Compare and Constrast

1. This is a critical analysis essay using the rhetorical mode of cause and effect, so you will need to think deeply about your topic in order to write a college level essay.

Your task is to write a source-based essay on a topic of your choice. You may focus on the causes or the effects or a combination of both causes and effects. Your essay must have a minimum of four causes and or effects.

2. You may review Aristotle’s four causes as a starting point for thinking about your topic.

· Material cause: the stuff out of which it is made—the substance which undergoes a process.

· Efficient cause: immediate conditions which precipitate the process or bring the object into being.

· Formal cause: the general conditions required for, and the pattern or form of, the process.

· The final cause: what goal, end or purpose does it serve? What is the reason for its existence?

3. Think about the three categories of causes:

· Necessary causes, which must be present for an event to occur, but may not be solely responsible for the event.

· Contributary causes, which help bring about events that can’t produce effects independently.

· Sufficient causes, which are all that is needed to cause an event.

Most causes are either necessary or contributary. Very few causes are sufficient.

4. Include an introduction with a closed or partitioned thesis statement. Write an appropriate conclusion. Check the handout on Introductions and Conclusions on my Learning Web page: https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/peggy.porter/information-for-students/introductions-and-conclusions/at_download/file

5. Links to an external site.

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7. Use MLA format. Include heading, title, page numbers, Times New Roman, size 12 font, double space.

8. Sources: You are required to use a minimum of three sources from the HCC library. Papers with sources from the Internet via Google will not be accepted. The purpose of this class is for you to learn how to make full use of your college library,

9. From your sources you will write 10 note cards and 3 source cards. You must have a mixture of quotation cards, summary cards, and paraphrased cards.