Comparison and Contrast

1. Comparison and Contrast

2. Comparison & Contrast • Comparison: points out the ways that two or more people, places, or things are alike. • Contrast: points out how they differ • The subjects of a comparison or contrast should be in the same class or general category; if they have nothing in common, there is no good reason for setting them side by side.

3. Comparison & Contrast • Function: to clarify and explain • Writer’s purpose: • To inform or to make readers aware of similarities or differences that are interesting and significant • To explain something unfamiliar by comparing it with something very familiar. • To point out the superiority of one thing by contrasting it with another

4. Organizing a Comparison or Contrast Paper • Subject-by-subject pattern: you discuss the points you want to make about one subject and then discuss the corresponding points for the other subject. • Useful: in short essays where few points are to be considered.

5. Organizing a Comparison or Contrast Paper • Example: for a short essay comparing and contrasting the cities of Philadelphia and San Diego. • The subject-by-subject pattern presents a unified discussion of each city by emphasizing the cities and not the four points of comparison. Readers should easily be able to make the appropriate connections between the two cities.

6. Organizing a Comparison or Contrast Paper • Point-by-point pattern: your essay is organized according to the various points of comparison. Discussion alternates from one subject to another for each point of comparison. • Useful: in long essays where numerous points are under consideration.

7. Organizing a Comparison or Contrast Paper • Example: For a longer essay comparing and contrasting solar energy and wind energy • With the point-by-point pattern, the writer makes immediate comparisons between solar and wind energy so that readers can consider each similarity and difference separately.

8. Comparison and Contrast Essays • A good essay of comparison and contrast tells readers something significant that they do not already know (it must do more than point out the obvious). • Therefore…writers usually draw contrasts between things that are usually perceived as being similar or comparisons between things usually perceived as being different.

9. Another Form of Comparison • Analogy: a special form of comparison in which the writer explains something unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar. • Analogy pairs things from different classes that have nothing in common except through the imagination of the writer. • Purpose: to clarify the one subject that is complex or unfamiliar. • Examples: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” • “Being a student is like being a sponge. The less you know the more you can soak up.”