e a particular trend, new or old, that affects work in each of the professions: for example, the growing ease of web conferencing, the globalization of business and social interactions, or the transformations of voice communications.
The topic can relate to a significant event, recent or past, and how it shapes or shaped particular professions: for example, the passage of the Affordable Healthcare Act, the invention of the personal computer, or the commercialization of the World Wide Web.
Finally, the topic can even be a fairly broad area of experience: for example, use of technology, approaches to collaboration, or ethical codes of conduct.
Whichever approach you choose, you’ll need to assert, support, and explain a compelling thesis about the similarities and differences in perspectives held by professionals in the fields you choose to research, particularly about the common topic you’ve made the focus of the paper.
Overall Expectations
Refining the Focus: For this paper, you’ll need to spend more time thinking about the topic you’ll research, and you’ll also need to determine which professional fields you would like to compare. One strategy for identifying a topic of common interest is to search for editorial articles in trade publications, since these articles often talk about current issues in the field. Sometimes those issues are directly related to collaboration between professional fields. Another strategy might be to think of what attracts you to the professional field you’re pursuing? Has that aspect of the field always been there? Is it relevant to other fields? The class’s Knowledge Base on Professional Identities can provide a good place to explore possible topics and their professional relevance.
Collecting and Analyzing Data: For this paper, you’ll collect your data from a combination of professional and scholarly media, including scholarly journals, professional websites, and trade publications. Consider using an analysis table to gather significant information about each professional perspective. One column might include key terms or phrases used by sources in relation to the common topic of interest. Do they differ between professions? One column might collect practical issues documented in sources. Do the professsions you are examining recognize the same issues? Another column might collect references to relevant authoritative documents. Do the two professions use the same policies or focus on the same regulations? Whatever data you collect, remember that the goal is to compare similarities and differences in professional perspectives so that you can put them into conversation.
Developing a Thesis Statement: The thesis of this paper will be much like that you developed for the second paper, since they are both based on compare-and-contrast genres. The thesis should make a compelling statement about the similarities and differences between two different professional perspectives on a common topic. Some ways to make the thesis compelling are to highlight the most striking differences, to posit reasons for the different perceptions, or to call attention to similarities or differences that are least obvious to the casual observer. Such rhetorical moves not only help you to add your original observations to the ongoning conversation, but they also intrigue readers and invite them to see how you’ll demonstrate your thesis in the body of the paper.
Organizing Your Analysis: An extended compare-and-contrast paper can be organized in a few different ways. Here are some strategies to choose from:
Present each perspective in its own focused section and use a third section to make direct comparisons.
Present a focused section explaining the one professional perspective, and then dedicate one or more sections to reconciling that perspective with observations made about the other professional field’s approach to the topic.
