Comparison and Contrast of Emily Dickinson's Poems About Death and Characteristics of College-Level

Themes of Emily Dickinson's Poems About Death

Introdutions:

The author of both “Because I could not stop for death” and “I heard a fly buzz” is Emily Dickinson and I will be comparing/contrasting the two poems. They compare to each other because they’re themes are the same; they both are about death. The difference between these poems are the settings and the state of deaths. “I heard a fly buzz” focuses on the physical state of death and it shows more of a scary side whereas “Because I could not stop for death” focuses on death spiritually and shows a soft side. 

Death is something everyone has to experience but no one could ever tell you how it feels because they wouldn’t know. “I heard a fly buzz” is a poem that shows death in a physical state. It also is a poem that has more of a scary tone when explaining death. Just from the beginning of the poem you can sense the scary tone. The author says, “the stillness in the room” which is to say the flying disturbing her dying alone with no family or friends.

Unit 1: What is College-Level Writing?
We begin this course by refining our ideas about what we are doing when we write. Let's begin by acknowledging that writing is a difficult, complex process. It does not come easily; it takes quite a bit of work and thought. Writing is more than words on a page, but a way to communicate ideas.

In college-level writing, we say written communication is rhetorical, which means our rhetorical situation (the purpose and audience of our writing) and our use of rhetorical appeals, such as ethos, logos, and pathos, determine our writing decisions. We define these terms in this unit, discuss how to identify them as you read, and discuss how to incorporate them into your own writing.

Writing is a process, rather than a product. You often need to write your ideas down to organize and clarify what you think about a subject. We discuss ways to use this process to manage your writing, develop your ideas, and make the task of drafting an essay seem less overwhelming.

Unit 2: What Makes Academic Writing Unique?

University students need to know how to write an effective academic essay. At its core, any academic essay is essentially an argument. This does not mean you are penning a series of aggressive verbal attacks; rather, you are using language to persuade someone to adopt a certain perspective.

For example, you may be asked to write an essay on how the revolution changed the culture in your country. Your response is an argument, in which you try to persuade your audience that the war changed cultural norms in three or four specific ways. As you create your argument, think about your writing as a conversation between yourself and an audience.

The way you choose to build and support your argument has a great deal to do with how you see yourself as part of the conversation. If you envision your work as a response to an existing prompt, the reader with whom you are "speaking" should shape the way you write.