Draft Due for Peer Review: Tuesday, Sept. 7
Final Draft Due: Thursday, Sept. 9
Length: 4-6 pages, double-spaced (not including Works Cited page)
Audience: Fellow students who are exploring the differences between popular and academic sources. You can assume your audience is already familiar with the content of the articles.
Sources: Choose one set of the five sets of paired articles. All sources can be opened from links on the Assignment Sheets page on our course Web site (http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kaemerso/Assignments.html).
Documentation: Use MLA documentation style (NFG p. 428) for your in-text citations and your Works Cited page. MLA style is the standard documentation style in the humanities. It is appropriate here because the type of comparative analysis you will be doing is typical of a humanities paper (even though we’re working with scientific articles, which—as you’ll notice--use a different citation style of their own).
Purpose
· To illuminate the distinctive features of "popular" versus "academic" or "scholarly" sources on the same topic.
· To gain an understanding of the distinctive rhetorical features of academic writing. Because you will eventually do extensive research using academic sources, you must know how to distinguish these valued, research-based texts from other, less-substantive articles.
· To practice articulating well-organized, well-supported arguments.
It's possible that in high school or in a previous university course you wrote "compare and contrast" papers. These papers are most often focused on the content differences you uncover in two sources. This paper is similar. Look for commonalities and differences in content (specifically content quality), as well as form and style. Consider differences in purpose, audience, genre, and stance.
Method
Before you begin writing the paper, you'll need to read the articles carefully. Then follow these steps:
1. Note the similarities and differences in purpose, audience, genre, and stance of each article. We’ll discuss these elements of rhetoric in class. Think about how differences in these elements might have affected each article’s content, style, and organization.
2. Take notes on similarities and differences in content, style, and organization of the sources. Specific examples of similarities and differences (including a few direct quotes or paraphrases) should be used in your paper. Basically, HOW are the sources similar and different, and WHY might differences exist?
· Content: Are there similarities in the content of the sources? How do they differ in depth and detail? How is the purpose and audience of each source reflected by the information provided?
· Style: Note the use of "voice" as well as diction (word choice). What can you tell about each author’s stance from his/her writing style? How does the genre of each source affect its tone? Also, remember that audience is a big influence when it comes to style.
· Form or organization: Consider how the articles look on the published page and the order in which information is given. Are there pictures? Font changes? Ads? We will talk about the reasons for the typical structure of scientific reports, so you’ll be able to comment on why the scholarly source is organized the way it is.
· There are several other things you might add to your list of points-for-comparison. For instance, consider what information is provided about the authors. Consider how the articles’ titles differ. Consider where the sources were published.
Your Paper’s Organization
Introduction
· Introduce both articles (titles, authors, places of publication).
· Make your rhetorical purpose (which is to compare and contrast) clear.
· State your thesis, which should tell the reader, in general, how these articles are similar and—more importantly—different.
Body
· Provide a topic sentence for each body paragraph. Topic sentences should state the points of comparison you'll discuss in that paragraph.
· Use quotes and paraphrase from each text as evidence to illustrate your claims. Do not, however, become over-reliant on quotes or paraphrases. Your paper should be about 20% evidence and 80% discussion.
Conclusion
· Briefly restate your main points.
· Draw broader conclusions; speculate about what the specific similarities and differences in these articles reveal about the distinctive features of academic writing in general.
Evaluation
When I evaluate your comparison, I will be looking to see how well you describe and compare the distinctive features of popular and academic sources, and how well you explain the likely reasons for the differences you find. In addition, your comparison will need to meet the general criteria of any good academic writing: a clear focus, logical and purposeful organization, strong use of supporting evidence, and thoughtful development of the ideas you are presenting. It will need to be well written, both stylistically and grammatically. In addition, we will discuss specific evaluation criteria in class.