WRITING A COMPARATIVE COMMENTARY

A) GENERAL GUIDELINES

• Begin by reading carefully each text and annotating the central themes/topics addressed.
Consider the purpose and content of texts as they were discussed in class. How do the
fragments fit with what you have been studying so far?

• Focus on BOTH similarities and differences at all levels:

- Thematic: Do they address the same theme(s)? Do they address the same topic(s)? Do
they differ or agree in their approach? If so, how and why?
- Formal: Do they belong to the same genre? Do they follow the same rhyme scheme
and meter? How are their formal/stylistic features connected to their content?
- Ideological: Are the authors advancing some kind of political, economic, racial, and/
or gender agenda in their texts? Do they agree or differ with one another?

- Aesthetic: What kind of imagery, language, and rhetorical figures can be found in the
texts? Is the similitude/difference relevant in the context of the author’s general
production and/or background?
- Historical: Were the texts produced in the same period? Are they responding to the
same or to a similar historical event/figure/phenomenon? Is their response the same?

• Engage in critical thinking. Avoid merely providing two separate paraphrases with no
point of connection whatsoever. You are not being asked to provide two distinct
commentaries but a single, albeit comparative, analysis.

• Charts, Venn diagrams, lists, and other types of schematization may come in handy when
preparing for your commentary, as a means to rapidly visualize points of connection.

• Naturally, one may find numerous points of connection. As a general rule, however, try
to focus on the most relevant features, namely, the most informative/central
similarities/contrasts in light of the set of topics that have been covered in class.

• Observing that a feature appears is not enough. The objective of your analysis in a
commentary is suggesting an explanation for its appearance, using your knowledge of the
text(s) as a whole and of the literary and intellectual context(s).

• Do not just set ideas side by side, but make explicit the relation between them (cause,
consequence, similarity, difference, opposition, concession, etc).

• Refer specifically to parts of the text that prove what you are trying to argue/exemplify/
note and explain whatever point you want to make with that quotation. Make sure
quotations are grammatically complete in themselves; even if part is elided, what is left
should read as a grammatical whole, and they should be integrated grammatically within
your own text. Quotations should be set separately from the text and indented from the
left margin only if they are longer than 3-4 lines.

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B) STRUCTURE
 1. INTRODUCTION

• In the introduction to any commentary, students are expected to provide some kind of
engaging opening as a means to introduce the central idea(s) that will define their
analysis. This may take the form of a generic state of affairs or a more formulaic opening
(among other possibilities) from which students must proceed to provide a thesis
statement:

“During the eighteenth century, nature served as one of the most recurrent sources
of inspiration behind the production of most poets active in the Anglo-American
scene. The specific terms in which nature was represented, however, changed
dramatically in the course of the century. Because of their almost diametrically
opposed approaches to nature, Alexander Pope’s Windsor Forest (1713) and William
Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1798) stand as a clear illustration.”

• By “thesis statement,” we refer to an easily identifiable, well-phrased, articulate argument

that makes explicit the specific idea (or set of ideas) to be critically analyzed and proven
in the commentary. In other words, it is a statement that addresses what the commentary
as a whole is supposed to be trying to argue/evince/illustrate/etc:

“The aim of this commentary is to examine how and why the representation of
nature differs in terms of … and … in the poems provided for analysis”

• Always remember to use your introduction to identify and classify (briefly) the texts to be
discussed as well as their author(s) and date of composition/publication. Only if
applicable and relevant, make a brief note on what you know about the specific date and
circumstances of the texts’ composition and/or the content of the fragments (general
approach, no more than 2 lines in extension).

2. DISCUSSION

• The prime aim of this section is to persuade the reader of the validity of the thesis
statement established in the introduction, using for that purpose proper critical
argumentation and textual evidence as material support.

