Comparison and Contrast  essay (3-4) pages.

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COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

Compari

so

n and Contrast Essay

Criteria: This essay will in fully demonstrate the ideas and rhetorical strategy of comparison/contrast as discussed in class.  The essay will be a minimum of 3-4 pages in length and will follow the essay manuscript guidelines provided. The information presented in your essays must be original. Do not use outside research for this paper. You are required to write either a comparative essay or a contrast essay; however, should you decide to write both a comparison and contrast essay. Regardless of your choice, your final grade will based on how well your essay is written.

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Compare and/or contrast the toys of your youth with those that are popular today.

Explain what those similarities and/or differences mean.

2. Compare and/or contrast the attitudes of youth and maturity. Use examples to clarify

your points.

3. The representation of women, fathers, teenagers, or some other group in an earlier TV

sitcom or show (i.e., 1950s or 1960s) and in a similar contemporary sitcom or show.

4. Life as a married person and life as a single person.

5. Compare or contrast changes in fashion or music (not both) between a period in the

20th century and the past.

6. The influence of celebrities, bosses, or superiors and the influence of parents and/or

friends.

7. Female and male styles of communication.

8. Traditional educational and online education.

9. Two forms of social media (ie. Facebook and Myspace; Instagram and Twitter).

10. Two or more products being considered for purchase.

Essay Due Dates:

Draft of comparison and contrast essay due (3 copies): Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2020

Final draft of comparison and contrast essay due (instructor’s marked draft and final paper: Thursday, Mar. 26, 2020

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Objectives: At the end of this unit you will be able to:

— Explain how the comparison/contrast thesis statement differs from other forms of thesis

statements

— Identify transitional words/phrases used in comparison and contrast essays

— Identify bases for comparison or contrast

–Define analogy

— Explain the block method of organization, its advantages and limitations

— Explain the point-by-point method of organization, its advantages and limitations

— Explain the primary steps used in developing comparison/contrast essays

— Write a successful comparison or contrast essay that demonstrates many of the

aforementioned elements

— Name and explain a practical, “real world” application for comparison/contrast

What is Comparison /Contrast?

Comparison/contrast is the examination of the similarities and/or differences between people, objects, or ideas, in order to arrive at a judgment or conclusion.

When we compare or contrast two items, we want to be able to see very clearly the points of comparison or contrast so that we may judge which item is better or worse than the other in some respect. The process of comparison gives us a deeper understanding of the subject and enables us to make well-researched decisions rather than being at the mercy of a clever salesperson or being convinced by a good price or some other feature that might strike us at first glance.

Choosing the Two Part Topic

The problem with writing a good comparison or contrast essay usually centers on the fact that you now have a two-part topic. This demands very careful attention to the thesis statement. While you must be careful to choose two subjects that have enough in common to make them comparable, you must also not choose two things having so much in common that you cannot possibly handle all the comparable points in one essay. Once you have chosen a two-part topic that you feel is not too limiting and not too broad, you must remember that a good comparison or contrast essay should devote an equal or nearly equal amount of space to each of the two parts. If the writer is only interested in one of the topics, the danger is that the essay will end up being very one-sided.

Here’s an example of a one-sided contrast:

While American trains go to only a few towns, are infrequent, and are often shabby and uncomfortable, the European train is much nicer.

The following example is a better written contrast that gives attention to both topics:

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While American trains go to only a few large cities, run very infrequently, and are often shabby and uncomfortable, European trains go to virtually every small town, are always dependable, and are clean and attractive.

Exercise 1: Evaluating the Two-Part Topic

Study the following topics and decide whether each topic is too broad for an essay, or whether it is suitable as a topic for an essay of comparison or contrast.

Topic

Too Broad
Suitable

1. Australia and England

_______
_____

2. Indian elephants and African elephants
_______
_______

Topic

Too Broad
Suitable

3. California champagne and French

_______
_______

champagne

4. Wooden furniture and plastic furniture
_______
_______

5. Wood and plastic

_______
_______

6. Paperback books and hardcover books
_______
_______

7. Mothers and fathers

_______
_______

8. Taking photographs with a flash and
_______
_______

taking photographs using available light

9. Doctors and lawyers

_______
_______

10. Trains and airplanes

_______
_______

Two Approaches to Ordering Material

The first method for ordering material in an essay of comparison or contrast is known as the point-by-point method. When you use this method, you compare a point of one topic with a point of the other topic. The following paragraph offers an example of the point-by-point method.

