Paper 1 In a paper of approximately 750 words (3 pages, double-spaced, 10 -12 point font), respond to one of the following prompts. My page limits are minimums not maximums so you can write more than 3 pages without any penalty. The topics below are pretty dense and it would not surprise me if many of you find you need four pages rather than three to fully complete your analysis. This paper is due to Canvas on Friday February 28 by 11:59pm. You may request an extension of 3-4 days by emailing me no later than the morning of the 28th. Please indicate in your email which date you plan to hand in the paper and your paper will then be due on that day by 11:59pm. You do not need to give me a specific reason for a later due date, you just need to make the request for a specific date by email. There are no penalties for handing in your paper late as long as you request the later due date by the 28th. Any papers which arrive late without a request made on email will be graded down for lateness. I will not be locking the assignment on Canvas so you will be able to submit your papers after the 28th with no problems. PROMPTS (pick one) 1.  The highest-ranking pilgrim of the group of tale-tellers, the Knight, tells a tale about two knights who fall in love with a young noblewoman. His tale, which is set in ancient times and follows the conventions of a courtly romance, demonstrates his education and reinforces his aristocratic status and values. We could say that the Knight is building cultural capital by appealing to the more noble and educated members of the pilgrimage. But then the Miller, who is from a lower class, interrupts him by declaring he can “quit” (match) the Knight’s tale and proceeds to tell a fabliau (a bawdy tale) about John, a carpenter, Alison, his wife, and two clerks who are in love with her. In this paper, develop a thesis exploring how the Miller’s tale matches or even surpasses the Knight’s tale and what this suggests about Chaucer’s views on class and social hierarchy. While the Miller is not trying to re-brand himself as noble, is he criticizing the Knight’s assumptions about story-telling and class superiority? Can a fabliau compete with a courtly romance (the Knight’s style of story)? 2. Analyze two of Chaucer’s women characters as a way of examining how he shows women competing with men for power and influence. Given the disadvantages women faced in the Middle Ages (very little access to education or jobs, frequently prevented from owning or inheriting property), how do Chaucer’s female characters manage to get ahead in the world? How do they use techniques that can be associated with successful business practices even if their modes of competing with men are not the norm today? Why do you think Chaucer does not condemn his women characters even when they are unscrupulous? Be sure to quote specific passages from two tales to support your ideas (this can include the Wife of Bath’s Prologue). 3.   Look at the Wife of Bath .

1. Paper 1
In a paper of approximately 750 words (3 pages, double-spaced,
10 -12 point font), respond to one of the following prompts. My
page limits are minimums not maximums so you can write more
than 3 pages without any penalty. The topics below are pretty
dense and it would not surprise me if many of you find you need
four pages rather than three to fully complete your analysis.
This paper is due to Canvas on Friday February 28 by 11:59pm.
You may request an extension of 3-4 days by emailing me no
later than the morning of the 28th. Please indicate in your email
which date you plan to hand in the paper and your paper will
then be due on that day by 11:59pm. You do not need to give
me a specific reason for a later due date, you just need to make
the request for a specific date by email. There are no penalties
for handing in your paper late as long as you request the later
due date by the 28th. Any papers which arrive late without a
request made on email will be graded down for lateness. I will
not be locking the assignment on Canvas so you will be able to
submit your papers after the 28th with no problems.
PROMPTS (pick one)
1. The highest-ranking pilgrim of the group of tale-tellers, the
Knight, tells a tale about two knights who fall in love with a
young noblewoman. His tale, which is set in ancient times and
follows the conventions of a courtly romance, demonstrates his
education and reinforces his aristocratic status and values. We
could say that the Knight is building cultural capital by
appealing to the more noble and educated members of the
pilgrimage. But then the Miller, who is from a lower class,
interrupts him by declaring he can “quit” (match) the Knight’s
tale and proceeds to tell a fabliau (a bawdy tale) about John, a
carpenter, Alison, his wife, and two clerks who are in love with
her. In this paper, develop a thesis exploring how the Miller’s
tale matches or even surpasses the Knight’s tale and what this
suggests about Chaucer’s views on class and social hierarchy.

