Writing the Essay

Process

Key Question

Identify and explain how the stylistic differences in the [name of work] and [name of work] affect the way that [ thematic concern from presentation] is depicted in these two works.

Basic Process:1. Outline how theme shows up in each work, and then 2. Outline significant stylistic differences in these works,

and what these differences suggest about them.

Good Strategy (for the time being): Go With The Template!!

Outline What’s Comparable:1. In general2. Illustrate with specifics

Describe what you will compare (2 elements)

Compare first elementPointing to specifics

Compare second element

Pointing to specifics

Summarize and explain differences

(thinking part)

If the Presentation is Well Developed..

…The Comparison Almost Writes Itself

David Blackwood’s “Fire Down on the Labrador” and Winslow Homer’s “The Gulfstream” are comparable paintings as each of these works depict a human struggle with nature. Blackwood’s Painting depicts a crew dwarfed by their surroundings, leaving a ship as it presumably burns to the waterline and sinks. The environment depicted in this painting is simultaneously terrifying, magic and beautiful. And the humans depicted appear small and fragile to the point of being almost inconsequential.

Outline What’s Comparable:

1. In general2. Illustrate with

specifics

What did I do?

Identified both works and stated how they are comparable

Outline what shows up in work 1

Explain how it supports the point being made

…But

You may have to reorganize to get the job done efficiently.

…Showing Second Part of Connection

Homer’s Gulf Stream depicts a similarly desperate scene with a single man lying on small dismasted boat wallowing in enormous erratic seas infested with sharks. The sharks are broaching the water and appear to be in the middle of a feeding frenzy.

Outline What’s Comparable:

1. In general2. Illustrate with

specifics

What did I do?

Outline what shows up in work 2

Expand on description

Why do I not show how this supports thesis? Seems self evident: if in doubt though (if you think your reader won’t get the connection) show them/explain.

Transition to Contrast

While these two works address human struggles with the environment this theme is depicted quite differently, in terms of each painting’s composition, use of colour and lighting.

Describe what you will compare (2 elements)

Good transitions show the relationship between

The paragraph/ideas just presented

And

That which is now going to be discussed.

Contrast: Element 1In terms of composition, “Labrador” works, in part at least, by presenting the components of the struggle between people and nature on a profoundly different scale. The humans depicted in Labrador are miniscule relative the threats they are depicted as facing. The whale and the ice berg used to frame the whale and the burning wreck are both massive. At the same time the struggling humans , while being depicted at a point of high interest (in the upper right third of the image) they are nonetheless positioned in a way that makes them secondary to the clearly centered iceberg and whale. Their struggle appears to be small, and inconsequential relative to the mass and presence of the whale and iceberg.

What did I do?Overview (point I’m gong to make)

Major detail to support.

Expanded/explained

Second point about compositional element

Significance of details described.

Compare first elementPointing to specifics

Another Transition

“Gulfstream” flips this relationship as the sea and storm become secondary to the clearly centered, well-framed image of the survivor on his wrecked boat.

Good transitions show the relationship between

The paragraph/ideas just presented

And

That which is now going to be discussed.

Contrast: Element 2. ….the sea and storm become secondary to the clearly

centered, and well framed image of the survivor on his wrecked boat The person appearing in “Gulf Stream” is depicted using centered composition, and is accentuated/framed using the boat which is tilted/listing in such a way that the deck provides a framing mechanism. Viewers see enough of the guy on the boat that, he becomes a person, one that we can be concerned about directly. He is centered and is surrounded by his predicament. The waves presented are large but not overwhelming, and a waterspout appears off in the upper right corner of this image but again does not appear to be a major threat. So nature is presented as a threat, but the image is more about the human that is threatened, than it is about the threats he has to face.

What did I do?Overview (in second part of transitional sentence)

Major detail to support.

Expanded/explained

Second point about compositional element

Significance/summary of details described.

Compare first elementPointing to specifics

First Comparison Complete!

Do this for two more elements. What do I need to provide for each?:1. State what’s being contrasted (duh)2. Outline point I am trying to make for each

example3. Describe examples to support4. Explain significance of examples to point you’re

trying to make.

Then What? Summary Of Differences

In Turner the depiction of the struggle between humanity is the depiction of an unromantic day to day struggle. Nature is not massive magical, mystical, profoundly beautiful place. Instead it is an unordered, erratic mess that surrounds the main, human participant/concern in the humanity versus nature struggle. The world that Turner presents, while beautiful, is mostly a threat to be overcome. So there’s an ambivalence involved with the beauty of nature as shown: the natural world, while creating the drama of this scene is more threatening than pretty. The painting is more tied up with the struggle of the human, and what he must address, than it is with the beauty of the natural world that he must deal with.

What did I do?Overview (in second part of transitional sentence

Major detail to support (bringing together points already outlined above)

Expanded/explained

Second point about compositional element

Significance/summary of details described.

Summarize and explain differences

(thinking part)

Summary of Differences: Second text

Blackwood, on the other hand depicts the world of terror as simultaneously immense, overwhelming, dramatic, and beautiful. With Blackwood’s painting although the drama being depicted is desperate, the threats (ice bergs, whale, sky, wind etc) are all depicted as stunningly beautiful in their terror. What makes them overwhelming—their mass, their volume, their colour, and luminescence—also makes them attractive.

What did I do?Overview (in second part of transitional sentence

Major detail to support (bringing together points already outlined above)

Significance/summary of details described.

Summarize and explain differences

(thinking part)

Note

The summary just depicted is not just repetition...I expand on the ideas I’m developing.

This material is often difficult to write as it entails some thought about the material you are discussing…and is more of a synthetic (analysing, thinking, showing the relationship between a text and a larger context)

Source/Significance ofDifference

Blackwood and Turner are working at profoundly different times. They and their audience’s relationship to the environment are quite different: for Turner, although the notion of the sublime (the simultaneous beauty and terror of nature) is still around, there isn’t the sort of consciousness/concern with the possible loss, and need to retain the beauty/sublimnity of nature that is around today. Blackwood, on the other hand, while documenting the event, also documents, dramatically, unapologetically, the beauty of the terror that initiates the events. Although the struggle depicted is real, the threats depicted are also stunningly beautiful, and something that is presented for the viewer to gaze at as beautiful.

What did I do?Overview (in second part of transitional sentence

Significance/summary of details described for one work.

Significance/summary of details described for one work.

Summarize and explain differences

(thinking part)