Hello there! Today we look at how to handle an essay that requires comparison of two items, and to help your English A skills, we take a look at writing a summary. Read on now, and enjoy!

COMPARATIVE ESSAY WRITING

In your English B exam, you will be asked to write an essay comparing TWO of the poems you have studied. The exam question on the short stories also requires you to compare TWO stories. Today, then, let’s look at how to tackle the comparative-type essay.

Here is a typical exam question on the poems you have studied.

“The poems ‘A Stone’s Throw’ and ‘The Woman Speaks to the Man Who has Employed her Son’ are about how women are treated.”

For EACH poem:

(a) Briefly describe what is taking place. (8 marks)

(b) Discuss the speaker’s attitude to the woman. (8 marks)

(C) Discuss ONE device which is used to effectively convey the treatment of women. (9 marks)

The alternative question will invite you to use two poems of your choice, but it is structured the same way.

Notice that there are THREE parts to the question. Since you have to deal with TWO poems, your essay will look like this:

A) b) c)

Yes, that leaves one more mark to get to the total of 25 marks. Probably the Examiner will save that mark as a bonus if you have handled the comparison well.

Answer each part of the question.

You cannot afford to leave out any part of the question, and you must try to make FOUR points in order to get your FOUR marks.

For example:

What is taking place in poem 1 What is taking place in poem 2 The speaker’s attitude in poem 1 The speaker’s attitude in poem 2 A device from poem 1

A device from poem 2

What is taking place? (Each point is marked by a star.)

In Poem 1, A woman caught in adultery* has been arrested and manhandled* by the religious authorities* who want permission from Jesus to stone her to death.* (4 marks)

In Poem 2, a woman is grieving* because the son she raised without any help from the boy’s father* has been lured into dangerous life of crime*, and she is preparing for his inevitable death*. (4 marks)

What is the speaker’s attitude?

(4 marks) (4 marks) (4 marks) (4 marks) (4 marks) (4 marks)

In Poem 1, the speaker is one of the religious leaders* and he seems gleeful and triumphant* that the woman’s sin is being exposed* He despises Jesus for showing any compassion to her—or even for stooping to listen to her.* (4 marks)

In Poem 2, the speaker is a friend of the woman*, and she empathizes with the grief and anger her friend feels*. She tells, with horror, how the boy was given ‘hot and exploding death’ when all he had asked for was ‘bread’—a job*, and she shares her friend’s righteous indignation that the ‘fathers’ in the boy’s life did nothing to help him*. (4 marks)

A device from each poem.

In Poem 1, an important device is the diction* that suggests the religious speaker is actually getting sexual pleasure* from ‘roughing up’ the woman. Words like ‘kisses’, ‘rape’, ‘love-bites’ and the phrase ‘hands greedy over her body’* all suggest that the man’s motive is anything but righteous. The effect is that, ironically, his own words convict him of sexual sin.* (4 marks)

An effective device in Poem 2 is Biblical allusion.* The speaker tells us that the mother ‘says psalms’ for her son, that she compares herself with the mother of Judas Iscariot and of the thief on the cross beside Jesus. In saying that the boy only asked for ‘bread’, she alludes to the teaching of Jesus on how a good father will always give bread*, and not a stone, to his son when he asks. The effect is to show how wicked the boy’s employer is in contrast to the godly attitude* of the grieving mother whose son has turned to crime*. (4 marks)

This material would form the BODY of your essay. Next week we will discuss the INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION that you need to add.

HOW TO DO A SUMMARY

Read the following passage and then summarise, in not more than 115 words, the reasons given for the importance of studying and understanding Religion.

● ● ●

Step 1, remember, is to underline the material you need in your summary. (We have done this for you by italicizing the sections).

Step 2 is to write out the selected material in your own words, avoiding repetition or examples illustrating a point. Step 3 is to revise your work, ensuring that you have the correct number of words.

Here’s a tip: Write on alternate lines so that you can make changes without needing to re-write the entire summary. That way you will save time in the exam.

We suggest that you attempt to summarize the italicized points yourself, and then check your version against ours.

It’s hard to imagine any subject more important to study and understand than Religion. More important than Maths? Or French? Or Physics? Or Engineering? Well, let’s at least say that it is equally important, though maybe for different reasons.

There are three main reasons why it is so essential to understand and appreciate what religions are, and why they matter so much. The first is that religions are extremely dangerous. Think of all the evil and vicious things which have been done in the name of Religion: people have been tortured and burned alive; holy wars and crusades have been fought; whole groups of people have been kept in subordination and subjection— outcastes, slaves, women in relation to men. And think also of the many difficult and apparently insoluble problems in the world at the present time which have a religious part to them: Northern Ireland, the Middle East, the apartheid system in South Africa, the division between communist countries and others. It is not the case that religions alone create those problems, but it is certainly true that Religion has a part to play in them. If we want to live in a more peaceful world, it is important that we understand what there is about Religion which makes believers so passionate in their commitments and in their division from each other.