Description: In this drama analysis, you will compare/contrast one of the plays we read in class with one of the poems or short stories that we previously read. Your purpose is to show how we can understand the experience of illness, trauma, recovery, or medical treatment through these two pieces and show how the two pieces accomplish this in a mostly similar or different manner.
Directions: In order to write a good analysis, you will want to follow these steps:
1. Read each piece several times, looking up any unknown vocabulary or cultural references.
2. Identify the speakers, the audience, and the situation of the pieces. Consider the historical contexts as well. You may want to do a little research into the lives of the authors to get some ideas.
3. Brainstorm ideas for the analysis. This may include free-writing about both pieces and discussing them with classmates.
4. From your brainstorming, identify the theme that you want to focus on in your paper. You should be able to find substantial evidence for the theme in both pieces.
5. Look for passages/quotes that you can use from both pieces to support your theme. Make a list of passages/quotes that support the theme. This list can be used later when you write your paper.
6. Now identify the thesis of your paper: what, precisely, do you want to say about how these stories help us to understand the experience of illness, trauma or recovery? Will you be focusing mostly on similarities (comparing) or differences (contrasting)?
7. Decide which elements you identified in your analysis will help support your thesis.
8. Create an outline for your analysis, paying close attention to the logical order of ideas.
9. When you are ready to write, your introduction should include thenames and authors of both pieces, as well as the main themes, conflicts, and situations presented in each piece. Finally, be sure to clearly and cohesively present your thesis.
10. In the body of your paper, focus on your in-depth analysis of each piece. You should include specific evidence from each piece to support your argument. You could organize your paper in point-by-point or block style for compare-contrast.
11. Finally, your concluding paragraph should explain how your analysis is relevant to your reader who is interested in health sciences.
Audience: Write for an audience of your academic peers (classmates) and professor. You can assume that your audience has a basic knowledge of the story that you are referring to but has not done a close and careful analysis.
Citation: You should cite each piece and any other sources using MLA format. At the end of your paper, include a "Works Cited" page in which you provide a complete citation for the story as well as any other sources that you used (i.e. sources about the author's life or historic context).
Format: Your analysis should be 4-5 pages long, double-spaced, size 12 font, with 1 inch margins. Use an "academic" font, such as Arial, Cambria, Calibri, or Times New Roman.