• As a general rule, your discussion should comprise 70% of your whole commentary.
Several organizational schemes may be followed, depending on the specific ideas
addressed, the nature of the arguments to be made, and the students’ personal style (eg.
“classic” comparison, “lens”/“keyhole” comparison, point-by-point comparison, text-by-
text comparison, etc). Regardless of the structure you may choose to follow, however,
remember to establish sound points of connection between the texts always

• Each paragraph must clearly present a well-phrased argument/idea, proven and examined
through well-chosen details as well as textual evidence. Along this line, all paragraphs
must follow a logical organization, seeking to maximize the reader’s understanding of the
various arguments/ideas presented. In other words, students must make an effort to
persuade the reader, clarifying their points as much as possible.

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• If applicable and necessary, students may resort to secondary sources in order to find
further support for their ideas. All secondary sources must be properly identified
following MLA guidelines in a separate page. Students interested in using secondary
sources in their commentary, however, are reminded that these sources must always serve
 as support and must never be used as the central argument/idea controlling the analysis.

3. CONCLUSION

• When introducing a commentary, students are expected to establish the main themes/
topics to be discussed. By the time the student reaches the conclusion, a number of ideas
must have been properly introduced in order to support his or her specific interpretation.
In the conclusion, thus, students are expected to restate their main arguments, providing
some kind of closure that effectively ties back to the original thesis statement without
serving as a mere repetition or paraphrasis of the introductory paragraph:

-Introduction: “During the eighteenth century, nature served as one of the most
recurrent sources of inspiration behind the production of most poets active in the
Anglo-American scene. The specific terms in which nature was represented,
however, changed dramatically in the course of the century. Because of their almost
diametrically opposed approaches to nature, Alexander Pope’s Windsor Forest (1713)
and William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1798) stand as a clear
illustration. The aim of this commentary is to examine how and why the
representation of nature differs in terms of … and … in the poems provided for
analysis. For this purpose, I will focus on the ways in which both text address …”

-Conclusion: “Therefore, as the discussion provided above evinces, in both texts,

nature serves as a locus whereby the poets filter their reflections on … For Pope,
nature serves as … For Wordsworth, on the other hand, nature stands as …
Ultimately, the differences between the two texts respond to the markedly differing
agendas the poets espouse. Whereas Pope’s text appears to have composed as a
piece of propaganda in support of …, Wordsworth’s lyric seems to be meant as …
This fact, together with … and …, explains why nature is represented in such
radically different terms in the two texts.”

4. WORKS CITED

• If secondary sources have been quoted, either explicitly, as paraphrasis, or otherwise,

students are required to properly identify them in a separate page following MLA
guidelines. Failure to acknowledge external ideas will result in immediate failure

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C) ENGLISH/EXPRESSION

• Pay attention to punctuation. This includes indentation at the beginning of paragraphs

and proper capitalization.
• Titles of long works are underlined in handwriting and italicized in word processors.
Inverted commas are only used for short works included in a longer collection, poems,
etc. Be careful to give the exact title when identifying a work for the first time, though
later an abbreviated version can be used.

• Do not refer to authors by first names. Use name and surname for first mention,
surname afterwards.

• Nationalities, languages, literary, political and philosophical movements are all capitalized:
British, French, Romanticism, Enlightenment.

• Avoid colloquialisms, most notably impersonal “you,” “really + adjective” and “a lot
of /lots of.”

• “Man,” “mankind,” and their associated masculine pronouns are grammatically correct
but anachronistically sexist language. You can use “the individual/individuals,”
“humanity,” “human beings,” “humankind,” and plural concordances, or other
structures, to avoid the “he/she” problem.

• Do not start sentences with “and” or “but” except for very occasional special emphasis.

• Everything you write is taken to be you own opinion, so it is unnecessary to specify “I

think that,” “in my opinion.” Use other ways to tone down debatable interpretations:
“appears to,” “seems to,” “it may be argued that,” etc.

• Be careful with generalizing or moralizing conclusions. Rather than implying yourself and
the reader in a vision of the world that you may or may not share, present such
reflections as part of what the text may be trying to convey.