My husband and I constantly marvel at the fact that our two sons, born of the same parents and only two years apart in age, are such completely different

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human beings. The most obvious differences became apparent at their births. Our firstborn, Mark, was big and bold—his powerful, chunky legs gave us the impression he could have walked out of the delivery room on his own. Our second son, Wayne, was delightfully different. Rather than having the football physique that Mark was born with, Wayne came into the world with a long, slim, wiry body more suited to running, jumping, and contorting. Wayne’s eyes, rather than being intense like Mark’s, were impish and innocent. When Mark was delivered, he cried only momentarily, and then seemed to settle into a state of intense concentration, as if trying to absorb eh could about the strange, new environment he found himself in. Conversely, Wayne screamed from the moment he first appeared. There was nothing helpless or pathetic about his cry either—he was darn angry!

–student

The next paragraph uses the block method of organization. The writer discusses the first topic in its entirety (games), offers a transition, and then fully discusses the second topic (business).

Games are of limited duration, take place on or in fixed and finite sites, and are governed by openly promulgated rules that are enforced on the spot by neutral professionals. Moreover, they’re performed by relatively evenly matched teams that are counseled and led through every move by seasoned hands. Scores are kept, and at the end of the game, a winner is declared. Business is usually a little different. In fact, if there is anyone out there who can say that the business is of limited duration, takes place on a fixed site, is governed by openly promulgated rules that are enforced on the spot by neutral professionals, competes only on relatively even terms, and performs in a way that can be measured in runs or points, then that person is either extraordinarily lucky or seriously deluded.

–Warren Bennis, “Time to Hang Up the Old Sports Cliches”

In the textbook, A Short History of the Movies, author Gerald Mast devotes one of his chapters to explaining the difference between the two masters of comedy: Mack Sennett, the man who created the Keystone Kops, and Charlie Chaplin, the loveable tramp who could make people laugh and cry at the same time. Sometimes the author uses the block method; sometimes he uses the point-by-point method. Sometimes in an essay he uses both. Notice the effectiveness of each approach:

Block Method

Some of the differences between Sennett and Chaplin become clear when comparing similar devices and motifs they both used. Both Sennett and Chaplin used cops. For Sennett, the cops were purely comic characters, whose good will was balanced by their efforts and frenzy; Sennett’s cops can do nothing right. Their cars crash, their boats sink; they fall all over each other as they swarm to answer a call. They are as earnest and as functional as toy soldiers. Chaplin’s

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cops, though not precisely what contemporary radicals would call pigs, were not far from it. In Police, the cops spend their time leisurely journeying by motor car to answer an emergency call for help; they drink tea and fluff their uniforms and show no concern at all for Edna’s distress. The cops in The Adventurer are not as satirical, but they do shoot rifles at the escaping Charlie, and their bullets look as though they could kill….

Point-By-Point Method

Temperamentally, Chaplin could never see comedy the way Sennett saw it. For Sennett, the comic world was a world of silly surfaces; for Chaplin the comic world was a way at getting at the serious world of men and society. For Sennett, comedy was an end; for Chaplin, it was a means….Both Sennett and Chaplin use the ocean; for Sennett the ocean is a location for watery gags, but for Chaplin the

ocean is a place where people can drown. Both Sennett and Chaplin use the chase, but Sennett emphasizes more of the pure motion and frenzy of it; whereas, Chaplin emphasizes the cleverness and skill of Charlie at avoiding capture….

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Alternating or Point-By-Point Outline

I. Introduction

A. Attention grabber:

B. Connecting Sentence:

C. Thesis:

II. Similarity or Difference 1

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

B. First Subject:

C. Second Subject:

III. Similarity or Difference 2

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

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B. First Subject:

C. Second Subject:

IV. Similarity or Difference 3

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

B. First Subject:

C. Second Subject:

V. Conclusion

A. Stated Preference? Reason?:

B. Final Impression/Takeaway 1:

C. Final Impression/Takeaway 2:

____________________________________________________________

Block Method Outline

I. Introduction

A. Attention grabber:

B. Connecting Sentence:

C. Thesis:

II. First Subject

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

B. Similarity or Difference 1:

C. Similarity or Difference 2:

D. Similarity or Difference 3:

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III. Second Subject

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

B. Similarity or Difference 1:

C. Similarity or Difference 2:

D. Similarity or Difference 3:

IV. Third Subject

Basis of Comparison?

