Comparing and contrasting are related activities. In comparing, you look for points of similarity between two things, while in contrasting you look for points of difference. In completing this writing assignment, you may wish to emphasize either points of likeness or points of difference, or you may include both points of similarity and points of difference.

Prewriting: As a prewriting exercise, select a subject that you care about, something that you can describe. Your subject may be people (e.g. two teachers, relatives, singers), places, events, or objects. To decide on a subject, do some brainstorming, clustering and freewriting. Be able to show at least one page of each when you turn in your completed paper in your portfolio.

Once you have settled on an appropriate topic, write the name of the two people, places, etc. at the top of a sheet of paper. In columns beneath these names, list all of the characteristics of each that you can think of. Then organize these characteristics so that you will have paragraphs with topic and subtopic sentences.

Remember to use both inductive and deductive reasoning in brainstorming and organizing your ideas. For example, if you have a number of related details, think inductively; that is, decide what they have in common and then make up a superordinate concept that covers them and can serve as the focus in a topic or subtopic sentence. For example, if your are writing about a camping vacation you might list the following details: mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks. You would put these under the heading "insect pests" and introduce this topic in your paper with a sentence such as "The insects made our camping trip miserable."

On the other hand sometimes you may need to think deductively. If you have a general concept, try to break it apart to get details that you can use to develop a paragraph. For example, you might recall that the food was bad on your camping trip and write the topic sentence "The bad food made our camping trip miserable. To develop a paragraph on this subject, list the bad food experiences you had: burned hot dogs, undercooked eggs, warm cool aid, stale bread, ants in the cookies and tell about each one.

Writing: You have probably written descriptive papers before in which you selected an object, person, or place and created a picture or impression with your words. This assignment will rely on your descriptive skills, but it asks you to make a point by comparing and contrasting. That is, instead of organizing your paper around a single dominant impression as you would do in a descriptive essay, in a comparison and contrast essay, you use the description to make a point about your subject which can be stated as a thesis.

Here is an example of how you might organize your ideas if your subject were teachers. In working with your brainstorming list, you might decide that the ideas about the two teachers, Mrs. X and Mrs. Y, fall into three general categories: attitude toward students, knowledge of subject, and teaching styles.

MRS. X

      Attitude

           forgives mistakes

          answers questions

          laughs with students

      Knowledge of Subject

          good background of facts

          good overview of subject area

          knows latest developments in subject

      Teaching Style

          lectures only occasionally

          often uses peer groups

          asks for students to contribute

          gives tests based on work

MRS.Y

      Attitude

          gives penalties for mistakes

          is annoyed at questions

          is usually grouchy

      Knowledge of Subject

          cannot remember facts

          does not have general picture

          does not keep up with latest developments

      Teaching Style

          lectures for an entire hour

          never uses peer groups

          discourages student contributions

          gives machine graded tests

Now this information may be organized in two ways. The first is called the block pattern in which you first describe one object or person. It is possible for example to say all you have to say about Mrs. X in relation to attitude, knowledge, and style, and then to say all you have to say about Mrs. Y in relation to these same three topics.

However, this may not work well if you have much information because by the time you begin talking about Mrs. Y attitude, your reader may have forgotten what you said about Mrs. X's attitude. As a variation of the block pattern, you can use what is called the point by point pattern.With this pattern you would talk about Mrs. X's attitude, then immediately talk about Mrs. Y's attitude and alternate in the same way with the topics knowledge and style.

With the point by point pattern, you would deal with one major topic at the time and alternately describe each subject in relation to each of the points you want to make about a topic. For example, you would begin by discussing attitude and would first talk about how Mrs. X forgives mistakes and then about how Mrs. Y does not. You would next talk about how Mrs. X willingly answers questions and then about how Mrs. Y becomes annoyed when she is asked a question.

The completed essay must be at least 500 words. There is no limit on length, but all essays should be concise, informative, and correct. Longer essays that multiply errors simply provide more justification for a poor grade. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document.