How to write a conflicting perspectives essay and link your materials? (1 Viewer)

[jamesischool]

My core text is wag the dog, i've chosen George Bush's speech at Fort Bragg as one additional material and am looking for another one. I understand that each text has conflicting perspectives within it, my problem is that I have no idea what an essay should look like. If anyone has a basic structure of a conflicting perspectives essay they'd like to share that would be awesome.
My other issue is that I don't understand what to link between texts. Both of them showcase their own views, directing attention away from other views which could potentially be something to talk about. Unfortunately my english teacher isn't much help so i'm a bit clueless about how to put an essay together. any help would be much appreciated even if you're not doing my core text
Thanks ^^

 

[ThandraCityRail]

my teacher said that you don't really need to link texts unless stated

you can if you want to, but i don't think it matters

 

[jamesischool]

basically i've got my thesis as 'how and in what context the truth is represented is dependent upon the goal of the people presenting it to society'. I can link both Wag the dog and Bush's speech to this thesis, however should i also be saying:
In the same way which Brean in wag the dog manipulates the media to represent his truth, President Bush uses 'bla bla bla techniques' in an attempt to sway public opinion?
or should i just talk about how each of them addresses the question separately?

 

[aphorae]

You don't need to link them so explicitly. However, since you'll have a thesis with one or two main ideas, the texts should link back to that - or you could say something in the conclusion like "The combination of these texts underscore ..." etc. Or perhaps your topic sentence might say, "The idea that X is similarly explored in Y, which depicts ...". But it's not necessary to do that, and I think a waste of time to be linking in the actual 'meat' of your body paragraphs.

 

[jamesischool]

ahh okay so basically
intro
topic 1 - prescribed text
topic 1 - related text
topic 2 - prescribed text
topic 2- related text
conclusion
thanks for the help as well

 

[aphorae]

That's fine So the first two paragraphs can be linked to one idea, and the next two linked to another - just preferable/more structured. Good luck!