A. Topic Sentence:

B. Similarity or Difference 1:

C. Similarity or Difference 2:

D. Similarity or Difference 3:

V. Conclusion

A. Stated Preference? Reason?:

B. Final Impression/Takeaway 1:

C. Final Impression/Takeaway 2:

______________________________________________________________________

Guidelines for Writing the Comparison/Contrast Essay

1. After you have chosen your two-part topic, plan you thesis sentence.

2. List all your ideas for points that could be compared or contrasted.

3. Then choose the three or four most important points from your list.

4. Decide whether you want to use the point-by-point method or the block method of organizing your essay.

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5. Select the order in which you want to present your points. Gather supporting detail and examples.

6. Determine a conclusion that makes a judgment, or emphasizes what you believe is the most important point.

Common Transitions

For Comparison

For Contrast

similar to

on the contrary
though

similarly

on the other hand
unlike

like

in contrast with
even though

likewise

in spite of

nevertheless

just like

despite

however

just as

instead of

but

furthermore

different from

otherwise

moreover

whereas

except for

equally

while

and yet

again

although

still

also

too

so

Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Avoid an unbalanced, one-sided comparison. You need to give relatively equal space to the two subjects being compared or contrasted. For instance, if you compare a novel

with the movie adaptation, you need to provide equal treatment for both the novel and the movie.

2. Avoid seesaw style. You need to use adequate transition so that you don’t just jump back and forth from one subject to another in a series of short, choppy sentences.

3. Just showing the differences or similarities between A and B is not enough. Your comparison-contrast essay must serve a useful purpose: to show, for example, that A is superior to B or that B is more practical than A.

4. Watch out for false comparison, that is, a few superficial similarities leading to a false conclusion. If you were to compare the Soviet bureaucracy with the American bureaucracy, no doubt you could find a number of similarities; but you would need to be

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careful not to ignore fundamental differences, for you might easily arrive at a false conclusion.

5. Don’t equivocate: have a clear point to make, and state it clearly at the outset. If you start your essay with “There are many similarities between the North and the South,” that thesis is useless because you fail to take a stand. You leave your reader asking, “So what? What’s the point?”

6. Don’t state the obvious. Comparing two obviously similar members of the same class or contrasting two obviously different members of the same class is pointless. Your reader will learn nothing.

ANALOGY

An analogy is an extended comparison between objects or ideas from different classes—things not normally associated. Analogy is particularly effective in explaining unfamiliar or abstract concepts because a comparison can be drawn between what is familiar and what is not. An analogy often begins with a simile or a metaphor, as in the following paragraph.

Casual dress, like casual speech, tends to be loose, relaxed, and colorful. It often contains what might be called “slang words”: blue jeans, sneakers, baseball caps, aprons, flowered cotton housedresses, and the like. These garments could not be worn on a formal occasion without causing disapproval, but in ordinary circumstances, they pass without remark. “Vulgar words” in dress, on the other hand, give emphasis and get immediate attention in almost any circumstances, just as they do in speech. Only the skillful can employ them without some loss of face, and even then, they must be used in the right way. A torn, unbuttoned shirt or wildly uncombed hair can signify strong emotions: passion, grief, rage, despair. They’re most effective if people already think of you as being neatly dressed, just

as the curses of well-spoken persons count for more than those of the customarily foul-mouthed do.

–Alison Lurie, The Language of Clothes

Exercise 2: Analogies

Here are some well-known analogies from literature. Read them carefully. Determine what each writer wished to explain and then point out the way in which the analogy is limited.

1. “A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on its hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

Samuel Johnson

2. “You were that all to me, love, for which my heart did pine, a green isle in the sea, love, a fountain, and a shrine.”

Edgar Allan Poe

3. “All flesh is grass.”

Bible; Isaiah

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4. “Knowledge is to the mind what light is to the eye.”
Anonymous

5. “My luve is like a Red, Red Rose….”

Robert Burns

6. “Tis with our judgments as our watches, none go just alike, yet each believes his own.”

Alexander Pope