2. While the Miller is not trying to re-brand himself as noble, is he
criticizing the Knight’s assumptions about story-telling and
class superiority? Can a fabliau compete with a courtly romance
(the Knight’s style of story)?
2. Analyze two of Chaucer’s women characters as a way of
examining how he shows women competing with men for power
and influence. Given the disadvantages women faced in the
Middle Ages (very little access to education or jobs, frequently
prevented from owning or inheriting property), how do
Chaucer’s female characters manage to get ahead in the world?
How do they use techniques that can be associated with
successful business practices even if their modes of competing
with men are not the norm today? Why do you think Chaucer
does not condemn his women characters even when they are
unscrupulous? Be sure to quote specific passages from two tales
to support your ideas (this can include the Wife of Bath’s
Prologue).
3. Look at the Wife of Bath in her prologue and tale. She
defines herself as a professional wife and seems to take pride in
how well she is able to shake down her first three husbands. But
by husband #5 she sounds very different on the topic of
marriage. This topic asks you to consider how the Wife moves
from a business model based on maximum profits without
regard for the happiness of her “workers” (husbands 1-3) to a
different, more ethical business model based on shared
resources along with mutual cooperation and respect. Keep in
mind that husband #5 also needs to learn some lessons in
respect for his partner. The book he constantly reads to her
promotes a view of all women as evil and dangerous, and he
uses this book as a way of controlling her. By doing so, he
ignores the fact that she has given him all her land and money
(not perhaps her best business decision). It is only after their
fight over his book that he, too, changes. Once they negotiate an
agreement that allows for mutual respect and autonomy (along
with burning his book), all seems different. Is there an ethical
lesson for Business majors in this?

3. 4. According to any moral standard of judgment, the Pardoner is
hypocritical, corrupt, and totally sleazy. However, Chaucer’s
depiction of him does not explicitly ask us to condemn him. His
sermon and tale are among the best-told stories on the
pilgrimage and he is clearly very good at what he does, namely,
cheat people out of their money by making them fear damnation
for greed and other assorted sins. In this respect, the Pardoner
portrays himself as a successful businessman with an almost
foolproof pitch based on provoking guilt and shame in his
audience which then moves them to give him money in order to
avoid damnation. Yet the Pardoner also acknowledges two
things: first, that greed is his own personal sin and second, that
some people actually feel true repentance for their sins when
they hear him preach. But it turns out that the Pardoner is also
religious. As he finishes his story he tells the pilgrims “That’s
how I preach, sirs, where I go./ May Christ, who is our soul’s
physician,/Forgive your sins and grant remission (forgiveness)”
(top of p. 264). For a moment here the Pardoner acknowledges
the possibility of true forgiveness and redemption. He gestures
to an ethical universe ruled by Christ and from which he himself
seems to be excluded because he remains committed to his
career of swindling people through sermons and false relics.
Following these lines, the Pardoner then asks the pilgrims to
give him money in exchange for pardons. He even picks the
Host as the one who should go first “for he’s the deepest
steeped in sin” (line 608). Yet since the Pardoner has already
exposed his own corruption and greed to the pilgrims, he can
hardly expect them to give him money now. So what is he
really asking for? Analyze this ending scene (starting at the top
of page 264) and explain how it functions to connect the
Pardoner’s own dishonest practices with a larger social world
that allows such dishonesty to thrive and multiply not only in
the Pardoner but in other pilgrims and even the institution of
the medieval Church. Another way to put this would be to look
at how the last page and a half of the story as the place where
the Pardoner’s monetizing of salvation forces us to consider

