Due Sep 16

Purposeful Comparison

"Write a paper comparing and contrasting ..." When I got this sort of assignment back in high school, I'd find myself wondering "Why? What's the point? Is this just an exercise to demonstrate my intellectual agility, or am I comparing these two poems/stories/laws to actually learn something?"

The answer, of course, is that you should be learning something any time you engage in comparative analysis. But teachers will often leave it up to you to work out the goal of the comparison. After all, to voice the comparison's goal is to state the resulting essay's thesis and most teachers leave the choice of thesis up to the student.

For today's homework, I'd like you to identify a video on YouTube that offers an illuminating point of comparison for one of the three videos we watched for class 1.2: Vi Hart, Nerdwriter, or Idea Channel. Two strategies for choosing a video:

1. You might find a second video that is similar in many respects but different in just one crucial quality, allowing you to estimate the significance of that quality. For example, two science-oriented video series with nerdy but personable hosts, one produced in front of a green screen, the other in a different location every week.
2. You might find a second video that is different in almost every respect except one key factor. In this case, illuminating insights come from discovering that the significance of that key similarity, despite the many differences. For example, you might learn something about the importance of rapid delivery in your science-oriented video by comparing it to the equally rapid pace of a video series focused on HBO's Game of Thrones.
   

   Assignent Format

   Here's one way to do this assignment, in three paragraphs:

   1. A ¶ introducing one of the videos. What makes it interesting, worthy of our attention? Is it typical? Unusual? In what way? This ¶ is also your opportunity to give a brief but vivid description of the video: its purpose, approach. Don't feel you need to tell us everything, but just 3-5 vital details, enough so we could pick your video out of a lineup.
   2. A ¶ discussing the video you're introducing for comparison (open with a strong transition sentence introducing this instance: "By contrast, ..." or "But this isn't the only way to ... " or the like). This ¶ should focus almost exclusively on the second video, noting its many similarities but emphasizing its one crucial difference—or its many differences but one crucial similarity.
   3. Another standard-length ¶ pressing home an insight that aries as result of this comparison. It may be an insight about your first video—how it works, why it's so effective. But it may be an insight about videos more generally—what makes them such great medium for education, or perhaps why they are ultimately limited in what they can achieve.
      

   At the end of your piece, please include links to the two videos you're comparing.