 10. Publish your essay. Share your writing by submitting it to your instructor, posting it on a website, sharing it with friends and family who might be interested in the topic, crafting a presentation or demonstration, or reshaping your comparison as a blog. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 200 Analytical Writing Critical-Thinking and Writing Activities Model Interactive As directed by your instructor, complete the following activities. 1. Review Rachel De Smith’s analysis of Toni Morrison’s Sethe and Barbara Kingsolver’s Orleanna Price. Then choose two characters from other literary works and write an analysis of them using compare and/or contrast organization. 2. Review Gelareh Asayesh’s article “Shrouded in Contradiction,” noting how she C uses comparison-contrast strategies in order to take a position. Draft or revise H an essay in which you use comparison-contrast to develop or support your R thesis. 3. Re-examine how Shankar Vedantam I opens and closes “Shades of Prejudice” with an anecdote (or a news story) that was current when he wrote the essay. Revise one of your recent essays by S selecting a recent news story that you can use to develop your thesis. For example, T you might use the story to get readers’ attention or to compare the story with I a parallel situation addressed in your paper. A Across the Atlantic” in which he analyzes 4. Re-read Peter Baldwin’s “The Likeness Europeans’ and Americans’ differences N and similarities. Choose two other collectives (e.g., countries, cities, states, colleges, or groups of people) and write , an essay in which you compare and contrast characteristics that distinguish these communities. 5. Write an essay in which you compare J and contrast two people, using subjectby-subject organization. Then revise the essay using trait-by-trait organization. A Finally, discuss the essays with a classmate to determine which piece is better. M I Learning-Outcomes ChecklistE After reading the essays in this chapter, developing your own comparison-contrast essay, and getting feedback from classmates and your instructor, use this checklist to 5 outcomes for this chapter: assess how effectively you achieved the learning 5 I understand comparison-contrast reasoning, both as a reader and a writer. 6 writing either subject by subject or I am able to structure compare-contrast trait by trait, and I understand when7to use which pattern. I know how to support compare-contrast reasoning with concrete and precise B details, as well as with transitional words that clarify similarities U and differences. I can strengthen compare-contrast writing by using effective revising and editing strategies. I have effectively planned, drafted, revised, and polished a comparecontrast essay. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 430 Research and Writing ■ Creating a Working Bibliography A working bibliography lists sources you have used and intend to use. It helps you track your research, develop your final bibliography, and avoid plagiarism. Here’s what to do: Choose an orderly method. Select an efficient approach for your project: ■ Paper note cards: Use 3✕5 inch cards, and C record one source per card. ■ Paper notebook: Use a small, spiral-bound book to record sources. H ■ Computer program: Record source information electronically, either by capturing citation details from online searches orR by recording bibliographic information I software such as TakeNote, EndNote using word-processing software or research Plus, or Bookends Pro. S T Sources Including Identifying Information for I or letter: Doing so will help you when Start by giving each source a code number drafting and documenting your paper. Then A include specific details for each kind of source listed below, shown on the facing page. N A. Books: author, title and subtitle, publication details (place, publisher, date) , B. Periodicals: author, article title, journal name, publication information (volume, number, date), page numbers C. Online sources: author (if available), J document title, site sponsor, database name, publication or posting date, access date, other publication A information, URL M D. Primary or field research: date conducted, name and/or descriptive title of person interviewed, place observed, survey conducted, document analyzed I E INSIGHT: Consider recording bibliographic details in the format of the documentation system you are using—MLA (pages 491–528) or APA (pages 529–558), for example. Doing so now will save time later. In addition, some 5 research software allows you to record bibliographic information and then format it according to a specific system. 5 6 Adding Locating Information 7 Because you may need to retrace your research footsteps, include details about your B research path: U or Dewey call number. A. Books: Include the Library of Congress B. Articles: Note where and how you accessed them (stacks, current periodicals, microfilm, database). C. Webpages: Record the complete URL, not just the broader site address. D. Field research: Include a telephone number or an e-mail address. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 27 Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources 431 Annotating the Source Add a note about the source’s content, focus, reliability, and usefulness. Sample Working Bibliography Entries A. Book Source Note: B. Periodical Source Note C. Internet Source Note: D. Interview Source Note:  Howells, Coral Ann. Alice Munro. Contemporary World Writers. