Comparison and/or Contrast Thought and Essay Writing

Advice

Successful comparison-contrast requires two subjects and a set of points used to examine these subjects.

Example:

Let’s pretend we write for a wildlife magazine and have been studying hippos and rhinos in Africa. Our editor asks us to write a short comparison and/or contrast article about these two animals. Our first step is to make a list of shared points we will use to study these animals.

Our list of points: physical appearance, habitat, predators, eating habits, young-raising, mating habits.

We study both animals in terms of these shared points. Our findings:

Subject A: Hippos	Shared Points	Subject B: Rhinos
A similarity	physical appearance
A difference	habitat
A difference	predators
A similarity	eating habits
A similarity	young-raising
A difference	mating habits

Since we will not be able to present all of the similarities and differences in the space we have, we will need to choose the best ones according to our purpose and the outline we choose.

Three outlines are available when writing a comparison/contrast paper. Regardless of which outline you choose, the thesis paragraph’s introductory sentences are the same, up to the thesis sentence.

Choice #1: A Contrast Paper Outline:

Narrow to two differences:

Let’s pick habitat and predators as our two differences.

Paragraph #1 Thesis Paragraph—introduction plus thesis sentence

Ø Thesis Sentence pattern: Subject A and Subject B differ in Point of Difference #1 and Point of Difference #2.

Ø Filled in thesis sentence: Hippos (Subject A) and rhinos (Subject B) differ in habitat

(Point Of Difference #1) and predators (Point of Difference #2).

Point-by Point or Alternating Option

Paragraph #2: Hippos—habitat (Subject A—Difference #1)

Paragraph #3: Rhinos—habitat (Subject B— Difference #1)

Paragraph #4: Hippos—predators (Subject A— Difference #2)

Paragraph #5: Rhinos—predators (Subject B— Difference #2)

Paragraph—Conclusion

Subject or Block Option

Paragraph #2: Hippos—habitat (Subject A—Difference #1)

Paragraph #3: Hippos—predators (Subject A— Difference #2)

Paragraph #4: Rhinos—habitat (Subject B— Difference #1)

Paragraph #5: Rhinos—predators (Subject B— Difference #2)

Paragraph—Conclusion

Choice #2: A Comparison Paper Outline:

Narrow to three similarities:

Let’s pick physical appearance, eating habits, and young-raising as our three similarities.

Paragraph #1 Thesis Paragraph—introduction plus thesis sentence

Ø Thesis Sentence pattern: Subject A and Subject B are similar in Point Of Similarity #1, Point Of Similarity #2, and Point Of Similarity #3.

Ø Filled in thesis sentence: Hippos (Subject A) and rhinos (Subject B) are similar in physical appearance (Point Of Similarity #1), eating habits (Point Of Similarity #2), and young-raising (Point Of Similarity #3).

Paragraph #2: Hippos and Rhinos—phys. appear. (Subjects A and B—Similarity #1)

Paragraph #3: Hippos and Rhinos—eating habits (Subjects A and B— Similarity #2)

Paragraph #4: Hippos and Rhinos—young-raising (Subjects A and B— Similarity #3)

Paragraph—Conclusion

Choice #3: A Comparison-Contrast Paper Outline:

[ Note: Begin with the similarities unless you have a good reason not to.

Narrow to one or two differences and one or two similarities.

Let’s pick two similarities—physical appearance and eating habits, and one difference—habitat as our mix of similarities and differences.

Paragraph #1 Thesis Paragraph—introduction plus thesis sentence

Ø Thesis Sentence pattern: Subject A and Subject B are similar in Point of Similarity #1 and Point of Similarity #2, but differ in and Point of Difference #1.

Ø Filled in thesis sentence: Hippos (Subject A) and rhinos (Subject B) are similar in physical appearance (Point Of Similarity #1) and eating habits (Point Of Similarity #2), but differ in habitat (Point Of Difference #1).

Paragraph #2: Hippos and Rhinos—physical appearance (Subjects A and B--Similarity #1)

Paragraph #3: Hippos and Rhinos—eating habits (Subjects A and B--Similarity #2)

Paragraph #4: Hippos—habitat (Subject A—Difference #1)

Paragraph #5: Rhinos—habitat (Subject B—Difference #1)

Paragraph—Conclusion

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J Let’s practice--please turn to the practice exercise.