Comparison-and-Contrast Essay

This essay is worth 20% of your final course grade.
The Assignment
For your second essay assignment of English 111, you will write a comparison-contrast essay. You will either compare OR contrast two of the following essays:
“Death of a Moth” by Virginia Woolf
“Death of a Moth” by Annie Dillard
“Why Men Don’t Last: Self-Destruction as a Way of Life” by Natalie Angier
“When Bright Girls Decide that Math Is ‘a Waste of Time,’” by Susan Jacoby
Your analysis should be specific, meaningful, and illuminative. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims and interpret the quotes sufficiently. Additionally, your exploration of the similarities or differences should lead you to some specific claim that expands beyond the simple statement that “these two essays are alike in some ways, but different in others.” How are they different? Why? What influences led to that outcome?
Organizational Pattern for a Comparison-Contrast Essay
To organize this essay, you must use the point-by-point method discussed in “Writing the Comparison and Contrast Essay” by Julie Fenton-Glass in the Wake Tech Reader.

Requirements:
Your final submission must be at least four-full pages long, no more than five pages.*
The essay must adhere to MLA formatting guidelines.
Maintain academic tone throughout. (i.e., Avoid first-person and second-person; spell out contractions; avoid slang or informal diction.)
Use two primary sources (These will be the two of the essays you are comparing or contrasting.) No secondary sources are permitted.
You must use a minimum of two direct quotes and one paraphrase from the primary sources. You are permitted to use more.
The submission must include a Works Cited Page.
Only submit an electronic copy of your essay. A paper copy will not be collected. Upload to Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on the deadline. Submit to Blackboard via the Submission Portal in the “Essay Assignments & Submissions” folder. It is your responsibility to ensure your essay has been successfully uploaded by the deadline. The file must be in one of the following formats to be accepted: .doc, .docx, or .rtf. (Google Docs files are not accepted.)
Papers later than 24 hours past will not be accepted. (See the syllabus for my policy regarding late submissions.) Additionally, if your essay is submitted late, a 10-point penalty will be applied.
*NOTE: Essays are graded proportionately. Therefore, if you submit 1.5 pages for a 3-page assignment, you are only submitting half of the work. This would be a 50 before it is assessed against the rubric requirements.