Comparative Source Analysis (CSA)

4-5 pages, not including Works Cited page
15% of course grade
Beginning of section during Week 6.  After this time, late penalties will apply
(see MMW Style Sheet).  Even with late penalties, your CSE will not be
accepted after section of Week 9, after which time it will be considered “not
completed” and will result in a grade of F for the course.  Any exception to
this deadline must be approved with specific and legitimate documentation in
advance by your TA.
Purpose
In the Critical Reading Assignment (CRA) you just completed, you were introduced to one scholar’s
position on a given subject.  In the second writing assignment, the Comparative Source Analysis
(CSA), you will examine how two pieces of scholarly work relate to a common topic and to each
other.  This assignment provides you with another opportunity to practice critical reading,
summarization and paraphrasing skills and to introduce the process of formulating a research
question.  This assignment will:
? give you exposure to two different scholarly approaches to a common topic.
? teach you to think about how scholarship overlaps and how it differs in the treatment of a
given topic.
? teach you how to identify conceptual problems, articulate the significance of those problems
and analyze how well an academic argument addresses them.
? give you some practice in designing a research question
Read assigned articles/essays
Your professor has assigned two scholarly works that you will read, compare and analyze.  Here is
how you will find your articles/essays:
? Professor Chang has assigned two articles (published in academic journals) on the subject of the
Black Death.  You will find the following articles on Professor Chang’s E-reserves site by accessing
the UCSD Library website:
o Dols, Michael W. “The Comparative Communal Responses to The Black Death in Muslim
and Christian Societies.” Viator  5 (Jan. 1, 1974): 269-287.  ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
o Stearns, Justin.  “New Directions in the Study of Religious Responses to the Black Death.”
History Compass 7.5 (2009): 1363-1375.  Wiley Online Library. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Write a four-five page analytical essay
Write an essay that explains and analyzes how the assigned sources relate to a common topic and to
each other.  You may organize your essay any way you feel is best, but your essay should contain the
following elements:
1) Write an introduction.
a) Identify each source.  Who are the authors, and what kind of sources are these?
b) Identify the common topic and provide any background information about the topic
that is necessary to situate the articles in their historical context and to help the reader
understand the content of the articles.
2) Summarize the argument contained in each of the two sources (maximum 200 words for
each source).  What problem does each author address, what is the significance of that
problem, and how does each author address it with an argument?
3) Following the summaries, write an analysis demonstrating what these sources teach you
about the topic and how they speak to each other.
a) What are the areas of commonality regarding the topic?  Consider the author’s:
approach, problem, method, sources, thesis, claims, evidence and/or conclusions.
Provide specific examples from the source and include marked printouts/photocopies
for all citations.
b) What are the areas of difference regarding this topic?  Consider the author’s:  approach,
problem, method, sources, thesis, claims, evidence and/or conclusions.  Provide specific
examples from the source and include marked printouts/photocopies for all citations.
4) Advance a research question.  Restate the common problem that these two sources
address and formulate a Level-3 research question to which these two sources provide
different answers.  What broader question do these sources address?  How well do these
sources address the question?  What might you still need to know in order to answer this
question? (Note:  A Level-3 research question is an open-ended question to which an answer
can be proposed based on scholarly research, but that cannot be answered definitively.  See the
“Levels of Arguability Worksheet” that is posted to the MMW Website under Reference
Handouts).
Note:  You may use quotations in this assignment, but use them judiciously and be sure to cite
appropriately.