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ENG 1001-06 Home Page Essay 2

ESSAY 2: NON-FICTION ESSAY ANALYSIS

In preparing to write this essay, you will read the transcripts of two presidential announcement speeches: one by the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and one by the Republican candidate John McCain. In writing Essay 2, you will be analyzing these two speeches through a comparison essay . Below are links to both speeches:

Your writing tasks for Essay 2 are as follows:

Your purpose in writing this essay is to convince your reader that you understand the two speeches and that your point of view is valid. You should assume your readers have either read or heard the speeches, but haven't carefully considered their meaning or significance.

1. Your Point of View on the Speeches
You should sum up your point of view on the speeches in your thesis statement. Keep in mind what your textbook says about comparison: "The point of a comparison is not to list pairs of similarities or differences, but to illuminate a topic" (144). In other words, your point of view should be what your textbook calls a "judgment or conclusion" (137) about the speeches―a significant inference that grows out of your comparison. Your point of view should not be simply that the speeches are similar or different. In addition, keep in mind that you are offering a point of view on the speeches, ultimately, rather than on the candidates themselves.

2. Summary of the Speeches
Your summary of each speech should be one paragraph that is about 1/3 page long. The purpose of the summaries is to make sure your reader understands the basic content of the speeches; therefore, the summaries should focus on the main points, important examples, and other key elements of the speeches. Your summaries, then, should be accurate, but also concise. While your summaries will provide an overview of the candidates' ideas, they must use your own words, not the candidates'.

3. Comparison of the Speeches
Your comparison of the speeches will provide the evidence for your point of view. Remember that each of your comparison paragraphs should contain a topic sentence that is clearly connected to your thesis. You'll also need to make clear how the details that you include in each paragraph relate to each topic sentence. Keeping in mind that analysis breaks a text into its parts, your paragraphs will need to examine and compare specific arguments, claims, observations, techniques, and any other important elements of the candidates' speeches that are relevant to your thesis. To serve your comparison, you also may use classification or cause-effect analysis.

In addition, you'll need to include paraphrases and select quotes from the speeches in order to support your comparison. To paraphrase means to put a text's ideas into your own words. You may paraphrase as much as is necessary to illustrate your observations; however, remember that your focus in your comparison paragraphs should be your examination of the speeches, rather than providing an extended summary of the speeches. Use quotes very selectively: they should make up no more than 10% of your essay (an average of about three or four lines per page).

4. Integration/Documentation of Quotes and Paraphrases, Works Cited Page
Your quotes and paraphrases should be integrated into your essay so that they are readable and fit grammatically into your sentences. Each quote and paraphrase also must be documented correctly with parenthetic citations in MLA format. Your Works Cited page should list both speeches in correct MLA format.

Not providing documentation is a form of plagiarism, which will most likely result in a failing grade for your essay. We'll spend time in class discussing documentation and going over how to document the material from these speeches.

Other Considerations
Be sure to include an effective introduction and conclusion and to employ correct and effective sentence structure, style, grammar, and mechanics. For this essay, you should use a formal style: avoid first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns, and slang.

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