Compare and contrast paragraph

Week 5


Peer review has been a bit turbulent in the past weeks. WebCT, while great for managing individual projects and deadlines, is less useful for managing collaborative projects, such as peer review. Please read the update about modifications to the peer review process, located in the "Updates" section of this page. To get credit for peer review, make sure that you

* send your draft to your partner and to me by Friday night

* send your review to your partner and to me by Sunday night

There's no need to confirm - if your WebCT email says the message was sent, then I received it. Smile

Updates. There have been a variety of problems with peer review in past weeks: confusion about what's due, confusion about the timeline for peer review, confusion about what assignments it applies to, and questions about the process of reviewing a partner's paper. I have worked to resolve some of those problems with a new page about peer review, a reminder in the Dropbox for all assignments requiring peer review, and a slight change in process in response to some concerns about accountability.

The change in process goes into effect this week. From this point forward, in order to get credit for peer review, I need to be copied on your email messages to and from your partner. You are responsible for two messages:

  1. For the first message, you will copy and paste your paragraph in the Message field, not send it as an attachment.
  2. The second message will be a response to your partner's paper. You will answer the questions that appear in the "About the writing" section of this page and send the response to both me and your partner. Without both messages, you are ineligible for full credit on the Compare and contrast assignment.
Thanks for your attention to this small but super important detail! Cool

Quick list. Here's a quick list of the things you need to do this week. Keep reading to find out more about each item:

  • Read
    • Patterns Chapter 6 introduction
    • Lorenz, "Dogs and Cats"
    • Brit, "Neat People vs. Sloppy People"
    • Quindlen, "Good Girl, Bad Girl"
    • QA Chapter 13
  • Write a rough draft of your Compare and Contrast paper (see the Course Packet for details)
  • Send your rough draft to your partner for review and review your partner's paper (see the Peer Review page for details)
  • Revise and submit your Classification paragraph by the deadline, Friday 28 September 2007 at 11:55pm MST

About the reading. From the introduction to the chapter, you should be able to see that the topic sentence, or thesis statement in the case of essays, for this mode of development (most often) indicates a comparison or a contrast is ahead. That's one of the key things that makes writing in this mode of development successful. The other item that is essential in this mode of development is an adequately developed body section. The reader must be able to see and understand the similarities or differences as you do.

While some pieces of writing in this mode of development offer comparison or contrast, you are expected to do both in your paper. Your topic sentnece should let the reader know that both a comparison and contrast will follow. You are also expected to develop the ideas thoroughly enough so that we can really see the similarities and differences between the items you compare and contrast.

This week's selections are quite good. While Quindlen's "Good Girl, Bad Girl" is a paragraph that succinctly provides an outline of the serious differences between friends, Brit's "Neat People vs. Sloppy People" is an extended version of the same concept, pitting neat and sloppy people against one another. You may notice that neither of these pieces is particularly fair. Quindlen paints the good girl a bit stereotypically - she's not fun or interesting, only a follower. Brit does the same for neat people - they sacrifice memories for the sake of order. Not only is it impossible to totally eliminate bias, but it's often more productive to be frank and open about preferences.

As we move closer to the end of the semester, you'll notice that the essays begin to mix modes of development. Here there's some very good description mixed into the comparison. You'll find that as you go, it's more and more likely to encounter that kind of mixing and do it in your own writing.

Chapter 13 in QA is informative, if a bit dense. For practice with these concepts, or for further information, see the Proofreading marks page. There you will find links to additional examples and links to tutorials dealing with these concepts.

About the writing. This week you are working on two writing -related things:

  1. Classification and division.
    1. Review the feedback on your Narration and Description papers (for information about downloading my comments, please see the Assignment Dropbox tutorial). Select one or two items that were pointed out to you as problematic on these assignments. Revise with these items in mind. If you have questions about your paper, please call me or schedule an appointment to meet with a Learning Center tutor.
    2. Submit a final draft of your Classification and division paragraph to the Dropbox before the deadline (Friday, 28 September 2007 at 11:55PM MST).
  2. Compare and contrast.
    1. Write a rough draft of your Compare and contrast paragraph. Consult the course packet for the specific assignment, including approved topics.
    2. Send a copy of your rough draft to me and your partner BY FRIDAY NIGHT. Go to the Email tool and click "Compose message." Click "Browse" to select your partner and me for the recipients in the "Send message to" field (to select multiple recipients, hold down the CTRL key and click both names). Copy and paste the rough draft of your Compare and contrast paragraph into the "Message" field. Click "Send." To find out who your assigned partner is for this round, consult the Peer review page.
    3. Read and think about your partner's paper. To begin, review the handout How to talk about writing. Think about how you might be best able to help: think about things your partner could improve. DO NOT let grammar, punctuation, or spelling distract you - you won't be commenting on these items.
    4. Reply to your partner's message BY SUNDAY NIGHT. Also send a copy of your response to me (if my name doesn't appear in the "Send message to" field, go to the Outbox folder, locate the message you sent to your partner, and forward it to me). Click "Reply," and type your answers to the following questions in the "Message" field:
Look at the topic sentence. Comment on its effectiveness - does it indicate that both a comparison and a contrast will be presented in the body of the paragraph? Suggest to your partner how he or she could rewrite the topic sentence to better align with the expectations for this assignment.
Provide your overall impression of the paragraph. What is your impression of the development of the paragraph? At which point do you believe that additional details might help? How effective is the organization? What transitions would you add? What might you add or change?