How can I compare two texts?
How can I distinguish a top-notch piece of writing from a mediocre one?
You can do both of those things using some specifics about the text. Of course, there are plenty of different specifics you can utilize, but here is an elementary list you can use to know roughly how well-wrought your text is:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Text type and authorial intention
Structure (both of the text and of the paragraphs)
Appropriate style (you may check sophistication and parallelism, for example)
Coherence
Cohesion
In argumentative essays:
Is the thesis statement clear?
How well do the author's arguments uphold their thesis?
Does the author utilize persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions and counterarguments?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are going to use those criteria to analyze two compositions extracted from the book Introduction to Academic Writing, by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue.
What is more, although I have not yet released any guides on coherence or cohesion, I intend to do so soon. Nevertheless, for now, let us simply define coherence as what makes a text intelligible and cohesion as the linkage between words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs.
This is the first text:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Styles of Popular Music
Music is truly the one universal language. Although all cultures have music, each culture develops its own musical forms and styles. In particular, popular music varies from culture to culture and from generation to generation. In the past 100 years or so, there has been an explosion of popular music styles in the West. Three of the more successful styles are reggae, punk, and rap.
One successful style of popular music is reggae, which was born on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in the 1960s and spread throughout the world in the 1970s. Reggae developed from a kind of Afro-Caribbean music called mento, which was sung and played on guitars and drums. Some musicians changed mento into a music style called ska by adding a hesitation beat.' A few years later, other musicians changed ska, and reggae was born. Reggae's special sound comes from reversing the roles of the instruments: The guitar plays the rhythm, and the bass plays the melody. An important influence on reggae music was the Rastafarian cult. The Rastafarians added unusual sound mixes, extra-slow tempos, strange lyrics, and mystical-political themes. The best-known reggae musician was the late-' Bob Marley. Well-known groups are Toots & The Maytals, Burning Spear, and Steel Pulse. Reggae has influenced later styles of popular music, including punk and rap.
A second successful style of popular music is punk. Punk is a style of rock music that began in the mid-1970s as a reaction against previous forms of rock. Punks felt that rock music no longer represented the counterculture from which it had sprung and had, in fact, sold out to the mainstream culture. With their clothing and hairstyles, punks intended to shock society. The "punk look" included spike hairdos, theatrical makeup, ripped clothing, body piercings, and jewelry made from objects such as razor blades and safety pins. The onstage behavior of punks was aggressive and provocative. At concerts, fighting and other violent behavior by the fans were common occurrences. Punk music itself is simple (often just three chords), and its songs are short (rarely more than three minutes long). Its songs are anti-government, anti-authority, and anti-conformity. The first bands to popularize punk were the Sex Pistols and Clash in Great Britain and the Ramones in the United States. As with all music styles, punk has evolved into other styles. Groups such as the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag play hardcore punk, which is a faster and louder punk style. The band Fall Out Boy plays emo, a style in which the musicians become so emotional during a performance that they scream and cry. Pop punk, made popular by the group Green Day, is another new punk style.
A third successful style of popular music is rap, which is also called hip-hop. Rap is a type of dance music in which the singers - rappers - speak in rhythm and rhyme rather than sing. The art of rapping originated in Africa and probably traveled to the United States via Jamaica, where it was known as toasting. In the United States, rap first appeared in the mid-1970s in the discos of New York City's black neighborhoods. Disco DJs teamed up with rappers to play songs for dancers at parties. At first, the role of the rapper was to keep the beat going with hand claps while the DJ changed records. Soon, rappers added lyrics, slogans, rhymes, and call-and-response exchanges with the audience, and rap was born. Early rap songs were mainly about dancing, partying, and the romantic adventures of the rappers, but politics became an important theme in rap in the late 1980s and 1990s. Most rappers are young black males, but there have been female rappers such as Queen Latifah and white rappers such as the Beastie Boys and Eminem.
To sum up, popular music changes constantly. New styles are born, grow, change, and produce offshoots, which in turn grow, change, and produce offshoots. Some styles enjoy lasting popularity, but others disappear rather quickly. However, all contribute to the power and excitement of popular music in our time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, let us determine the text's type and the author's goal. Reading the text, it is impossible to determine if the author has an opinion concerning the subject of the text, which is different styles of music. The author did not state, for instance, what their favorite style was. Therefore, the essay has an expository nature. Consequently, its writer's intention with it was to educate the reader.
Secondly, let us analyze its structure. The first paragraph presents what is known as a funnel introduction, which is an introductory paragraph that begins with a broad statement and gets gradually more specific, ending with the topic sentence. The topic sentences of all paragraphs have been highlighted. All the paragraphs present a logical structure and each develops a different topic of the general idea (yet another two concepts which I will explain in the future). Lastly, the text presents a solid conclusion which focuses on emphasizing a point made in the text rather than summarizing it.
Third, let us assess the appropriateness of the style adhered by the author. The text presents a sophisticated tone. Since it is supposed to be formal, that tone is suitable. Now, read these underlined extracts:
"Well-known groups are Toots & The Maytals, Burning Spear, and Steel Pulse."
"Its songs are anti-government, anti-authority, and anti-conformity."