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1998. #2 C PS 8576.U57H Z7 1998 Book provides R good introduction to Alice Munro’s fiction, chapters arranged by Munro’s works; contains intro, conclusion, and bibliography; I 1998 date means author doesn’t cover Munro’s recent fiction S T  #5 Valdes, Marcela. “Some Stories Have to Be Told by I Me: A Literary History of Alice Munro.” Virginia Quarterly Review 82.3 (Summer A2006): 82-90. EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com N Article offers good introduction to Munro’s life, her roots in Ontario, her writing,career, and the key features of her stories J A M I http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/munro.html site offers good introduction to Munro’s writing, along with E links to bibliography and other resources  “Alice Munro.” Athabasca University Centre for Language and Literature: Canadian Writers. Updated 31 January 2011. Accessed 17 April 2011. #3 5  #4 5 Thacker, Robert. E-Mail interview. 7 March 2011. 6 rthacker@mdu.edu 7 on Munro, Alice Munro: author of critical biography Writing Her Lives, offered really helpful insights into her creative B for story “Carried Away” process, especially useful U Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 432 Research and Writing ■ Developing a Note-Taking System Accurate, thoughtful notes create a foundation for your research writing. The trick is to practice some sensible strategies and choose an efficient method. Audio Video Web Link Exercise Model Interactive Develop note-taking strategies. What are you trying to do when you take notes on sources? What you are not doing is (a) collecting quotations to plunk in your project,C(b) piling isolated grains of data into a large stack of disconnected facts, or (c) intensively reading and taking notes on every source you H find. Instead, use these strategies: R Be selective. Guided by your research questions and working thesis, focus on sources I that are central to your project. From these sources, record information clearly related to your limited topic, but also take notes onS what surprises or puzzles you. Be selective, avoiding notes that are either too meager orTtoo extensive. Suppose, for example, that you were writing a paper on the engineering I problems facing the International Space Station. If you were reading an article on the history and the future of this facility, you A the station’s technical details, but not on might take careful notes on material describing astronauts’ biographies. N Develop accurate, complete records. Your , notes should . . . ■ Accurately summarize, paraphrase, and quote sources (pages 436–438). ■ Clearly show where you got your information. ■ Cover all the research you’ve done—primary J research (e.g., interviews, observations), books and periodical articles, and online sources. A Engage your sources. Evaluate what you are Mreading and develop your own responses. (See pages 4–11.) For example, with an article about the International Space Station, I and logic; and you might respond with you might test the author’s biases, credentials, knowledge you have gained about other space E endeavors. Take good notes on graphics in sources—tables, line graphs, photo­graphs, maps, and so 5 on. Such graphics are typically packed with information and powerfully convey ideas. (See 5 “Critical Thinking Through Viewing,” pages 12–17.) 6 INSIGHT: Different disciplines use different note-taking practices. In your major, learn these practices through courses that introduce you to 7 the subject matter. Here are two examples: ■ In literature studies, students conduct literary analyses by annotating print texts. B Students may also take notes through keyword searches of e-books (for example, a Ucriticism. Shakespeare play) and reviews of literary ■ In environmental studies, students conduct research by (a) taking notes on published research to develop literature reviews, and (b) using a standard field notebook to collect data, make drawings, and reflect on results. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 27 Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources 433 Note-Taking Systems A good note-taking system should help you do the following: ■ Avoid unintentional plagiarism by developing accurate records, distinguishing among sources, and separating source material from your own ideas. ■ Work efficiently at gathering what you need for the project. ■ Work flexibly with a wide range of resources—primary and secondary, print and electronic, verbal and visual. ■ Engage sources through creative and critical reflection. C ■ Record summaries, paraphrases, and quotations correctly. H not reread sources. ■ Be accurate and complete so that you need ■ Efficiently develop your paper’s outline and first draft. R Four note-taking systems are outlined on the I pages that follow. Choose the system that works best for your project, or combine elements to develop your own. S System 1: Paper or electronic note cards. Using T paper note cards is the traditional method of note taking; however, note-taking software is now available with most word-processing programs and special programs like TakeNote,IEndNote Plus, and Bookends Pro. Here’s how a note-card system works: A N 2. On a second set of cards (4 × 6 inches, if, paper), take notes on sources: 1. Establish one set of cards (3 × 5 inches, if paper) for your bibliography. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Record one point from one source per card. Clarify the source: List the author’s J last name, a shortened title, or a code from the matching bibliography card. Include a page number. A Provide a topic or heading: Called a slug, the topic helps you categorize and M order information. Label the note as a summary, paraphrase, or quotation of the original. I Distinguish between the source’s information and your own thoughts. E Slug Quotation Page Number Comments Source  1 PROBLEMS WITH INTERNAL-COMBUSTION CARS 5 5 6 fact about the extent of pollution caused by the -helpful traditional i-c engine 7 -how does this number compare with what a hybrid produces? B #7 U “In one year, the average gas-powered car produces five tons of carbon dioxide, which as it slowly builds up in the atmosphere causes global warming.” (p. 43) Upside: Note cards are highly systematic, helping you categorize material and organize it for an outline and a first draft. Downside: The method can be initially tedious and time-consuming. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 434 Research and Writing System 2: Copy (or save) and annotate. The copy-and-annotate method involves working with photocopies, print versions, or digital texts of sources: 1. Selectively photocopy, print, and/or save important sources. Copy carefully, making sure you have full pages, including the page numbers. 2. As needed, add identifying information on the copy—author, publication details, and date. Each page should be easy to identify and trace. When working with books, simply copy the title and copyright pages and keep them with the rest of C your notes. H key statements. In the margins or 3. As you read, mark up the copy and highlight digital file, record your ideas: R ■ Ask questions. Insert a “?” in the margin, or write out the question. I link ideas, or make notes like “see ■ Make connections. Draw arrows to page 36.” S ■ Add asides. Record what you think and feel while reading. T ■ Define terms. Note important words that you need to understand. I ■ Create a marginal index. Write keywords to identify themes and main parts. A Upside: Copying, printing, and/or saving helps you record sources N careful reading and thinking. accurately; annotating encourages Downside: Organizing material for drafting , is inconvenient; when done poorly, annotating and highlighting involve skimming, not critical thinking. J A System 3: The computer notebook or research log. The computer notebook or research M log method involves taking notes on a computer or on sheets of paper. Here’s how it works: I 1. Establish a central location for your notes—a notebook, a file folder, a binder, or E an electronic folder. 2. Take notes one source at a time, making sure to identify the source fully. Number your note pages. 5 3. Using your initials or some other symbol, 5 distinguish your own thoughts from source material. 6 4. Use codes in your notes to identify which information in the notes relates to 7 each topic in the outline, write the page which topic in your outline. Then, under number in your notes where that information B is recorded. With a notebook or log, you may be able to rearrange your notes into an outline by using copy and paste— but don’t lose source information in theU process! Upside: Taking notes feels natural without being overly systematic. Downside: Outlining and drafting may require time-consuming paper shuffling. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 27 Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources 435 System 4: The double-entry notebook. The double-entry notebook involves parallel note taking—notes from sources beside your own brainstorming, reaction, and reflection. Using a notebook or the columns feature of your word-processing program, do the following: 1. Divide pages in half vertically. 2. In the left column, record bibliographic information and take notes on sources. 3. In the right column, write your responses. Think about what the source is saying, why the point is important, whether you Cagree with it, and how the point relates to other ideas and other sources. H Rsource records while encouraging Upside: This method creates accurate thoughtful responses; also, it I can be done on a computer. Downside: Organizing material for drafting may be a challenge. S T Cudworth, Erika. Environment and I Society. Routledge Introductions to A Environment Series. London and New N York: Routledge, 2003. , Ch. 6 “Society, ‘Culture’ and ‘Nature’— Human Relations with Animals” J chapter looks at how social scientists have A understood historically the relationshipM between people and animals (158) I the word animal is itself a problem when E we remember that people too are animals but the distinction is often sharply made 5 by people themselves (159) 5 6 7 “In everyday life, people interact with B animals continually.” (159)–author gives U many common examples I’ve actually had a fair bit of personal experience with animals—the horses, ducks, dogs, and cats on our hobby farm. Will this chapter make trouble for my thinking? Yes, what really are the connections and differences between people and animals? Is it a different level of intelligence? Is there something more basic or fundamental? Are we afraid to see ourselves as animals, as creatures? Many examples—pets, food, TV programs, zoos—apply to me. Hadn’t thought about how much my life is integrated with animal life! What does that integration look like? What does it mean for me, for the animals? Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 436 Research and Writing ■ Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Source Material As you work with sources, you must decide what to put in your notes and how to record it—as a summary, a paraphrase, or a quotation. Use these guidelines: ■ How relevant is the passage to your research question or working thesis? ■ How strong and important is the information offered? ■ How unique or memorable is the thinking C or phrasing? The more relevant, the stronger, and theHmore memorable the material is, the more likely you should note it. R The passage below comes from an article Ion GM’s development of fuel-cell technology. Review the passage; study how the researcher summarizes, paraphrases, and quotes from S as you take notes on sources. the source; and then practice these same strategies T I When Karl Benz rolled his Patent Motorcar out of the barn in 1886, he literally A set the wheels of change in motion. The advent of the automobile led to dramatic N global economy—transformations that alterations in people’s way of life as well as the no one expected at the time. The ever-increasing availability of economical personal , transportation remade the world into a more accessible place while spawning a complex industrial infrastructure that shaped modern society. Now another revolution could be sparked J by automotive technology: one fueled by hydrogen rather than petroleum. Fuel cells—which cleave hydrogen atoms into A protons and electrons that drive electric motors while emitting nothing worse than water vapor—could make the automobile M much more environmentally friendly. Not only could cars become cleaner, they could I also become safer, more comfortable, more personalized—and even perhaps less expensive. Further, these fuel-cell vehicles could be instrumental in motivating a shiftE toward a “greener” energy economy based on hydrogen. As that occurs, energy use and production could change significantly. Thus, hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks could help ensure a future in which personal 5 mobility—the freedom to travel independently—could be sustained indefinitely, without compromising the environment or5 depleting the earth’s natural resources. A confluence of factors makes the big6change seem increasingly likely. For one, the petroleum-fueled internal-combustion engine (ICE), as highly refined, reliable and 7 Despite steady improvements, today’s economical as it is, is finally reaching its limits. ICE vehicles are only 20 to 25 percent efficient B in converting the energy content of fuels into drive-wheel power. And although the U.S. auto industry has cut exhaust emissions U substantially since the unregulated 1960s—hydrocarbons dropped by 99 percent, carbon monoxide by 96 percent and nitrogen oxides by 95 percent—the continued production of carbon dioxide causes concern because of its potential to change the planet’s climate. Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 27 Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources 437 Summarize useful passages. Summarizing condenses in your own words the main points in a passage. Summarize when the source provides relevant ideas and information on your topic. 1. Reread the passage, jotting down a few key words. 2. State the main point in your own words. Add key supporting points, leaving out examples, details, and long explanations. Be objective: Don’t mix your reactions with the summary. C making sure that you use quotation 3. Check your summary against the original, marks around any exact phrases you H borrow. R I While the introduction of the car inS the late nineteenth century has led to dramatic changes in society and world economics, another dramatic change is now taking place in T the shift from gas engines to hydrogen technologies. Fuel cells may make the car “greener,” I comfortable. These automotive changes will and perhaps even safer, cheaper, and more affect the energy industry by making A it more environmentally friendly; as a result, people will continue to enjoy mobility while transportation moves to renewable energy. One factor leading to this technologicalNshift is that the internal-combustion engine has reached the limits of its efficiency, ,potential, and development—while remaining Sample Summary: problematic with respect to emissions, climate change, and health. J INSIGHT: Whenever possible, include a page number, paragraph number, or other locating A detail with your paraphrase, summary, or quotation. Such identification at this stage is M pages 474–479). crucial to avoiding plagiarism down the road (see I From Burns, L. D., McCormick, J. B., andE Borroni-Bird, C. E. “Vehicle of Change.” Scientific American 287:4 (October 2002): 10 pp. 5 5 Paraphrasing puts a whole passage in your own words. Paraphrase passages that present 6 important points, explanations, or arguments but that don’t contain memorable or straightforward wording. Follow these steps: 7 1. Quickly review the passage to get a sense B of the whole, and then go through the passage carefully, sentence by sentence. U ■ Paraphrase key passages. State the ideas in your own words, defining words as needed. If necessary, edit for clarity, but don’t change the meaning. ■ If you borrow phrases directly, put them in quotation marks. 2. Check your paraphrase against the original for accurate tone and meaning. ■ Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Purchase answer to see full attachment
User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Running head: RESEARCH PAPER

1

Gun Control Research Paper
Student’s name
Institution
Date

RESEARCH PAPER

2

Share your thesis statement and introductory paragraph that you will use for your final
research paper in Unit 5. Give a reason why you chose this particular topic to write about.
Gun control has remained an issue that has attracted much controversy with the country’s
population equally divided on whether policies regulating the acquisition and use of guns should
be enacted o...


Anonymous
Awesome! Made my life easier.

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Content

Related Tags