Compare and Contrast Essay

1. Compare and Contrast Essay Coffee Versus Green Tea Part 2

2. What Have We Done So Far? • Last class, we focused on introductions with interesting attention getters and body paragraphs with topic sentences and well paraphrased, organized details and explanations. • This class, we are going check our facts and organize our conclusions.

3. DO YOU HAVE THE FACTS! • Sometimes we think we have found a fact to support our opinion, but really we have found a false fact. • There are several kinds of false facts: Random Details, Illogical Statements, Contradictions, Unsupported Information and Opinions. • Assignment: You are writing a compare and contrast essay about coffee and green tea. Here is your statement: • Green tea is better for your health than coffee. • Here are several kinds of mistakes people might make trying to find evidence and facts to support it.

4. DO YOU HAVE THE FACTS! • RandomDetails– Green tea is made from the leaves of camellia sinensis. • This is a fact, but it doesn’t support your opinion or relate to it. • Illogical Statements – It is usually from China or Korea, while coffee is from Africa, so it is healthier. • The first part is a fact, but it doesn’t prove that the opinion is true. Things from China and Korea are not necessarily healthier than things from Africa.

5. DO YOU HAVE THE FACTS! • Contradictions - Coffee can help with many diseases like diabetes, skin cancer, and heart disease, and fights more diseases than green tea. • Again, you have mainly facts - not sure about “more diseases” – but in this case, unless you write another sentence, you have said the opposite of your main idea. • Unsupported Information - According to many doctors it is the healthier drink. • This idea might be true, but “many doctors” is not a good source. Give the article or web-site where you found this information and more details like how many doctors - a percentage like 70%, for example.

6. DO YOU HAVE THE FACTS! • Opinion, not Fact–It is the healthiest drink in the world. • Rather than adding supporting details or facts to support the first opinion, this just tells the same opinion again. • Try it for yourself. Use your Smartphone to find a fact to support the statement. • Green tea is better for your health than coffee. You have 4 minutes!

7. Conclusions that Work • Your conclusion paragraph should include: • Restatement of Thesis • Summary of main points • Clincher • What was your thesis statement? • How can you rephrase your thesis, so it sounds new but still says the same thing? The thesis statement is: Coffee and green tea are both great choices at the café, but they differ in health benefits and cost. How would you say this again? The restatement of the thesis: In conclusion, while coffee and green tea are both popular drinks to enjoy, they have different health benefits and costs.

8. Conclusions that Work • Summarize your details: • You must summarize all of your body paragraphs. • You do not have to repeat every detail. • You may want to only emphasize the contrasts. • You should keep the same order as you had in the body paragraphs. • DO NOT introduce new ideas or details in the summary. • Let’s try summarizing the details from the coffee versus green tea essay.

9. Summarize First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. Both beverages are known to help prevent cancers. For example, studies have shown that men who drink 3 cups of coffee daily are 9% less likely to develop skin cancer than those men who don’t drink coffee. It is believed that coffee actually absorbs harmful sun rays while promoting cell repair. Similarly, antioxidants found in green tea, also repair cell damage and can prevent skin cancer. However, green tea also contains catechins, a special type of antioxidant, proven to help prevent prostate cancer. In addition to preventing cancer, green tea has been shown to promote weight loss. Caffeine and the antioxidant EGCG found in green tea can shrink fat cells and activate muscle cells. On the other hand, another health benefit associated with coffee is its ability to decrease your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes. Different studies have shown that people who drink 4 cups of coffee daily are 30-56% less likely to get the disease than non-drinkers. Drank in moderation, both coffee and green tea can improve your health. Both beverages can help prevent skin cancer. Also, green tea can fight prostate cancer and is good for promoting weight loss. Coffee has been shown to decrease your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

10. Summarize Second, in addition to the many health benefits, coffee and green tea also differ in their cost. When purchased by the cup at your favorite café, both tea and coffee are about the same price. For instance, it doesn’t matter if you choose coffee or green tea at McDonalds because both cost $1.49 per cup. However, while your brew is approximately the same price per cup in the restaurant, the market prices for the raw materials of both are very different. To illustrate, the popular café, Starbucks, sells both coffee beans and tea leaves for customers to brew a home. The House Blend which is a typical coffee bean is $11.95 per 454g while the Tazo Green Tea which is a typical loose leaf tea is $13.95 per 250g. In general, green tea leaves are more expensive than coffee beans. This is true for ordinary store brands as well as exotic specialty types. For example, Kopi Luwak, considered the most expensive coffee in the world, is only $350 per kilogram, but Panda Tea, the most expensive green tea in the world, is a whopping $64,000 per kilogram. In addition to varying significantly in the price per kilogram, another factor effecting cost is the amount needed to brew a single cup. Tea and Coffee expert, Blue Raven says one kilogram of tea leaves will produce approximately 180 cups of tea while the same amount of coffee beans will only make about 60 cups of coffee. Each kilo of tea leaves will produce nearly three times as many cups of beverage as the equivalent amount of coffee beans. Furthermore, while it is common to steep multiple pots of tea from the same leaves, coffee beans are normally used only once. Thus, the cost per cup changes even greater when this fact is taken into consideration. Although in the café their prices are similar per cup, in the market one kilogram of green tea leaves costs more than the same amount of coffee beans. However, you can brew three times as many cups of tea from a kilo of leaves as you can from a kilo of coffee beans.

11. Summarize Both beverages can help prevent skin cancer. Also, green tea can fight prostate cancer and is good for promoting weight loss. Coffee has been shown to decrease your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes. Although in the café their prices are similar per cup, in the market one kilogram of green tea leaves costs more than the same amount of coffee beans. However, you can brew three times as many cups of tea from a kilo of leaves as you can from a kilo of coffee beans. • The summary does not need to include every fact or detail. • It should never include new facts or details.

12. Clincher • The clincher is your last chance to really impress your reader. Make it memorable! DO NOT BORE your reader! • What is the purpose of your clincher? Are you trying to make a recommendation or suggestion? • With so many good points about each beverage, you should really try them both. Go ahead! Next time you are at Starbucks, get one of each. Are you trying to make a prediction? • Now that you know how great both beverages are, your decision at the café will be that much more difficult. You may even end up ordering both! Are you trying to persuade? • Hard to do in an explanation type com/con essay.

13. RECAP Body Paragraphs: Do you have facts? REAL FACTS? RESEARCHED PROOF? Conclusion: Have you restated your thesis? Have you summarized the important details? No new details! Have you written a clincher that is interesting? Look at your essay. Where has the teacher suggested improvements? What can YOU do to fix these problems?

14. The End