Pedro’s Journal – Type Three Writing
Compare and Contrast – Due November 11th
Purpose: Your purpose is to compare and contrast Pedro and Columbus.
Audience: The audience is your classmates and the teacher.
Form: Two or three paragraphs
Prewriting Activity: Use the attached Venn Diagram to compare and contrast
Columbus and Pedro.
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Comparison/Contrast Essay
What is a comparison/contrast essay?
A comparison shows how two subjects are similar; a contrast shows how two
subjects are different. In writing, you must first decide whether you will
compare, contrast, or do both.
Follow these steps when writing a comparison/contrast essay:
Identify similarities and differences. If you have two items to compare or
contrast, determine how they are similar and how they are different. You
should find at least three points for comparison or contrast. Then write the
detailed characteristics for each point. Let’s say you want to compare two
types of dogs.
The following is an example:
Points Labradors Cocker Spaniels
Appearance: large, solid color, short hair small, mixed color,
long hair
Temperament: easy going, smart, rarely bites high strung, dumb, often
bites
Performance: retrieves in water, excellent swimmer, complex fetching
retrieves on land, average swimmer, simple fetching
State your purpose in the thesis sentence. Identify the two subjects that
you will compare or contrast and state whether you will focus on
similarities, differences, or both. The thesis may also indicate which
points you will compare or contrast.
Choose a pattern to organize your essay. The two major patterns for
organizing a comparison/contrast essay are
• Subject by Subject (Whole-to-Whole). Write first about one of your
subjects, covering it completely, and then you write about the other,
covering it completely. Each subject is addressed in a separate paragraph.
The points of comparison or contrast should be the same for each subject and
should be presented in the same order.
• Point by Point. Each point is addressed in a separate paragraph.
Discuss both of your subjects together for each point of comparison and
contrast. Maintain consistency by discussing the same subject first for each
point.
Use appropriate transitions. Transitions are important in
comparison/contrast writing, especially with the point by point
organization, to avoid confusion. Without transitions, the points you are
comparing/contrasting may blur into one another. Also, a variety of
transitions prevent monotony.
A list of transitions follows:
• For comparison: like, same, both, the same as, similar, in the same
way, most important, similarly, as, too, have in common, as well as.
• For contrast: although, however, differ, unlike, even though, yet,
but, instead, on the contrary, on the other hand, whereas, while, unless,
contrary to, the reverse.
To evaluate the effectiveness of a comparison/contrast essay, ask the
following:
Is the essay balanced? The most common error in a comparison/contrast essay
is spending too much time on one subject and too little on the other. Make
sure the essay equally and thoroughly covers both subjects.
FCA’S –
A thesis sentence
Good sentence structure
Good paragraph structure