4. how he is part of a larger world in the Canterbury Tales where
everything seems for sale.
5. Pick one or two stories which feature the circulation of a
non-monetary form of currency. Such currency could be in the
form of honor, or sex, or status, or even the act of story-telling
and such things are also accompanied by the circulation of
actual money in some tales. Women also circulate as a kind of
currency in some of the tales and it isn’t always through sex
(think of Emilia in the Knight’s Tale and her role in Theseus’
desire to control Arcite and Palamon). Explain what we learn
from such forms of circulation. If the circulation of money is
the model for these other forms of currency, what is being
bought and sold? What is Chaucer telling us about his own
society if both people and abstract values are exchanged like
money? Is Chaucer suggesting that the early stage capitalism we
see in many of these stories tend to infect how a culture views
itself? This is a big question and please resist the temptation to
generalize. Stay focused on the story or stories you choose and
the specific messages they have about currency and exchange in
a non-monetary arena. And if you write on more than one story,
you have to connect them logically. It can’t be some random
choice—you should be developing an idea that applies to both
tales. Some examples that might work for this topic: The 100
francs and the Merchant’s wife circulating between the
Merchant and Don John; Dorigen circulating between Arveragus
and Aurelius as part of a larger discourse on honor and status in
which men’s honor depends on the exchange of a woman
(though not necessarily via sex). The Reeve and the Summoner
as tale-tellers determined to use their stories to attack another
pilgrim’s profession/identity (the two are often the same thing
in Chaucer). There are many other possibilities. I’m happy to
make more suggestions if you email me.
6. A topic that you develop yourself and describe in an email to
me. If the prompts above are not quite what you want to write
about, come up with a short paragraph explaining what
pilgrim/tale you want to focus on. You can also adapt some of

5. the ideas I’ve suggested above to other tales and pilgrims. Or,
you could look at how one of the pilgrims projects their own
identity and values into their tale. If you’d like to work on this
kind of topic, I want you to email me with a description of
whom you plan to focus on and what your main point is going to
be.
SOME ADVICE FOR WRITING PAPERS ON LITERATURE
Do not waste time with a general introduction, instead start with
your argument or main idea. For example, you could say
something like this: “In this paper I will discuss how the Wife
of Bath's conception of marriage is based on mutual respect.”
Then analyze her description of her 5 marriages focusing on
details that seem significant for the points you want to make.
Keep in mind that your paper should present an interpretation of
a tale or cluster of tales. This means you'll be making an
assertion about a specific tale or character in a tale using the
prompt you've chosen as a guide for arriving at your
interpretation. Assertions are statements which present a
hypothesis about the meaning behind a particular tale or
character. Because it's a hypothesis you'll need evidence to
back up your assertion. In a paper like this, your data is the
story itself so you'll need to use brief quotations to back up
your ideas. You also want to make sure that parts of the story
do not contradict the point you're making. One strategy that can
be useful in dealing with stories that present more than one
point of view is to present an interpretation that seems
convincing but turns out not to be on further investigation. For
example, you could say that the Wife of Bath's description of
her first 3 marriages leads us to think that she sees marriage
only in terms of fighting with her husbands so that she can
squeeze more money out of them. However, her description of
her fifth marriage suggests a very different idea of marriage.
Though it also involves a fight, the Wife's description of her
marriage to Jenkin eventually presents a marriage grounded in
compromise, love, and respect. This philosophy is also backed
up by the ending of her actual tale. This idea is your thesis or

6. main hypothesis and you'll need to look over her prologue and
the ending of her tale in order to come up with evidence for
your ideas. Remember that a thesis cannot be just a description
of something that all readers would agree about. It needs to be a
statement that has the potential for debate or disagreement. The
key element here is that you have to be confident that the
evidence for your thesis is strong enough to overcome the
disagreement. So it's always a good idea to subject your thesis
to some testing. Try to think of counter-arguments for your idea
and look for evidence for them. If you find passages that
contradict your thesis, then it may be time to do some
rethinking.
If you’re feeling confused about any of this, please email me a
short description of what you plan to write on and what your
main idea is. I’ll be able to tell you very quickly whether you
have a workable thesis or not and that can save you a lot of
trouble! ([email protected]u)
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR PAPERS FOR THIS CLASS
· Papers should be double-spaced (this means no more than 3
lines per inch), in a readable font no larger than 12 point, with
one-inch margins all around. Keep a copy of the file just in
case Canvas has a glitch and your paper does not appear.
· Include a title at the top of your paper. It should indicate what
your paper is about and not just give the title of the story you’re
writing on. Here’s an example: “Ethical Business Practices and
the Pardoner”
· When you’re quoting from Chaucer, give line numbers. Note
the proper order of punctuation marks:
Chaucer describes spring as the time when people like to go on
pilgrimages:
“Then people think of holy pilgrimages/ Pilgrims dream of
setting foot in far off/ lands, or
worship at distant shrines” (11-13).
[Note the parentheses with the line numbers and the period
come after the quotation marks.]
Be sure you show line breaks by using a slash at the end of each

