THE1160
Comparison Paper 2
Due: April 6, 2025
Value: 20% of Final Grade
Students will write an approximately 1000-1200 word paper comparing any two or three productions or events seen during the semester.
Guidelines
After selecting their productions, students will compare them based on one or more of the following criteria (same as Comparison Paper 1): theme; style; convention; narrative structure; stage and space; directing; design; acting/performance; expectation vs experience; nature of the event.
Students may also choose any other criteria with which to compare the productions, should they be so inspired.
If you are comparing two productions, at least one must be from the second half of the semester (ie. topics of Show Reports 5-10), and neither can have been a production written about in your first paper.
If you are comparing three productions, at least one must be from the second half of the semester, but you may include a production covered in the first paper as long as the topic of comparison is different (eg. if you wrote about doubling in Salesman in China for the first paper, you may select Salesman as a production for the second paper, but cannot use doubling as a point of comparison).
In addition to noting the similarities and differences between the productions, students must analyze the choices ofthe creative teams made to tell their stories, discussing which choices they believed worked, which didn’t, and why. Your subjective opinion must be supported with examples from the production(s).
HOT TIP: papers that compare three productions will benefit from a tighter focus!
The Comparison Paper is not a review. I am not looking for whether or not you liked the productions (though you are free to say so), but what your experience of the productions was, and how they relate to each other.
Other things to note:
• You must include a Title Page with the title of your paper, your full name, student number, the professor’s name, and date the paper was submitted. If you don’t know how a title page should be formatted, ask me!
• Papers must be submitted typed, double spaced, in a 12 point font, on single-sided, 8.5x11 paper.
• You can format your paper in either Chicago, MLA, or APA style as long as you remain consistent throughout.
• Spend as little time covering the plot of the productions as necessary. I have also seen the shows, so using 500 words to let me know what happened is a waste of your space. Only cover plot information that is relevant to your topic and arguments.
• This is a personal paper. You may write in the first person ifyou wish.
• You must back up your arguments with evidence. This can come from secondary sources, or from your own experience of the production.
• Secondary sources aren’t necessary, though if you choose to use them you must include a bibliography/works cited page.
• Topics and information covered in lectures (such as the definitions covered in the Glossary) do not require citation.
Evaluation (20% of Final Grade)
• Analysis – have you thoroughly compared and analyzed the productions? are they well chosen for comparison based on the criteria you selected?
• Artistic Examples – are the examples you’ve chosen to support your analysis relevant? do they support your arguments?
• Original Thinking – are you demonstrating original thinking about the chosen productions, or are you making obvious observations?
• Clarity and organization – do your thoughts and arguments flow easily from one to the other? Or is the paper disjointed and hard to follow?
• Synthesis of material – have you taken the information learned in class and applied it to the productions?
• Spelling and grammar