Composition
Writing the Comparison

Your comparison is to be less than 600 words long, following the format provided in the handbook for the MLA style. Its purpose is to convey the similarities and the differences in the views of the candidates to the reader without making having your opinions about the material interfere with a clear comparison. 

The comparison should follow these guidelines.  

   1.  It should be on time and within the length requirements.

2. It should follow the MLA guidelines for format and documentation.   
3. It should have a beginning that gets the reader’s interest and opens the subject covered in the essays. You may want to consider using a current issue to open the paper and set up the comparison.
4. It should mention the authors (and use only the last name after the first use) and titles of the essays.
5. It should tell clearly what the main point of your comparison paper is (to make the similarities and differences clear). That's your thesis. 
6. It should describe the overall points of similarity and difference briefly before going into details. This may be done in the thesis.
7. It should describe the main points of the views of the candidates.
8. It should describe the minor points of the views where possible.
9. It should connect any points or issues that appear in each view.
10. It should be free of spelling, grammatical, and mechanical errors.
11. It should avoid displaying the writer’s bias on the subject.
12. It should have a sense of an ending.
13. It should use the present tense when referring to what the author writes.
14. It should have quotation marks around any words or phrases or sentences from the essay.
15. It should make clear what ideas come from which sources.
16. It should have a Works Cited page with entries for the material used.
17. It should use transitional words and phrases to clarify for the reader how the ideas you present are tied together.

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