Comparison and Contrast Writing
What is comparison and contrast?
• Comparison shows how two or more things
are similar
• Contrast shows how two or more things are
different
• In most writing situations, the two related
processes are used together
• An analogy explains one thing by comparing
it to a second, more familiar, thing.
Establishing a basis for comparison
• The two things to be compared must have
enough in common to justify the comparison.
• In making comparisons, you should move
beyond the obvious
• When two things are very similar, it is the
contrasts that may be worth writing about.
Searching points for discussion
• Determine your emphasis on
similarities, differences, or
both.
• Determine the major focus of
your paper.
• Make sure you treat the same
or similar elements for each
subject you will discuss:
Novel A
Novel B
Major
characters
Major
characters
Minor
characters
Minor
characters
themes
themes
Novel A
• Do not discuss entirely
different elements for
each subject.
Novel B
Major
Plot
Characters
Minor
Author’s
Characters Life
Themes
symbolism
Point-Example-Explain
• This is a great time
for Point-ExampleExplain!
Sonny’s Blues: Compare/Contrast the
narrator and Sonny
Sonny is a
dreamer,
Narrator is a
realist
Example/
Support
Point 1
Example/
Support
Point 2
•Wants to be a
jazz musician
•Pg. 75
•Wants Sonny
to find a real
job
•Pg. 80
•Sonny tries to
escape reality
using drugs
•Pg. 78
•Narrator
ignores reality
and is “cold”
•Pg. 74
(contrast)
Neither brother
can deal with
reality, but they
do it in different
ways
(compare AND
contrast)
Formulating a Thesis Statement
• Identify not only the subjects to be compared and
contrasted in your essay, but the point you will make
about them.
• Also indicate whether you will focus on similarities or
differences, or balance the two.
• “Although Melville’s Moby-Dick and London’s The Sea
Wolf are both about the sea, the minor characters,
major characters, and themes of Moby-Dick establish its
greater complexity.”
• Although both of my communities consist of friends, my
school community has the greatest impact on my life.
• While Morrison’s novel underscores the theme of
self-loathing by the main characters, Faulkner's story
elucidates the theme of patriarchal supremacy.
(contrast)
• On Going Home and Sonny’s Blues are about
families, and the characters in both stories run away
and come back home at the same time.
• Although On Going Home and Sonny’s Blues are both
about families, On Going Home is about a family who
cannot let go whereas Sonny’s Blues illustrates a
family running from each other.
• One way to start a compare
and contrast thesis is by using
words like whereas, while,
even though, and although to
suggest a contrasting element
will follow.
Point by Point Comparison
• Good for longer, more complex papers
• Make a point about one subject, and then follow it with a
comparable point about the other subject.
• Alternating pattern
• Be careful not to fall into a monotonous, back and forth
movement between points. To avoid this problem, vary
sentence structure as you move from point to point.
• A good idea to do is:
– Para 1: Comparison
– Para 2: Contrast
– Para 3: Contrast
Para 1: Comparison
Para 2: Comparison
Para 3: Contrast
Or
• Para 1: Compare and Contrast
• Para 2: Compare and Contrast
• Para 3: Compare and Contrast
Method Outline:
I. Introduction
A. Briefly introduce the works and significance of subject matter
B. Thesis statement
II. First comparative/contrast point
A. Relation of point to 1st work
B. Relation of point to 2nd work
III. Second comparative/contrast point (same)
IV. Third comparative/contrast point (same)
V. Conclusion
A. Restate thesis
B. Summarize how your proved your argument
Thesis: Even though both James Baldwin and Sherman
Alexie create main characters with addictions, Sonny
overcomes his addiction through the help of his
brother while Victor’s dad just runs away.
Topic sentence: Both Sonny’s Blues and My Father… are about
addiction.
Para: Each following sentence are about the similarities the
stories share about addiction.
Topic sentence: Although both stories deal with addiction, Sonny
is addicted to heroine while Victor’s dad is addicted to
alcohol.
Para: Each sentence will discuss the differences between the
addictions and how the characters deal with it.
Topic sent: Compared to Sonny’s Blues, My
Father… deals with a character who is
obsessed with someone else’s music instead
of making his own.
Topic sent: Like Sonny’s Blues, My Father… deals
with a character who is trying to escape the
disappointments and harsh realities of life.
Topic sent: Despite their differing racial
backgrounds, both protagonists share similar
battles and hardships.
EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH #1
• Both “Sonnet 138” and “Sonnet 43” describe the
speaker’s love for their significant other. In “Sonnet
138,” Shakespeare calls the woman “my love” while
in “Sonnet 43,” Browning calls her husband “love of
my life.” EXPLAIN 1-3 SENTENCES. However,
Shakespeare does not trust his woman, evident
when he says, “I know she lies.” Browning, on the
other hand, trusts her husband with the “depth,
breadth, and width of [her] soul.” EXPLAIN 1-3
SENTENCES.
Paragraph Sample pre-writing
•
•
•
•
•
On Going Home and Sonny’s Blues are about families, and the characters in both stories run away and
come back home at the same time.
Types of families: both Sonny and Joan Didion have strained, yet close, relationships with their families.
Sonny/narrator = brothers, they were estranged for years (Sonny in jail/fight), they both suffer loss
(daughter/parents), they come together at the end.
Joan Didion = family (parents/brother/husband/daughter), Didion lives away from her family b/c of
marriage (estranged?), she cries when she hangs up the phone (she’s missing them/really close)
•
ESTRANGED
Sonny
didion
Jail/fights
marriage/job/distance
Both Sonny and Didion miss their families. Sonny wrote his brother first b/c INSERT MY ANALYSIS. Didion
returns home for her daughter’s b-day b/c INSERT ANALYSIS.
Example Paragraph #2
•
Both Joan Didion and Sonny run away from their homes. While Didion left home because of
her job and her marriage, Sonny leaves home because of drugs. Didion states, “Marriage is
the classic betrayal” (73). She feels that she is at odds with her family and her husband
because they do not agree. Didion abandons her family in CVC by moving to LA and marrying
an outsider. Although Sonny abandons his family like Didion, he does it in a very different
way. He becomes addicted to drugs and tells the narrator to pretend “that [he is] dead” (77).
Sonny pushes his entire family away because he cared more about the drugs than his brother.
The specific situations Didion and Sonny are in with their family – one, a marriage and one,
an addiction – causes them to turn from the people who cared about them and separated
them. THEY ARE BOTH SAD.