Essay 1/English 250, Children’s Literature

Length: 500-750 words/2-3 typed pages with one quotation from each work

Rough draft due for instructor and for small group peer review: March 6 (end of week 5)



SPRING Break, March 7-13


Peer review due: THURSDAY, March 17 (in week 6)
Final draft due: Sunday, March 27 (end of week 7)

Write an analytical, persuasive essay comparing and contrastingat least two elementsin two works from the options below.

Choose ONE option from these possibilities:

1. Compare and contrast the two chapter books:My Name is Maria IsabelandYang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear
   
   
   


2. Compare and contrast the two chapter books:The Reluctant DragonandThe Iron Giant
   


3. Compare and contrast the film version ofThe Reluctant Dragonwith the book.Focus on the animated section of this film(the part that tells the story of The Reluctant Dragon) to compare/contrast it with the book.


4. Compare and contrast the film version ofThe Iron Giantwith the book. Watch the entire film to compare/contrast it with the book.
   
   

Whichever option you choose, your goal is to convince or persuade your readers that your thesis and main points of comparison and/or contrast are valid or correct by using evidence from the story itself (quotations, paraphrases, examples, details, etc.) plus logic and your own knowledge and understanding of the world.

You should use at leastone quotationfrom each story or chapter book with each quotation followed by aparenthetical citation.

You will also need aworks cited pageat the end with works cited entries for each work.

I will post pages/documents about how to quote and cite from a web site and how to quote and cite from a film. These will be located in the Writing Resources module and in this module.

10 Steps Toward Writing This Essay

1.Read all the works and choose two that interest you the most or that you can relate to.

2.Read your chosen stories SEVERAL TIMES, underlining important words and parts, and making notes. (You could make a photocopy so you can mark up the text.)

3. Brainstorm as many similarities and differences as you can think of. Don’t censor yourself.

4. Choose 3 or 4 aspects or elements that the two works have in common. Free write about these elements and the stories and the characters and the issues. You might want to consider some of these questions:

• How are the major characters similar? How are they different? Are these similarities or differences significant? What do they reveal?


• How are the events of the stories similar or different? Are these important or not? What do they tell us?


• Consider also how the settings of the stories are similar or different.


• What does the main character/narrator/protagonist WANT?


• What is the major CONFLICT OR PROBLEM in the story?


• Why is this a problem?


• What caused this problem?


• How does the character react to the problem?


• How does the character change?


• What causes the character to change?


• What is the result?


• Why did the author write this story?


• What is the theme or major point the author wants to communicate? How are the major ideas or themes of the stories similar or different? What do these similarities and differences reveal?

5. Do more free or exploratory writing.

6. Write a rough outline of your ideas and sub-topics.

7. Begin writing using evidence from the stories to support your claims/subtopics/points. Organize your essay by one of two ways: either sub-point by sub-point in each story OR all sub-points in the first work (in at least 3 different paragraphs) and then all 3 sub-points in the second work (in three more paragraphs). See the UNC handout or my two restaurants handout for more details. Use transitional words or phrases between paragraphs.

8. Write concluding paragraph. You may discover your thesis as you write and especially as you conclude your arguments.

9. Write introductory paragraph. Intro. paragraph should contain your thesis statement (or main claim) plus the titles and authors of the stories. You will need a thesis that states the main thing you discovered by comparing and contrasting the two works.

10. Set your draft aside for a few days. Read it aloud. Rethink, revise, rewrite.

Audience and plot summary:

For the purposes of this essay, your audience is a general audience of educated people who have read the works and are somewhat familiar with them but may need to have characters, events, and motivations reintroduced and BRIEFLY explained without PLOT SUMMARY. A paragraph of plot summary will lower your grade. One or two sentences of plot summary are fine.

Quotations and MLA in-text documentation

Please use MLA format for all quotations and paraphrases from the stories. (Author’s last name and page number OR if author is mentioned in intro. phrase just page number directly after quotation or paraphrase and enclosed in parentheses).

• Each quotation or paraphrase must be introduced with your own signal or intro. phrase.


• Each quotation or paraphrase must be clearly connected to the point you are making.


• Quote exactly.


• Paraphrase using your own words and a different sentence structure from the original


• If you omit text in quotes, use an ellipsis.


• If you add text to quotes for clarity, put the added words in square brackets.


• If you quote more than 4 lines of text, single-space the quote, omit the quotation marks and set it off 5 spaces from the left.


• Even though the best papers may use more than one quotation and one paraphrase, quote and paraphrase sparingly. Don’t make your paper a long list of quote after quote after quote.

See these web sites for more help with/explanation of comparison and contrast:

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/comparing-and-contrasting/(Links to an external site.)

http://www.users.drew.edu/~sjamieso/comparison.htm(Links to an external site.)

http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-write-comparative-analysis(Links to an external site.)

http://writingcommons.org/index.php/open-text/writing-processes/organize/modes-of-discourse/131-comparing-and-contrasting