This document provides instructions for a mini research project on writing a comparison and contrast essay about two explorers' firsthand accounts of climbing Mount Everest. It includes directions on gathering and interpreting information from multiple sources, expressing a clear thesis statement, organizing the essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion, incorporating source material through quotations, paraphrases, and summaries, citing sources using parenthetical citations and a works cited page, and creating source cards and note cards to organize information from the sources. The task is to write the comparison and contrast essay using excerpts from two specified sources about climbing Mount Everest.