Cleo sighed as she stared at the blank computer screen in front of her. She had a 5,000 word essay due in just three days and she had barely even started researching her topic yet. The assignment was to write a comparative analysis of two historical figures from different eras and discuss their impacts and legacies. Cleo had chosen to write about Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey, two influential women who used their platforms to advocate for social change, but now she was feeling overwhelmed at the massive undertaking in front of her.
She knew she needed to get started right away if she wanted any chance of completing this on time while still giving herself enough time to proofread and polish her work. Cleo opened a new Word document and titled it “Comparing the Legacies of Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey.” She decided to start by brainstorming an outline for the structure of her essay. Most comparative analysis essays followed a similar format of introducing the two subjects being compared, discussing their backgrounds and early impacts separately, analyzing how their approaches to advocacy were both similar and different, and concluding by assessing their overall legacies.
For her introductory paragraph, Cleo wrote a short opening statement noting that while Roosevelt and Winfrey lived in very different eras, they both exemplified the power that influential women have to create positive social change. She then provided a brief preview of the structure of the essay, noting that the body paragraphs would discuss their early lives and advocacy approaches individually before analyzing points of comparison. For her conclusion, she stated that despite coming from different generations, both left legacies as trailblazers who gave voice to the oppressed and inspired generations of women.
With the basic outline and introduction drafted, Cleo felt ready to start researching in more depth on each of the subjects. She pulled up some background articles on Eleanor Roosevelt to begin learning more about her early life and family influences. Roosevelt was born in 1884 to a wealthy New York family but faced a challenging childhood, with her father’s alcoholism creating instability at home. She went on to study and receive a private education, as most wealthy women of the time did, then married her fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1905.
As First Lady from 1933 to 1945, Eleanor emerged as one of the most influential women in American political history. She used her elevated platform to advocate for progressive causes and draw attention to social issues like poverty, civil rights, and women’s rights. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences and write a daily newspaper column, through which she publicly supported causes like helping migrants and union workers. After Franklin’s death in 1945, Eleanor continued her advocacy work and became a United Nations delegate, founding member of Amnesty International, and champion of human rights worldwide.
Having outlined Eleanor’s early life and rise to prominence through her marriage and advocacy as First Lady, Cleo felt ready to begin researching Oprah Winfrey’s background story. Born in 1954 to a poor single mother in rural Mississippi, Oprah faced immense hardships from an early age but developed a strong work ethic. By age 14, she was the youngest news anchor ever hired at a local television station. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, she worked as a reporter and anchor then launched her hugely successful nationally syndicated talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1986, using her platform to highlight social issues.
Through her talk show and other ventures, Oprah emerged as one of the most famous and influential women in the world. She delved into topics facing disadvantaged groups like HIV/AIDS victims, recovering drug addicts, and victims of abuse-issues that were widely taboo at the time. Oprah also focused on empowering women through her influential book club recommendations and sharing her own rags-to-riches story of success against the odds as a positive example. In addition to her media empire valued at over $2 billion today, Oprah remains a philanthropist supporting education initiatives in underprivileged areas across the globe through her Oprah Winfrey Foundation.
With the separate biographical research completed, Cleo felt ready to start drafting her analysis body paragraphs comparing Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey’s advocacy approaches in more depth. For the first analysis paragraph, she focused on the platforms each woman utilized to amplify progressive causes and give voice to the disadvantaged populations they championed. Although Roosevelt worked to drive social change primarily through her role as First Lady and later as a UN ambassador, she faced greater restrictions as a woman in the early 20th century and had to be strategic in her approaches. Winfrey, on the other hand, leveraged the reach of modern media and her hugely popular talk show to shine a light on taboo topics facing minorities and victims in a boldly confrontational style.
In her second analysis paragraph, Cleo delved deeper into the specific causes and issues each advocated for and how their priorities overlapped or differed based on the eras they rose to prominence in. Both championed empowering marginalized groups like people of color, the impoverished, and abuse victims. Roosevelt also focused heavily on workers’ rights and women’s access to education/the workforce since second-wave feminism had not yet taken hold in her early 20th century context. Meanwhile, Winfrey’s era saw growing recognition of LGBTQ rights and the AIDS epidemic, which she used her platform to raise awareness around and combat stigma against.
Having drafted the body of her comparative analysis, Cleo began working on her conclusion. She tied her evaluation of each woman’s legacy back to the introductory thesis about their empowering of oppressed groups against the backdrop of their respective historical contexts. Although coming from different generations, both left lasting impacts as truly pioneering advocates who motivated social progress through courageously giving voice to the voiceless. Their approaches may have differed based on the constraints of their eras, but their legacies as trailblazing women who inspired others to fight for justice continue influencing generations of leaders today.
Cleo re-read her finished essay and was pleased to see she had exceeded the 5,000 word count requirement, coming in around 5,500 words total. She decided to spend the next day proofreading carefully for any errors or areas needing clarification before finalizing her bibliography and works cited list. After compiling the list of sources referenced throughout her research and analysis, she submitted her completed comparative essay on the legacies of Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey, feeling confident she had adequately conveyed the insightful comparison within the guidelines provided. While the assignment had seemed overwhelmingly daunting at first, breaking it down into manageable chunks and focusing first on deep research made the writing process smoothly come together in the end. Cleo was grateful for the valuable lesson in effective time management and research skills the large project taught her.
Andrew Stroud