7. line as you see above. Or if you’re quoting more than 3 lines at
a time, go ahead and indent your quotation 10 spaces and type
the lines as they appear on the page. It should look like this:
“Good fortune smiles on each one here
To ride with me, a pardoner,
Who can absolve you as we go.
Death strikes us when it will, you know!” (603-606)
· If you quote from any other text or translation, you’ll need to
provide full bibliographic information (and check with me first
anyway). If your argument draws in any substantial way on
secondary material you’ve read, you’ll need to signal this with a
footnote or parenthetical citation. If you’re not sure whether
you need to acknowledge a debt, go ahead and do it. If you’re
unclear about the form, or a doubtful case arises, see me or just
attach a little note explaining the problem.
· Computer spell-checkers and thesauruses may occasionally
help you catch a typo or remember a synonym, but should never
be relied on as authoritative: you will need to proofread with
your own eyes and consult a good dictionary.
· Chaucer’s pilgrim storytellers do not have proper names so
you should capitalize the profession of each pilgrim since that
functions as their name: the Knight, the Miller, the Shipman,
the Franklin, the Wife of Bath, etc . . . However, if you’re
writing about a profession in one of the tales, then do not
capitalize the category. For example, the miller in the Reeve’s
tale is not capitalized (but he does have a name, Symkin), and
the summoner in the Friar’s tale should also be spelled with a
small “s”. So, too, the Clerk is a pilgrim/narrator, but there are
also a number of stories which feature clerks (written with a
small “c”), and the same goes for the Merchant (pilgrim) and
merchants (characters in stories such as the Shipman’s Tale).

8. 1
COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
Comparison and Contrast Essay
Criteria: This essay will in fully demonstrate the ideas and
rhetorical strategy of comparison/contrast as discussed in class.
The essay will be a minimum of 3-4 pages in length and will
follow the essay manuscript guidelines provided. The
information presented in your essays must be original. Do not
use outside research for this paper. You are required to write
either a comparative essay or a contrast essay; however, should
you decide to write both a comparison and contrast essay.
Regardless of your choice, your final grade will based on how
well your essay is written.
Choose one of the following topics:
1. Compare and/or contrast the toys of your youth with those
that are popular today.
Explain what those similarities and/or differences mean.
2. Compare and/or contrast the attitudes of youth and maturity.
Use examples to clarify
your points.
3. The representation of women, fathers, teenagers, or some

9. other group in an earlier TV
sitcom or show (i.e., 1950s or 1960s) and in a similar
contemporary sitcom or show.
4. Life as a married person and life as a single person.
5. Compare or contrast changes in fashion or music (not both)
between a period in the
20th century and the past.
6. The influence of celebrities, bosses, or superiors and the
influence of parents and/or
friends.
7. Female and male styles of communication.
8. Traditional educational and online education.
9. Two forms of social media (ie. Facebook and Myspace;
Instagram and Twitter).
10. Two or more products being considered for purchase.
Essay Due Dates:
Draft of comparison and contrast essay due (3 copies): Tuesday,
Mar. 10, 2020
Final draft of comparison and contrast essay due (instructor’s
marked draft and final paper: Thursday, Mar. 26, 2020
2
_____________________________________________________
___________________
Objectives: At the end of this unit you will be able to:
-- Explain how the comparison/contrast thesis statement differs
from other forms of thesis

