The Comparison Paper
Often called Comparison/Contrast, a comparison includes differences as well as similarities. The most important thing to remember is that a comparison must have a point . ``Compare and contrast...'' is a favorite way for instructors to begin essay exam questions, knowing that mediocre students will fall into the trap of telling how the two things are the same, how the two things are different, and nothing more--never drawing a conclusion from the analysis. The grade on such a pointless exercise can be no better than a C.
Your assignment
is to write
a comparison that leads to a choice or a point.
You may
write about something from your own life (choosing a major, buying a car,
deciding where you want to live),
or
you may choose one of the essays we have read from
Signs of Life
which defines a concept such as or "the hero," or go elsewhere to find the
definition
of something like "impressionism," "postmodernism," "the underdog," "the
leader," etc. You may choose
any
concept defined in one of the essays in the text, or you may find your
definition in a book
or magazine, on the Internet, etc. Then choose two well-known movies, works
of art,
stories, poems, television shows, songs, music videos, or even pieces of
advertising which, at first glance,
seem to be
very similar
. By analyzing each according to the concept you have chosen, decide
which one better exemplifies the concept
.
Alternatively, you may write a more philosophical comparison. Instead of making a choice, you may draw some other conclusion--similar to the essays in the textbook. The important thing to remember is that your conclusion must develop naturally from the comparison. It should be a logical deduction from what you have said in the body of the paper. Ideally, the reader nods and thinks, Yes, that makes sense.
Click here for information on prewriting a comparison paper.
Chick here for information on organizing a comparison paper.
Part One--Prewriting
Click here for help in making a choice
Click here for help in determining circumstances
Click
here
for help in making lists
Choices
Important note: in real life you do not go away without making a choice or a point, nor ask some stranger to make it for you. So in the comparison paper you do not
refuse to make a choice at the end or ask the reader to make it for you. Or, if you are doing a more philosophical comparison, you certainly do not expect the reader to guess what to make of it!
When you do a comparison on a literary or artistic topic, it's much easier to
make a choice. For
example, you take a definition such as "hero" or "postmodernism," choose two
stories or songs
or tv shows or characters, apply the definition to both, and determine
logically which one is a
better example (or even an example at all) of the definition.
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Circumstances
Many of your college assignments will require you to compare two
things from a course you are
taking. Compare two religions in a CIV course, two stories or philosophies in
a HUM course,
two poems in a literature course, two political theories in a history course,
two paintings in an art
course. In this course you
may compare two films or songs or music videos or tv shows or stories or works
of art according to something
you have learned from the readings or found elsewhere. Remember,
you must be comparing in order to
decide which work fits the category or to draw some logical conclusion from the data.
No comparisons in a vacuum!
The circumstances are the reasons you chose those two films or songs or videos or tv shows or stories--what do they have in common that caused you to see a relationship between them? Just as circumstances in real-life situations narrow down what you can consider in your comparison (that neurosurgeon simply can't include a deserted island in the Pacific in his deliberations about where to live), so in a theme comparing two artistic items, the circumstances are those things which narrow down the scope of your discussion.
Return
Make certain you are not
comparing apples and oranges!
Yes, you know that you want to end by showing that one is a better example of the hero or postmodernism or whatever than the other, but do not choose two totally unrelated items,
so that your readers know the answer before they even read your essay. It is even more important that there be strong similarities if you are headed for a philosophical conclusion. Comparing things that are too dissimilar can make it impossible to find a valid conclusion.
Lists
Prewriting: Because this is only a 1000-1200-word theme (four to five double-spaced pages), you will begin at the point where your choices are narrowed to two; do not go through the process of narrowing down from three or four choices.
Make
two lists
. The
first list
contains all those
circumstances that will affect this particular
choice. If this is a theme about your career choices, those might be money,
family, health,
personality, responsibilities, tastes, etc. Be specific. Don't write down
``personality''; write ``I am
attracted to being a forest ranger because I have always been happiest when I'm
outdoors, far
from civilization.''
For a comparison to determine whether a particular item fits a definition, you will list all the qualities that make a hero, or that define postmodernism, or whatever your topic is.
For a philosophical comparison, making these lists should consolidate your conclusion. If you are not sure what your conclusion is after you have finished listing your points of comparison, rethink! Possibly you have chosen a comparison from which you cannot draw a philosophical conclusion. Before abandoning the topic, see if you can convert it into one of the other forms of comparison.
Put on this list all those points which will affect your conclusion. Do not list things that don't matter. For example, the color of a sports car usually matters; the color of a farm truck or family car usually doesn't. If you are comparing the military skills of two generals, how well either treated his family doesn't matter.
