Writing Compartive Essays

Writing Comparative Essays encouraging you to make connections betwixt texts or ideas engage in critical thinking & go beyond mere description or summary to generate interesting analysis when you reflect on similarities & differences you gain a deeper understanding of the items you are comparing, their relationship to to each matchless other & what is most important about them. Although the assignment may say equal, the assumption is that you will con arrayr both the similarities and differences in other words, you will compare and contrast.Establishing a Basis of Comparison Objects must share some significant characteristics.. (same class or general category) no basis of equation if there is no common element If the similarities & differences between the objects are all simply obvious the reader of the essay is certain to be bored. So the basis of comparison should go beyond the obvious When 2 subjects are very similar, it is the contrast that may be worth developing more When 2 subjects are non very much alike, you may find their similarities enlightening. Bees and People = absurd . iffer in species, physical structure, intelligence both are social animals that live in interlocking social structures, hold in t requests to perform & roles to fulfill in their respective societies = so we could write but focus on the common elements that seem most intriguing = social structures & roles Bees and Jeeps Human Beings and Golf Tees = NO few points of comparison = very trivial ones bees & jeeps = travel great di carriages = dumb comparison people & tees = needed to draw golf = dumb similarity = no significant basis of comparison = NO C&C essay YOU CANNOT WRITE A C&C ESSAY IF THERE ARE NO SIMILARITIES . verything on the planet has differences so the aim here is to find similarities and then develop differences. Points of Comparison (& contrast) treat the same, or at least similar, elements for each subject Novel A Major characters Minor characters T hemes Novel B Major characters Minor characters Themes NOT Novel A Major characters Minor characters Themes Novel B Minor characters Language Plot Deciding Your Purpose. C&C solar & wind cogency ask yourself Why do I want to C&C these objects. Do you want to inform, to emphasize, to explain, to evaluate, to persuade that one side is better than the other?Do you have more than one purpose? Your purpose will influence the content & organization of your comparison & contrast essay Comparative Essays may be telling or informative (your thesis statement signals this purpose) Your assignment for this class = Informative C&C essay C&C solar & wind energy TO INFORM TO PERSUADE Provide information about both in order to determine whether one is better than the other as a functional means of producing significant amounts of energy. Proving that one technology is superior to the otherProvide information about both in order to determine that both are a practical means of producing significan t amounts of energy. Formulating a Thesis Statement identify the subjects to be C & C Indicate comparison as considerably as contrast indicate whether you will concentrate on similarities or differences or whether you will balance the two list the main points of comparison or contrast in the order in which they will be discussed in the essay (essay symbolise) Despite the fact that television and radio are distinctly antithetical media, they use similar strategies to appeal to their audiences. o essay map = ? TS = for an informative C&C = no stance = no taking a side underlined part = signals contrast italicized part = signals comparison focus / emphasis is on comparison = as it is stated at the end of the thesis Although Melvilles Moby slit & Londons The Sea Wolf are both about the sea, minor characters, major characters, and themes of Moby Dick establish its greater analyzableity. TS = for an argumentative C&C essay = stance underlined part = signals comparison italicized part = signals contrast = focus of the essayCompare and contrast the reasons why the North and southerly fought the well-bred War. The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same and some different. While both sides fought the Civil War everywhere the issue of slavery, the North fought for moral reasons while the South fought to preserve its own institutions. While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against tyranny and oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners defended their own right to self-government.While Callaghans All the Years of Her life and Mistrys Of White Hairs and Cricket both follow the conventions of the coming-of-age narrative, Callaghans story adheres more closely to these conventions by allowing its central protagonist to mature. In Mistrys story, by contrast, no real growth occurs. ThS = differences outweigh similarities essay focus = differences Although Darwin and Lamarck came to different conclusions about whether acquired traits can be inherited, they shared the key distinction of recognizing that species evolve over time. ThS = similarities outweigh differences essay focus = similarities No essay map = ? The focus of the essay = subsequent half of the ThS Provide a detailed essay map in the later half of your thesis statement NOT in the first half Thesis for an informative C&C = no stance Thesis for an argumentative C&C = stance You need to focus the topics given to you this focus should be evident in your Introduction and then later developed in your Thesis Statement.C & C solar & wind energy = TS = no essay map for both but notice that one takes a side and the other does not. TO INFORM Solar energy & wind energy both, are practical alternatives to conventional energy sources, though they have their own queer characteristics & uses. TO PERSUADE While both solar and wind energy are practical technologies, solar energy now seems t he better investment. Whether your paper focuses primarily on difference or similarity, you need to make the relationship between A and B clear in your thesis.Structuring the Essay. Subject-by-Subject = purpose is to emphasize overall similarities or difference Say everything you have to say about the first subject, then move on & make all the points you want to make about the flash subject and so on. In discussing each subject, you use the same basis of comparison & arrange these points in the same logical order. portion for short, uncomplicated papers. .. plain comparison. points of comparison are general & few in number. Seems like 2 separate essays are weakly connectedPoint-by-Point = purpose is to emphasize individual points of similarity or difference. make a point about one subject & then follow it with a comparable point about the other Appropriate for longer more complicated essays in which you discuss many different points. readers can easily follow your points. Nev ertheless.. it is easy to fall into a monotonous, back-and-forth achievement between points . use clear transitions & vary sentence structure as you move from point to point. Each similarity for A & B can commonly be handled in one paragraph in the body of the essay. Each difference for A & B may not be handled in one paragraph try to split each point of contrast into 2 paragraphs even when using the point-by-point format (do remember to link the two paragraphs with a transitional sentence) .. remember the stress is NOT on the number of points that u mention BUT on the DEPTH OF DEVELOPMENT Analogy. When a subject is unobservable, complex or abstract when it is so generally unfamiliar that readers may have trouble understanding it analogy can be most effective. An analogy Looks for similarities & differences between 2 essentially dissimilar things. Compares the difficult/abstract/unfamiliar to the more familiar Think of the human genome as the ingredients list for a massive s aving grace dinner. Scientists long have had a general understanding of how the feast is cooked. They knew where the ovens were. Now, they also have a list of every ingredient. Yet much remains to be discovered. In most cases, no one knows exactly which ingredients are necessary for making, for example, the pumpkin pie as opposed to the cornbread. Indeed, many, if not most, of the recipes that use the genomic ingredients are missing, and theres little nderstanding that why small variations in the quality of the ingredients can cook up diseases in one person but not in another. (another e. g. on pg 166) True Comparison Analogy analyzes items that belong to the same class types of engines. Purpose = seeks to illuminate specific features of both subjects e. g. pairs things from different classes with nothing in common get out through the imagination of the writer Purpose = to clarify the one subject that is complex or unfamiliar craft of fiction writing - craft of carpentry analog y helps the reader visualize an abstract or unobservable thing