Compare or Contrast

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Compare or Contrast
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General Info

• Comparison and contrast are ways of looking at
  objects and thinking about how they are alike and
  different.
• For instance, all of these items are alike
  because they are kinds of food, but there are
  many ways that they are different. For instance,
  they belong to different food groups. Some must
  be cooked before eating, and some can be eaten
  raw.
• When you write comparison and contrast, you will
  pay attention to these kinds of details.

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General Info

• There are two main reasons that people use
  comparison and contrast
• 1. To Explain--You might compare and contrast
  kinds of food, for instance, to help someone
  understand which food need to be refrigerated and
  which can be stored in a cabinet or in a bowl on
  the counter.
• 2. To Evaluate--You might compare and contrast
  kinds of food to show why one kind of food or
  brand of food is better than another. For
  example, apples are a better snack than butter.

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General Info

• When you choose items to compare and contrast,
  make sure that you choose items that have
  similarities.
• You have to choose things that will make sense
  for comparison and contrast. For instance, it
  wouldn't make sense to compare a truck with
  crayons or crayons with a birdhouse.
• Be sure to compare things that belong together.
  Compare crayons to pencils or pens, or compare
  trucks and cars.

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General Info

• When you compare items, you look for their
  similarities--the things that make them the same.
• For example
• Apples and oranges are both fruit.
• They're both foods.
• Both are made into juice.
• Both grow on trees.

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General Info

• When you contrast items, you look at their
  differences.
• For example
• Apples are red. Oranges are orange.
• The fruits have different textures.
• Oranges need a warmer place to grow, like
  Florida. Apples can grow in cooler states, like
  Washington.

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Essay Organization

• Comparison and contrast are used in your writing
  to organize an individual paragraph as well as to
  organize entire papers.
• For instance, you might write a paper that
  compares a movie and a book about the same topic.
  In your paper you can compare and contrast the
  movie version with the book version.

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Essay Organization

• As you begin to organize your writing, it's
  important to make sure that you balance the
  information about the items that you're comparing
  and contrasting.
• You need to be sure that you give them equal time
  in what you write.
• If you cover character, setting, and historical
  accuracy for the book, for instance, you need to
  be sure that you cover the same elements for the
  movie.

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Essay Organization

• There are three strategies to organize comparison
  and contrast papers
• 1. Whole-to-Whole, or Block
• 2. Similarities-to-Differences
• 3. Point-by-Point

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Essay Organization

• Whole-to-Whole or Block Strategy In
  this structure, you say everything about one item
  then everything about the other.
• For instance, say everything about the
  characters, setting, and plot for the book then
  everything about the characters, setting, and
  plot for the movie.

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Essay Organization

• Whole-to-Whole comparison and contrast uses a
  separate section or paragraph for each item
  you're discussing.
• For a paper comparing and contrasting a book to a
  movie, the section for Item 1 would include
  everything about the book and the section for
  Item 2 would cover everything about the movie.
• The points in each of the sections should be the
  same and they should be explained in the same
  order (for instance, you might discuss character,
  setting, and plot for both, and in that order for
  both).

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Essay Organization

• Similarities-to-Differences Strategy
• In this structure, you explain all the
  similarities about the items being compared and
  then you explain all the differences.
• For instance, you might explain that the
  characters and plot were similar in both the book
  and movie in the one section.
• In the next section, you could explain that the
  settings were different. The book took place
  during the summer while the movie took place
  during the winter.

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Essay Organization

• Similarities-to-Differences comparison and
  contrast uses a separate section or paragraph for
  similarities and differences.
• In other words, the body of your paper would have
  two large sections one for similarities, and
  another for differences.

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Essay Organization

• Point-by-Point Strategy
  
• In this structure, you explain one point of
  comparison before moving to the next point.
• For instance, you would write about the
  characters in the book and movie in one section
  then you would write about the setting in the
  book and movie in the next section.