10. statements
-- Identify transitional words/phrases used in comparison and
contrast essays
-- Identify bases for comparison or contrast
--Define analogy
-- Explain the block method of organization, its advantages and
limitations
-- Explain the point-by-point method of organization, its
advantages and limitations
-- Explain the primary steps used in developing
comparison/contrast essays
-- Write a successful comparison or contrast essay that
demonstrates many of the
aforementioned elements
-- Name and explain a practical, “real world” application for
comparison/contrast
What is Comparison /Contrast?
Comparison/contrast is the examination of the similarities
and/or differences between people, objects, or ideas, in order to
arrive at a judgment or conclusion.
When we compare or contrast two items, we want to be able to
see very clearly the points of comparison or contrast so that we
may judge which item is better or worse than the other in some

11. respect. The process of comparison gives us a deeper
understanding of the subject and enables us to make well-
researched decisions rather than being at the mercy of a clever
salesperson or being convinced by a good price or some other
feature that might strike us at first glance.
Choosing the Two Part Topic
The problem with writing a good comparison or contrast essay
usually centers on the fact that you now have a two-part topic.
This demands very careful attention to the thesis statement.
While you must be careful to choose two subjects that have
enough in common to make them comparable, you must also not
choose two things having so much in common that you cannot
possibly handle all the comparable points in one essay. Once
you have chosen a two-part topic that you feel is not too
limiting and not too broad, you must remember that a good
comparison or contrast essay should devote an equal or nearly
equal amount of space to each of the two parts. If the writer is
only interested in one of the topics, the danger is that the essay
will end up being very one-sided.
Here’s an example of a one-sided contrast:
While American trains go to only a few towns, are infrequent,
and are often shabby and uncomfortable, the European train is
much nicer.
The following example is a better written contrast that gives
attention to both topics:
3
While American trains go to only a few large cities, run very
infrequently, and are often shabby and uncomfortable, European
trains go to virtually every small town, are always dependable,

12. and are clean and attractive.
Exercise 1: Evaluating the Two-Part Topic
Study the following topics and decide whether each topic is too
broad for an essay, or whether it is suitable as a topic for an
essay of comparison or contrast.
Topic
Too Broad
Suitable
1. Australia and England
_______
_____
2. Indian elephants and African elephants
_______
_______
Topic

13. Too Broad
Suitable
3. California champagne and French
_______
_______
champagne
4. Wooden furniture and plastic furniture
_______
_______
5. Wood and plastic
_______
_______
6. Paperback books and hardcover books
_______
_______
7. Mothers and fathers

14. _______
_______
8. Taking photographs with a flash and
_______
_______
taking photographs using available light
9. Doctors and lawyers
_______
_______
10. Trains and airplanes
_______
_______
Two Approaches to Ordering Material
The first method for ordering material in an essay of
comparison or contrast is known as the point-by-point method.
When you use this method, you compare a point of one topic

15. with a point of the other topic. The following paragraph offers
an example of the point-by-point method.
My husband and I constantly marvel at the fact that our two
sons, born of the same parents and only two years apart in age,
are such completely different
4
human beings. The most obvious differences became apparent
at their births. Our firstborn, Mark, was big and bold—his
powerful, chunky legs gave us the impression he could have
walked out of the delivery room on his own. Our second son,
Wayne, was delightfully different. Rather than having the
football physique that Mark was born with, Wayne came into
the world with a long, slim, wiry body more suited to running,
jumping, and contorting. Wayne’s eyes, rather than being
intense like Mark’s, were impish and innocent. When Mark was
delivered, he cried only momentarily, and then seemed to settle
into a state of intense concentration, as if trying to absorb eh
could about the strange, new environment he found himself in.
Conversely, Wayne screamed from the moment he first
appeared. There was nothing helpless or pathetic about his cry
either—he was darn angry!
--student
The next paragraph uses the block method of organization. The
writer discusses the first topic in its entirety (games), offers a

