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Comparative Essay

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  • 20-01-2010 6:19pm
    #1
    zam
    Registered Users Posts: 829 ✭✭✭


    Apparently comparative essays are badly taught in every school, mine included. I just have no idea what it even is, and with my mocks in a week I've no idea how I'm gonna go about writing one in the exam. We've done all the texts and studied them but I have no idea what the essay's supposed to be or how it's meant to be written! Are there any sample essays anywhere or can anyone help me?? Thanks :o


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    #2
    Burswood
    Registered Users Posts: 122 ✭✭Burswood


    zam wrote: »
    Apparently comparative essays are badly taught in every school, mine included. I just have no idea what it even is, and with my mocks in a week I've no idea how I'm gonna go about writing one in the exam. We've done all the texts and studied them but I have no idea what the essay's supposed to be or how it's meant to be written! Are there any sample essays anywhere or can anyone help me?? Thanks :o

    What texts/film are you covering? I might be able to help you


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    #3
    Keogg
    Registered Users Posts: 427 ✭✭Keogg


    Well if you understand the headings under whats asked (Cultural Context, General Vision/Viewpoint and Literary Genre) you should be ok.
    Cultural Context: roles of men/women, religion, relationships between everyone, etc. etc.

    General Vision: outlook of life, positive/negative aspects, did the characters die or did they have the best day of their lives and so on

    Literary Genre is the harder one: how the book is written (3rd person, narrative, whatever) dialogue/stage directions in the drama(is there any freezeframes, I forget the word but if you want it ill find it), and for the films; camera angles, music, scenery shots, silohetted shots, etc.

    If you get those down you should be ok... hopefully!
    (I think General Vision and Literary Genre should come up this year, but you never know)
    pm me if you want anymore info, my english teacher seems to know what shes talking about, and this does make some sense, sometimes


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    #4
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    You haven't said what your texts are and what modes you're concentrating on, which makes it hard to help.

    Basically what you're missing is a structure for your essay e.g. an essay on Literary Genre might contain a general opening paragraph which mentions your texts and refers to the question asked. Your second paragraph may refer to the type of text each one is and your 3rd might discuss the chronology of each text. You could then write another paragraph on the narrator or point of view in the texts. The use of language could be another paragraph. In each paragraph, you need to discuss and compare the texts, give a personal response and refer to the title of the essay.

    The majority of students who complain about being clueless about the comparative actually have the information they need in front of them in notes from their teacher e.g. the student knows 'nothing' about cultural context, but has a page of notes on gender roles, which is the bones of a paragraph in a CC essay:rolleyes:


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