Essay outline

Essay #3 M01A

Comparison OR Contrast Essay

This MUST BE WRITTEN IN POINT BY POINT METHOD (Listen to the lecture and ask questions if you are unclear about how to write using this method)

Choose a book or short stories that you’ve read recently. If you haven’t read a book recently there are several places to discover short stories (or novels if you’re extremely intrepid) that would serve this assignment very well. Links are below:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Short_Stories_%28Bookshelf%29

http://www.readprint.com/books-9/Short-Stories

You will then compare OR contrast this work to the novel by Steve Martin that you read in class, The Pleasure of My Company.

Remember, do not exceed the assignment! Either compare, OR contrast your chosen work to Martin’s. Some possibilities for how to break down the readings into something that you could compare or contrast in your essay are below:

Good Bad

Style

Story

Theme

Characters

Dialog

Setting

Humor

Length

Font

Weight

Shape

Print quality

You might think this is obvious, but I’ve actually had papers that were turned in with some very strange comparisons and contrasts.

Example thesis:

Steve Martin’s POMC is actually quite similar to Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground in the internal style of writing, the mentally unstable characters, and the humor found in pain.