If you are determining whether a character is a hero by comparing two works to see if either has a "hero" as protagonist, it doesn't matter that one story is written in a very formal fashion and the other uses popular slang. It doesn't matter that one story is a romance and the other is science fiction. Stick to those items of comparison which will actually affect your decision, in this case the characteristics of a hero as defined in the essay you are using to decide.
The second list contains the points of comparison between the two items. Make two columns, each headed by one of the two items you are deciding between, and put the points of comparison across from each other to make comparing them easy. (You may find it easier to do this by hand. If you are working on the computer, click on "Format" and then "Columns.")
Again, be specific . If you are comparing career choices, don't write "starting salary''; write "teacher--$20,000 per year; accountant--$25,000.'' If you are comparing two potential heroes, don't list "special abilities," but "Superman--super strength, super senses, flight, speed; Dirty Harry--street smarts, experience, the world's most powerful hand gun."
For the two items you are comparing, list anything that might affect your decision, but leave out things that don't matter. It probably doesn't matter whether the hero plays a musical instrument or has a dog.
When you have your specific lists, you have completed your prewriting.
Return to Contents
Click here for help in writing an introduction
Click here for help in organizing the body of your paper
Click here for help in writing your conclusion
Introduction
The comparison paper has the easiest of all thesis statements: it will
always come down to "...a choice between item X and item Y'' or "a comparison between X and Y." As always, that thesis belongs at the beginning of the outline and at the end of the first paragraph of the paper, following the introduction. In a comparison, the introduction sets out to get the reader's interest, but it also must provide the circumstances governing the choice.
The readers' interest in a comparison is to see if they can guess correctly what choice the writer will make, or what conclusion the writer will draw, using the information supplied in the introduction and the body. Because that suspense is the only reason the readers will bother to read the essay, never tell in the title or introduction what the final choice is. In other words, call your theme "Choosing Between Murray and Western,'' not "Why I Chose Murray State,'' or "Is Batman or Superman the Better Hero for Our Times?" not "Batman: Modern American Hero."
From your list of circumstances, choose the ones that truly affect the outcome of the comparison
. List them as supporting points for your introduction in the outline, and work them in logical
order into the introductory paragraph, leading up to the thesis.
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Body
At the outline stage, decide which format fits
your topic best when you study your second list, the points of comparison. If there are two, three, or four categories of comparison (cost, performance, and service, for example; or origins, powers, and secret identity), your body may consist of two, three, or four paragraphs, one about
each of those categories.
A second method of organization is strengths and weaknesses . In an artistic analysis, you will discuss strengths and weaknesses only if your analysis intends to show why one work is more successful than the other.
Depending on how many strengths and weaknesses there are on your list, this body might have either two or four paragraphs: strengths of both X and Y, weaknesses of both X and Y; or strengths of X, weaknesses of X, strengths of Y, weaknesses of Y. In your outline, be certain to list specific strengths, specific weaknesses--if you did your prewriting correctly, your lists should yield plenty of specifics.
Choose one of the two methods of organization above if your lists of points of
comparison will possibly permit it. Only if the two items you are comparing have
considerable differences should you go to the third method, a paragraph all
about X, followed by a paragraph all about Y. This is the hardest method for a reader
to follow, and should be avoided if either other method will fit.
In fact, you should ask yourself if you are comparing apples and oranges (no
one would have his car choices narrowed down to a Ford Escort or a Lincoln Town Car,
for example, nor are Superman and Homer Simpson likely candidates for the same
definition of American hero; the two could not both possibly fit the same set of circumstances).
ReturnPlease note: telling all the differences and then all
the similarities (or vice versa) is not a good method of organizing a comparison. In real situations where choices are made, that is not the basis on which people make decisions. In reality they look either at categories of comparison or at the strengths and weaknesses of the items they are choosing between.
Conclusion
A comparison must have a conclusion. Do
not refuse to tell your choice or deduction or point at the end, and do
notask the reader to make the choice or draw a conclusion for you. If you have done
your job well in the introduction and the body, the reader wants to see if you made the same choice he would make, and he wants to know your reasons. Or, she wants to know what you have deduced from your comparison. So that is what you put in your conclusion: which choice you made or what conclusion you have drawn, and your reasons.
Any paper without a conclusion telling which choice was made or what was deduced and why
will have an additional 20 points deducted , no matter how good the paper was up to the end.
When your outline has been approved and you begin writing your draft, you may save your draft on Blackboard. Don't forget only to click "Save," and not "Submit" until you are certain you are finished with your Comparison Theme and want to turn it in. Once you click "Submit," you cannot access it again--only your instructor can then reach it.
Return to beginning of instructions.