"Soon, rappers added lyrics, slogans, rhymes, and call-and-response exchanges with the audience"
"Early rap songs were mainly about dancing, partying, and the romantic adventures of the rappers"
"which (offshoots) in turn grow, change, and produce offshoots"
Notice that all of these have a parallel structure. The first sentence lists nouns, the second lists adjectives (all of which begin with anti-), the third lists nouns (all of which are in the plural form), the fourth lists nouns, and the fifth lists verbs (all of which are in the active voice). Now, pay extra attention to the following one:
"New styles are born, grow, change, and produce offshoots"
Notice that the first verb is in the passive voice and all the others are in the active form. Is this sentence grammatically wrong? No, but it is not balanced. That is why parallelism is intertwined with style: it is the author's choice how they will write. How do we fix this sentence, though? Before it, it is said that "popular music changes constantly" and, after it, the phrase "which in turn" is used. We can thus presume that the aforementioned changes give birth to the new styles. Therefore, we can rewrite the sentence like this:
"Those changes give birth to new styles, which grow, change, and produce offshoots"
Now, the sentence has balance because there is no passive voice in a list with active verbs. Again, this is not a grammatical correction, but rather a stylistic alteration.
Fourth, let us examine the coherence of the text. Does it make sense? Is it clear and understandable? Is there interrelatedness between ideas? Yes. Hence, the text is coherent.
Lastly, let us determine if it is cohesive. Some of the cohesive devices present in the text have been highlighted. The text presents enough of these links and is thereby cohesive.
This is the second text:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Right to Die
A difficult problem that is facing society is the legalization of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act of causing death painlessly in order to end suffering. People who are in a coma because of injury to their brains and elderly people who are terminally ill are being kept alive by artificial means. They do not have a chance to recover, but laws in most states of the United States do not allow doctors to end their lives. Although many people feel that doctors must do everything possible to keep their patients alive, I believe that euthanasia should be legal for three reasons.
The first and most important reason to support euthanasia is that some patients who have no chance to recover do not wish to be kept alive on machines. These patients are kept alive by life-support machines such as respirators to help them breathe and feeding tubes to provide them with nutrition. A well-known example in the United States is the case of Terri Schiavo, a young woman who went into a coma in 1990. Mrs. Schiavo was able to breathe on her own, but her brain was dead. For fifteen years, she was kept alive by a feeding tube. After eight years of seeking treatment for her condition, Michael Schiavo, her husband, asked the courts for permission to remove her feeding tube. He said that his wife had told him she would not want to be kept alive artificially when there was no hope of recovery. Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, disagreed with Mr. Schiavo and fought to keep their daughter alive. After seven years of bitter court battles, Mr. Schiavo finally won. Doctors removed Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube, and she soon died, fifteen years after first falling into a coma. Clearly, when there is absolutely no hope of recovery, society should allow a person in Terri Schiavo's condition to die if that is his or her wish.
A second reason to support euthanasia is that medical costs in the United States are very high. Keeping a person alive for years and years requires round-the-clock care in a hospital or nursing home. According to an administrator at a local hospital, daily hospital room charges average $5,000 there. Nursing home care is also expensive. A nursing home in our area charges $4,500 per month. These high costs can cause serious financial problems for a family.
The final reason to support legalizing euthanasia is that the family suffers. Hospital or nursing home staff give terminally ill patients only minimal care. Thus, the family must spend time caring for the special needs of their loved one. For instance, a cousin of mine who had been in a motorcycle accident was kept on life-support machines for eight years. He needed someone to stay with him twenty-four hours a day. During those years, his parents took turns taking care of him. His father stayed with him during the day while his mother worked, and then his mother stayed with him at night while his father worked. Other family members tried to help out when they could, but his parents did most of the physical work and suffered most of the emotional stress. After he finally died, my aunt said, "Of course, I am sad, but since we all knew he would eventually die, it might have been better if it had happened right when he had the accident. These past eight years have been hard."
To summarize, patients who are either terminally ill or who are in an irreversible coma often wish to die. Their care is a financial, physical, and emotional burden for their families. Therefore, families should have the right to ask doctors to turn off life-support machines or to remove feeding tubes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, let us determine the text's type and the author's goal. In the first paragraph, the author presents their stance in the debate dealt with in the text. Therefore, this is a persuasive essay, which obviously has the goal of convincing the reader of something. In the first paragraph, there is a clear thesis statement. Furthermore, even though the author utilizes cogent arguments – in the form of examples, statistics, and even a quotation – to uphold their thesis, there are no persuasive techniques like rhetorical questions and counterarguments in the text.
Secondly, let us analyze its structure. Only one paragraph has a conclusion, which is logically the longest one. All of them have succinct and interesting topic sentences with supporting sentences that coherently link to it. The text has a marvelous introduction, three body paragraphs, and its conclusion summarizes the main points made in the text.
Third, let us assess the appropriateness of the style adhered by the author. The text presents a sophisticated tone. Since it is supposed to be formal, that tone is suitable. Now, read the underlined extract:
"Their care is a financial, physical, and emotional burden for their families."
Notice that "financial", "physical", and "emotional" are all adjectives. Ergo, the sentence has a parallel structure.
Fourth, let us examine the coherence of the text. Does it make sense? Is it clear and understandable? Is there interrelatedness between ideas? Yes. Hence, the text is coherent.
Lastly, let us determine if it is cohesive. Some of the cohesive devices present in the text have been highlighted. The text presents enough of these links and is thereby cohesive.
This is just a more technical way to look at the texts you read.