Notes on P3: - Writing a Comparative analysis - Breakdown of Souza e Silva's article

1. Writing to analyze
Constructing a comparative analysis

2. Analysis: what are we doing?
 The author is:
 Helping the reader understand the origins, qualities, significance, and
potential impact of a subject
 Origins: Beginnings
 Qualities: Attributes
 Significance: Importance
 Impact: Influences

3. Subject: Mville Spatial Identity
 Origins: Where does our analysis draw from, and why was
it created?
 Where: Manhattanville's Facebook and Instagram
 Why: to create a modern presence to stay relevant, current, and
connected with students (past, present, future), and campus
community etc.
 Qualities: What are the subject’s attributes?
 See spatial identity analysis chart
 What about that attribute will you explore?

4. Continued
 Significance: Why is this important?
 competition with other schools, reputation with community, recognition
from alumni, respect for faculty, etc.
 Impact: How will this positively/negatively impact an
audience?
 Student pride, potential student decision, potential employee
decision, alumni funding, job offers for graduating students etc.

5. Grounds for Comparison
 A comparative analysis cannot C&C everything about a subject,
so we must develop a grounds for comparison:
A mutual base for an author to compare two subjects

6. Grounds for Comparing Mville FB to IG:
Facebook Instagram
1) Targeted Audience
2) Content
• Posts
• Comments
• Interactions
• Frequency
1) Targeted Audience
2) Content
• Posts
• Comments
• Interactions
• Frequency

7. Distinguishing Qualities
Expand on Grounds by focusing on a specific quality
 Grounds: Posts
 Qualities: Student events on campus
 Explore: posts featuring Human Rights Awareness Day

8. On-Campus Event: Human Rights Awareness Day
Facebook Instagram

9. Example:
“Both Manhattanville’s Facebook and Instagram accounts
feature posts encouraging students to attend the Human
Rights Awareness Day events; however, while Instagram
invites audiences to “come by” their Gay Pride adorned
table, the Facebook image features a generic globe with
two doves, and tells audiences to “learn more” from
speakers who will "discuss, educate, and help”
(Manhattanville_college “Mville is hosting”; Manhattanvile
College “Don’t miss out…”).”

10. Significance and Impact
 A comparison is followed by explaining the significance (importance)
of the difference or similarity
 Ask yourself, “why would this comparison matter?”
 “While advertising the same event, the differences
between the post’s design can alter how appealing the
event appears, and what the event entails. Because the
Facebook post approach is more broad and formal,
students may not feel as inclined, or interested, in an
event that sounds more like a lecture than a community
gathering”

11. Finished product
GROUNDS AND QUALITY:
Both Manhattanville’s Facebook and Instagram accounts feature posts encouraging
students to attend the Human Rights Awareness Day events; however, while Instagram
invites audiences to “come by” their Gay Pride adorned table, the Facebook image
features a generic globe with two doves, and tells audiences to “learn more” from
speakers who will "discuss, educate, and help” (Manhattanville_college “Mville is
hosting”; Manhattanville College “Don’t miss out…”).
SIGNIFICANCE
While advertising the same event, the differences between the post’s design can alter
how appealing the event appears, and what the event entails. Because the Facebook
post’s approach is more broad and formal, students may not feel as inclined, or
interested, in an event that sounds more like a lecture than a community gathering.
IMPACT
LGBTQ+ students in particular who may be looking for solidarity outside of pride-
centric clubs, lose the opportunity of understanding how this event can benefit them.
Given Manhattanville's status as a college campaigning for social justice, an event like
this could be crucial to cultivate inclusivity and understanding for its LGBTQ+
students.”

12. Paragraph Structure:
Grounds for
Comparison Quality
Comparison
(Similarity or
Difference?)
Supporting
Evidence
Explanation of
significance for and
impact on the
intended audience
Posts
Human Rights
Awareness Day Difference in
structure
and features
of post
Significance:
- Changes what it
represents
- Who it invites
Impact:
- LGBTQ+ students miss
event for them that
could build solidarity
Evidence: quotes
from posts

13. Suggested Diction to stage comparison:
When things are similar:
• In addition
• Similarly
• Likewise
• Correspondingly
• Just as
• Same as
• Both
When things are different
• However
• Even though
• Unlike
• While
• In contrast
• Conversely
• On the other hand

14. Your turn:
You each completed a spatial identity analysis looking at a location’s Facebook
and Instagram. For this assignment, you’ll be assigned a partner, and asked to
look at their spatial identity post. Just as we created a comparative analysis
paragraph using Mville’s social media, you will using your partner’s post.
1. Begin by choosing the grounds for your comparison. Do you want to focus
on a specific kind of content, audiences catered to, amount of likes,
etc…
2. Decide what quality you want to focus on within that grounds. Example)
If you chose posts, what kind of posts?
3. Establish significance (why does this comparison matter?) and analyze
impact by specifying an audience
4. Utilize the language we looked at to stage your C&C and the example
paragraph.
 Both are found under Course Documents
 The paragraph will be a 6 point blogging assignment

15. Adriana de Souza e Silva: “Mobile Narratives:
Reading and Writing Urban Space with
Location-Based Technologies”
Location-Based Technology:
Technology that enables users to inscribe
locations with digital information such as
texts, images, and videos, and find other
people in the vicinity.

16. Urban-Narratives:
Souza e Silva is referring to the stories/identities
about city spaces. A location’s “narrative” is
constantly being written/re-written/and re-re-
written by users experiencing the location. This is
where we see the product of co-constructed
knowledge.

17. Reading and Writing Space:
Reading = Viewing, understanding, interpreting
Writing = Inscribing locations with meaning
Think about how we create meaning, achieve
purpose, appeal to an audience, or utilize text on
social media. It’s the same process.

18. Net-Locality
A layering of physical space (real life) and digital text
(online life).
Example) You log on to a location-based application in
Queens, NY. What you see first are locations in Queens. This
is where real life (your choices) are being manipulated by
what’s online, but this is based on where you are in real life.
Thus, we have a hybrid (combined) space of real life, and
digital worlds

19. Net-Locality Continued:
What does net-locality affect aside from the creation of this hybrid space?
Access: what is first given to us depends on where we are
Social practices: Our behavior, and what we consider to be normal, is altered by
how much closer the real world is to the digital world
Examples)
1. Checking-in on FB
2. Geo-filtering on Snapchat
3. Geo-tagging on Instagram
4. Reviewing/Rating locations on social media, or sites like Google places,
Yelp, FourSquare
5. Looking at a location’s social media before visiting- judging based on
what’s there or not there
6. Finding crowd’s online opinion before making a decision (crowd sourcing)