Compare and Contrast Mistakes

Goal:To learn the common mistakes made in the Compare and Contrast essay to prepare us for the Argumentative Essay

Instructions: Answer the questions in the review as the come up. Each question is explained in the next slide.

Take this review as many times as you'd like.

Email me with two questions.

When you're done with the review, look at your Compare and Contrast paper to see if you've done any of these mistakes.

In an essay, after you introduce a person by their full name, you use their last name for the rest of the essay, including the conclusion paragraph

Both Wilds' or Wilds's are correct. Wilds's helps with understanding the possessive (owning) rule better.

In text citations can go next to the information or at the end of the sentence. But for this class, put it at the end of the sentence.

Since in text citations go at the end of the sentence, they are part of the sentence. Therefore, the period (or question mark, etc) goes AFTER the in text citation. Example below:

Most scientists believe that the sky is blue (Smith).

Even if there is a quote, the period doesn't go inside the quotations, it goes AFTER the in text citation. Example below:

"Most scientists believe that the sky is blue" (Smith).

When writing a title for your essay, don't title it the TYPE of essay. The title is part of the essay and part of your grade.

The correct way to write the title of the podcast is Serial. Notice that it is in italics.

That is the same way it's written in the citation. See the correlation?

If you see an X or an X with a circle over a word, that means that you have used a useless word. Those words that are useless and you should not use are: a lot, very, get, got, seems, appears, conveys, portrays.

You should use other words or rewrite/arrange the sentence.

Always list your sources by writer's or creator's LAST NAME. If there is not writer, it's the first name of the article's title.

Works Cited pages are a different page from the essay (use page break) and is titled. You write the words "Works Cited" (no quotations) in the same font and size as the rest of the paper. It's centered and it's the same font color, black.

While every professor is different, for the most part the thesis belongs in the introduction paragraph. More specifically, it belongs as the final sentence.

It's the final sentence because, at its core, the thesis is the promise the writer makes to the reader on what the essay is about, what are the specific things they are going to talk about, and the order in which they are going to talk about it.