Exposition

1. Comparison and Contrast Exposition

2. Exposition • A comparison and contrast essay uses factual details to analyze the similarities and differences between two or more persons, places or things.

3. Exposition Comparison and contrast essays include: • A topic involving two or more things that are in some ways similar and in other ways different. • An organization that highlights the points of comparison. • An introduction that presents the main point of the essay and body paragraphs that include details showing similarities and differences.

4. Types of Essays Types of comparison and contrast essays: • Product comparisons- compare two or more products and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. • Comparative reviews- compare books, movies, plays, or television programs and make a recommendation.

5. Types Types of comparison and contrast essays: • Comparisons of literary works- analyze similarities and differences between two or more literary works.

6. Organization There are several ways to organize a comparison and contrast essay. Your audience, purpose, and topic will influence the method you choose.

7. Types of Organization • Block Method- To use this method, present all of the details about one subject first: then, present details about the second subject, and so on. The block method works well if you are writing about more than two things or if your topic tends to be complicated.

8. Types of Organization • Point by Point Method- To use this method, discuss one aspect of both subjects, then another aspect, and so on. For example, if you are comparing buses and subways, first discuss the cost of each, then accessibility, and so on.

9. Choosing a Topic An effective comparison-and-contrast essay begins with a suitable topic. Your topic should: • Interest you and your potential readers. • Be something you know about or which you’d like to learn more about. • Involve two or more items that are neither completely alike nor completely different.

10. Audience and Purpose Before you begin writing, identify your audience- readers of your esay- and your purpose- what you hope to accomplish. Both your audience and purpose will effect your use of language, your choice of details, and the length of your composition.

11. Gathering Details Next, gather details you can use to develop your comparison. Write down as many descriptive details, facts, statistics, and other examples as possible. Use a variety of sources to gather information; reference books, newspapers, magazines, internet sites, television documentaries. Make a note about the source of each piece of outside information you write down. Always credit your sources.

12. Citations In a research report, you should cite the sources for quotations, facts that are not common knowledge, and ideas that are not your own. Your report will contain two types of citations; internal citations and a work cited page. Both are requirements when writing any type of research essay. YOU MUST GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!!!!

13. Internal Citations • Internal Citations- an internal citation appears in parentheses. It includes the author’s last name and the page number on which the information appears. The citation directly follows the information from the source cited. If several sentences in a row contain information from the same source, the citation need only appear at the end of the last sentence.

14. Internal Citation • Example: “The Duke of Lancaster in 1888 controlled more than 163,000 acres of British countryside.” (Pool 163)

15. Work Cited Page • Work Cited Page: Provide full information about your sources in an alphabetical work cited page at the end of your report. For each work cited follow these guidelines: • Give the author’s last name first. If no author is credited, list the work byits title. • If there are two or more authors, list the authors in the order in which they are credited in the work. Only the name of the first author is listed last name first.

16. Work Cited Page • If an organization rather than an individual is credited with the work, use the name of the organization. • Use a period after the author’s name, after the title of the work, and at the end of the citation. Use a colon between the place of publication and the publisher. Use a comma between the publisher and the year of publication.

17. Work Cited Page • Give the place of publication listed that is closest to you. To avoid confusion, add necessary information. For instance you would write “Cambridge MA” to distinguish this city from Cambridge, England.

18. Work Cited Page • Example: Pool, Daniel. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth Century England. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993

19. Using S.E.E. State the topic of the paragraph. Extend the idea. Restate it with new emphasis, apply it to a particular case, or contrast it with another point. Elaborate on your main idea in one or more sentences, giving examples, explanations, supporting facts, or other details about it.

20. S.E.E. the Example State: A small town also has a lot to offer. Extend: However, like a shy person, what it has to offer may not be obvious at first. Elaborate: After having lived in my town for a while, I can tell you about the great trails right out my back door for hiking, mountain biking, and skiing.

21. Organization and Balance Your essay should follow a consistent organization, either block or point-by-point, and should give a balanced comparison. Use color-coding to check your organization and balance.

22. Color-Coding to Check Balance Reread your essay. Use one color to highlight details concerning one of the items you are comparing. Highlight details about the other item in a second color. If you have many more highlights in one color than in the other, add more details on the subject about which you have written less. Then note whether your highlighting shows consistent organization and balance.

23. Color-Coding Example Most big cities have more than their share of violence. In the city in which my friend lives, it is dangerous to stay out past dark, but in my small town it would probably be more dangerous for the criminals than the kids. • Point-by Point using color-coding to check for consistency and balance of the paragraph.

24. Sharpen Your Theme An effective comparison and contrast essay does not simply list similarities and differences. It has a clear theme- a main idea that unifies all of the details and grows stronger from paragraph to paragraph. As you revise, eliminate details that do not contribute to your theme, and add details that help strengthen your theme.

25. Checking Paragraph Structure Next, focus on each of the paragraphs in your essay. In a comparison-and-contrast essay, nearly every paragraph should contain: • Topic Sentence- a sentence that sums up the main idea. • Restatement- an expanded version of the idea found in the topic sentence. • Illustration- one or more specific facts, statistics, or descriptive details supporting the main idea.

26. Checking Paragraph Structure Although all of your body paragraphs should contain these elements, they do not have to appear in the order listed in the previous slide. Sometimes you might want to lead with the sentence that provides an illustration, in order to hook your readers. The order is not as important as is the fact that each of your body paragraphs should contain these three elements.

27. Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in both person and number. Person indicates whether a pronoun refers to the person speaking(first person), the person spoken to (second person), or the person, place, or thing spoken about (third person). Number indicates whether a pronoun is singular (referring to one) or plural (referring to more than one).

28. Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement • INCORRECT: A person living in a small town should visit a big city. Seeing different lifestyles will broaden your perspective. (third person/second person) • INCORRECT: A person living in a small town should visit a big city. Seeing different lifestyles will broaden their perspective. (singular/plural)

29. Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement • CORRECT: A person living in a small town should visit a big city. Seeing different lifestyles will broaden his or her perspective. (third person singular/ third person singular)

30. Assignment 1 • Compare-and-Contrast Music: You will write an essay that will analyze the similarities and differences between two albums, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye and Rhythm Nation 1814 by Janet Jackson. Analyze similarities and differences in form, lyrics, subject matter, viewpoint, mood, rhythms, and style. Explain how the two albums present different views of similar subjects. You can listen to both albums on Youtube. Due 11-20-14

31. Assignment 2 • Compare-and-Contrast Movies: Write an essay comparing the cultural impact of Star Wars as compared to that of Twilight. Discuss their influences on pop culture, youth culture, media, product marketing, defining gender roles in society, religious themes, and film making. Explain how these two franchises similarly and differently redefined our culture as consumers, movie goers, and trend setters. Due 12-1-14

32. Assignments 1 and 2 • The essay is to be a minimum of 700 words Times New Roman size 12 font. • It must contain four sources in the work cited page. • You must use either block or point-by-point organizational structure. • Create a visual supplement to support your essay findings: a powerpoint, a poster, a chart, or a graph.