For this assignment, you must write a comparative analysis of two essays (see choices below). As with your first paper, you can only use quoted examples from the two essays that you’re analyzing as evidence to support your claims.

This essay will be 3-4 full pages long; it must be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins.

Follow the format from Writing Your Second Paper to develop and organize your essay into an introduction (paragraph 1), body (paragraphs 2 & 3), and conclusion (paragraph 4). You will need to use MLA documentation (see MLA Documentation for Papers 1 & 2).

These topics below are taken from Topics for Discussion: Unit 2, so you should begin your exploration of them as you post responses for those discussion topics. These topics are not suggestions; they are a required part of the assignment.  Make sure that you choose one of them when you write your paper.

Topic I

Idealism vs. Realism

Both Nelson Mandela, in “I Am Prepared to Die,” and Martin Luther King, in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” discuss political activism, though the type of activism each man advocates differs.  Write a paper in which you analyze the similarities and differences between these two writers’ positions concerning political activism.  Hint: Consider the relationship between their idealism and the practical methods they advocate in order to achieve their ideals. Using the Paper Plan & Development Strategy from WRITING YOUR SECOND PAPER, you should write an essay that explains their positions and then arrives at a conclusion that is based on your comparative analysis of these essays.

Topic II

The Few Vs the Many

In The Prince, Niccoló Machiavelli argues that political power should be in the hands of the ruler, and he states that a leader must use seemingly immoral means-such as force-to maintain a well-ordered state. Nelson Mandela, in “I Am Prepared to Die,” also discusses the use of force to maintain order by those in power.  However, unlike Machiavelli, who places power in the hands of the ruler, Mandela argues that political power should be in the hands of the many.  Analyze the relationship between these two essays, focusing on both the similarities and differences between the two texts. Examine their arguments regarding the use of force by the government, as well as their discussions of the few and the many in terms of political power. Using the Paper Plan & Development Strategy from WRITING YOUR SECOND PAPER, you need to write an essay that explains their positions and then arrives at a conclusion that is based on your comparative analysis of these essays.

Topic III

Morality and Immorality: Actions VS Results

Both Niccoló Machiavelli in The Prince and Martin Luther King in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discuss the relationship between moral or immoral acts and the results of those actions.  Write a paper in which you point out the similarities and differences between these two texts concerning their discussions of morality. Using the Paper Plan & Development Strategy from WRITING YOUR SECOND PAPER, you need to write an essay that explains their positions and then arrives at a conclusion that is based on your comparative analysis of these essays.