16. transition, and then fully discusses the second topic (business).
Games are of limited duration, take place on or in fixed and
finite sites, and are governed by openly promulgated rules that
are enforced on the spot by neutral professionals. Moreover,
they’re performed by relatively evenly matched teams that are
counseled and led through every move by seasoned hands.
Scores are kept, and at the end of the game, a winner is
declared. Business is usually a little different. In fact, if there
is anyone out there who can say that the business is of limited
duration, takes place on a fixed site, is governed by openly
promulgated rules that are enforced on the spot by neutral
professionals, competes only on relatively even terms, and
performs in a way that can be measured in runs or points, then
that person is either extraordinarily lucky or seriously deluded.
--Warren Bennis, “Time to Hang Up the Old Sports
Cliches”
In the textbook, A Short History of the Movies, author Gerald
Mast devotes one of his chapters to explaining the difference
between the two masters of comedy: Mack Sennett, the man who
created the Keystone Kops, and Charlie Chaplin, the loveable
tramp who could make people laugh and cry at the same time.
Sometimes the author uses the block method; sometimes he uses
the point-by-point method. Sometimes in an essay he uses both.
Notice the effectiveness of each approach:
Block Method
Some of the differences between Sennett and Chaplin
become clear when comparing similar devices and motifs they
both used. Both Sennett and Chaplin used cops. For Sennett,

17. the cops were purely comic characters, whose good will was
balanced by their efforts and frenzy; Sennett’s cops can do
nothing right. Their cars crash, their boats sink; they fall all
over each other as they swarm to answer a call. They are as
earnest and as functional as toy soldiers. Chaplin’s
5
cops, though not precisely what contemporary radicals would
call pigs, were not far from it. In Police, the cops spend their
time leisurely journeying by motor car to answer an emergency
call for help; they drink tea and fluff their uniforms and show
no concern at all for Edna’s distress. The cops in The
Adventurer are not as satirical, but they do shoot rifles at the
escaping Charlie, and their bullets look as though they could
kill….
Point-By-Point Method
Temperamentally, Chaplin could never see comedy the way
Sennett saw it. For Sennett, the comic world was a world of
silly surfaces; for Chaplin the comic world was a way at getting
at the serious world of men and society. For Sennett, comedy
was an end; for Chaplin, it was a means….Both Sennett and
Chaplin use the ocean; for Sennett the ocean is a location for
watery gags, but for Chaplin the
ocean is a place where people can drown. Both Sennett and
Chaplin use the chase, but Sennett emphasizes more of the pure
motion and frenzy of it; whereas, Chaplin emphasizes the
cleverness and skill of Charlie at avoiding capture….
_____________________________________________________
___________________
Alternating or Point-By-Point Outline
I. Introduction

18. A. Attention grabber:
B. Connecting Sentence:
C. Thesis:
II. Similarity or Difference 1
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
B. First Subject:
C. Second Subject:
III. Similarity or Difference 2
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
6

19. B. First Subject:
C. Second Subject:
IV. Similarity or Difference 3
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
B. First Subject:
C. Second Subject:
V. Conclusion
A. Stated Preference? Reason?:
B. Final Impression/Takeaway 1:
C. Final Impression/Takeaway 2:

20. _____________________________________________________
_______
Block Method Outline
I. Introduction
A. Attention grabber:
B. Connecting Sentence:
C. Thesis:
II. First Subject
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
B. Similarity or Difference 1:
C. Similarity or Difference 2:
D. Similarity or Difference 3:

21. 7
III. Second Subject
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
B. Similarity or Difference 1:
C. Similarity or Difference 2:
D. Similarity or Difference 3:
IV. Third Subject
Basis of Comparison?
A. Topic Sentence:
B. Similarity or Difference 1:

22. C. Similarity or Difference 2:
D. Similarity or Difference 3:
V. Conclusion
A. Stated Preference? Reason?:
B. Final Impression/Takeaway 1:
C. Final Impression/Takeaway 2:
_____________________________________________________
_________________
Guidelines for Writing the Comparison/Contrast Essay
1. After you have chosen your two-part topic, plan you thesis
sentence.
2. List all your ideas for points that could be compared or
contrasted.
3. Then choose the three or four most important points from
your list.
4. Decide whether you want to use the point-by-point method
or the block method of organizing your essay.
8

23. 5. Select the order in which you want to present your points.
Gather supporting detail and examples.
6. Determine a conclusion that makes a judgment, or
emphasizes what you believe is the most important point.
Common Transitions
For Comparison
For Contrast
similar to
on the contrary
though
similarly
on the other hand
unlike
like
in contrast with

24. even though
likewise
in spite of
nevertheless
just like
despite
however
just as
instead of
but
furthermore
different from

25. otherwise
moreover
whereas
except for
equally
while
and yet
again
although
still
also

26. too
so
Pitfalls to Avoid
1. Avoid an unbalanced, one-sided comparison. You need to
give relatively equal space to the two subjects being compared
or contrasted. For instance, if you compare a novel
with the movie adaptation, you need to provide equal treatment
for both the novel and the movie.
2. Avoid seesaw style. You need to use adequate transition so
that you don’t just jump back and forth from one subject to
another in a series of short, choppy sentences.
3. Just showing the differences or similarities between A and B
is not enough. Your comparison-contrast essay must serve a
useful purpose: to show, for example, that A is superior to B or
that B is more practical than A.
4. Watch out for false comparison, that is, a few superficial
similarities leading to a false conclusion. If you were to
compare the Soviet bureaucracy with the American bureaucracy,
no doubt you could find a number of similarities; but you would
need to be
9
careful not to ignore fundamental differences, for you might
easily arrive at a false conclusion.
5. Don’t equivocate: have a clear point to make, and state it
clearly at the outset. If you start your essay with “There are
many similarities between the North and the South,” that thesis
is useless because you fail to take a stand. You leave your
reader asking, “So what? What’s the point?”

27. 6. Don’t state the obvious. Comparing two obviously similar
members of the same class or contrasting two obviously
different members of the same class is pointless. Your reader
will learn nothing.
ANALOGY
An analogy is an extended comparison between objects or ideas
from different classes—things not normally associated.
Analogy is particularly effective in explaining unfamiliar or
abstract concepts because a comparison can be drawn between
what is familiar and what is not. An analogy often begins with
a simile or a metaphor, as in the following paragraph.
Casual dress, like casual speech, tends to be loose, relaxed, and
colorful. It often contains what might be called “slang words”:
blue jeans, sneakers, baseball caps, aprons, flowered cotton
housedresses, and the like. These garments could not be worn
on a formal occasion without causing disapproval, but in
ordinary circumstances, they pass without remark. “Vulgar
words” in dress, on the other hand, give emphasis and get
immediate attention in almost any circumstances, just as they do
in speech. Only the skillful can employ them without some loss
of face, and even then, they must be used in the right way. A
torn, unbuttoned shirt or wildly uncombed hair can signify
strong emotions: passion, grief, rage, despair. They’re most
effective if people already think of you as being neatly dressed,
just
as the curses of well-spoken persons count for more than those
of the customarily foul-mouthed do.

28. --Alison Lurie, The Language of Clothes
Exercise 2: Analogies
Here are some well-known analogies from literature. Read them
carefully. Determine what each writer wished to explain and
then point out the way in which the analogy is limited.
1. “A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on its hind
legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done
at all.”
Samuel Johnson
2. “You were that all to me, love, for which my heart did pine,
a green isle in the sea, love, a fountain, and a shrine.”
Edgar Allan Poe
3. “All flesh is grass.”
Bible; Isaiah

29. 10
4. “Knowledge is to the mind what light is to the eye.”
Anonymous
5. “My luve is like a Red, Red Rose….”
Robert Burns
6. “Tis with our judgments as our watches, none go just alike,
yet each believes his own.”
Alexander Pope