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Essay Organization

• Point-by-Point comparison and contrast uses a
  separate section or paragraph for each point.
• Point 1 for your paper could be information
  about the characters in the book and the movie.
  You'd begin a section or paragraph for Point 2.
• For consistency, begin with the same item in each
  section of your point-by-point paper. For
  instance, for each point that you discuss,
  explain the information about the book first and
  then about the movie.

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Prewriting

• Graphic organizers are useful tools for gathering
  details about the items that you are comparing
  and contrasting.
• Venn Diagrams help you think about where the
  various characteristics of the items being
  compared and contrasted fit.
• The Compare and Contrast Chart is more like a
  listing tool, where you can brainstorm a list of
  ways that the items are alike and different.

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Prewriting

• A 2-Circle Venn Diagram is made up of two
  overlapping circles that allow you to organize
  information about two items that you are
  comparing and contrasting.
• You write the characteristics of the items inside
  the circles. Features that apply to both go in
  the overlapping portion (the middle) of the two
  circles.
• When you're done, you'll have your information
  divided into similarities (the overlapping part)
  and differences (the non-intersecting parts).

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Prewriting

• A 3-Circle Venn Diagram is made up of three
  overlapping circles. It is more complex because
  there are more ways for items to overlap.
• Features that apply to two items go in the
  overlapping portion of their circles (for
  instance, the Sun and Moon are in the Milky Way).
  Features shared by all three go in the middle
  (for instance, the Sun, Moon, and Stars are in
  the sky).
• As with the 2-Circle Diagram, when you're done,
  your information will be divided into
  similarities (the overlapping part) and
  differences (the non-intersecting parts).

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Prewriting

• A Compare and Contrast Chart is made up of a
  series of boxes that you can fill in to gather
  information about the two items that you are
  comparing and contrasting.
• You write the names of your items at the top then
  fill in the boxes with details about how the
  items are alike and different.
• This chart is an easy way to divide the
  characteristics of the items that you are
  comparing into similarities (items in the upper
  box) and differences (items in the two bottom
  boxes).

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Transitions

• In comparison and contrast, transition words tell
  a reader that the writer is changing from talking
  about one item to the other.
• Transitional words and phrases help make a paper
  smoother and more coherent by showing the reader
  the connections between the ideas that are being
  presented.

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Transitions

• When you're comparing items, using a transition
  from this list will signal to readers that you're
  changing from one item to the next and it will
  also tell the reader that the two items are
  similar.
• Here are some examples The characters in the
  movie were very similar to the characters in the
  book.
• Both the characters in the movie and in the book
  were interested in detective work.

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Transitions

• On the other hand, using one of the transitions
  from this list of words will signal readers that
  the two items you're discussing are different.
• Here are some examples The setting in the book
  was summer while the setting in the movie was
  winter.
• The events in the book took place during several
  afternoons, but the events in the movie took
  place during the evening.

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Checklist

• There are three main things to pay attention to
  as you write a comparison and contrast paper
• 1. Purpose Supporting Details
• 2. Organization Structure
• 3. Transitions Coherence
• In addition, be sure to pay attention to the
  usual requirements for writing, such as spelling,
  punctuation, and grammar.

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Checklist

• Comparison Contrast Checklist
• 1. Purpose Supporting Details
• a. The paper compares and contrasts items
  clearly.
• b. The paper points to specific examples to
  illustrate the comparison.
• c. The paper includes only the information
  relevant to the comparison.

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Checklist

• 2. Organization Structure
• a. The paper breaks the information into the
  whole-to-whole, similarities-to-differences, or
  point-by-point structure.
• b. The paper follows a consistent order when
  discussing the comparison.
• c. The paper breaks the information into
  appropriate sections or paragraphs to the ideas.

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Checklist

• 3. Transitions Coherence
• a. The paper moves smoothly from one idea to the
  next.
• b. The paper uses comparison and contrast
  transition words to show relationships between
  ideas.
• c. The paper uses a variety of sentence
  structures and transitions.