APPLYING YOUR SKILLS: ADDITIONAL ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS

Using what you have learned in this chapter, write a comparison or contrast essay on one of the topics below. Depending on the topic you choose, you may need to conduct research. (For more on locating and documenting sources, see Chapters 22, 23, and 24.)

TO EXPRESS YOUR IDEAS

  1. Compare two families that you know or are part of. Include points of comparison that reveal what is valuable and important in family life.
  2. Compare your values and priorities today with those you held when you were in high school.
  3. Compare your lifestyle today with the lifestyle you intend to follow after you graduate from college.

TO INFORM YOUR READER

  1. Compare resources available through your college library with those available on the open Web.
  2. Compare two sources of information or communication as Beato does in “Amusing Ourselves to Depth.”

TO PERSUADE YOUR READER

  1. Choose a technological change that has occurred in recent years, as Frazier does in “Dearly Disconnected,” and argue either that it is beneficial or that its drawbacks outweigh its usefulness compared with the old technology.
  2. Compare two views on a controversial issue, arguing in favor of one of them.
  3. Compare two methods of doing something (such as disciplining a child or training a pet), arguing that one method is more effective than the other.

CASES USING COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

  1. Imagine that you are taking a course in photography. Write a paper comparing and contrasting the advantages of black-and-white versus color images. Your instructor is your audience.
  2. Imagine that you are working in the advertising department of a company that manufactures skateboards. Write a memo evaluating two periodicals and recommending which one the company should use to run its advertisements. Your manager is your audience.

Working Together

Form a small group of three or four students. Choose two restaurants that are familiar to all of you, and brainstorm a list of similarities and differences in the two restaurants. Then decide which restaurant you will recommend. Using this information, write a creative and entertaining thirty-second radio advertisement that will persuade listeners to choose Restaurant A over Restaurant B. Choose a member of your group to present the ad to the class.

Synthesizing Ideas

Attitudes Toward Work

Both “Speaking Quiché in the Heart of Dixie” and “Defining a Doctor, with a Tear, a Shrug, and a Schedule” explore attitudes toward work.

Analyzing the Readings

  1. What different attitudes toward work do the readings present?
  2. Watch a television program, and then write a journal entry analyzing the attitudes toward work that the characters exhibit. How closely do the characters’ attitudes match the attitudes presented in either reading?

Essay Idea

Write an essay explaining your attitude toward work and comparing or contrasting it to the attitude presented in either of the readings.