Krause
AP Language and Composition
Fall 2014
Compare and Contrast Essay Unit
A basic principle of learning posits that humans acquire new concepts most readily when we can see how the new concepts are similar or
different from concepts we already know. Thus, comparison and contrast is a logical process to which we gravitate when explaining ideas,
arguing positions, or describing objects or events. The goal of a comparison and contrast essay is not to simply perform the comparison;
rather the comparison and contrast strategy should guide the larger rhetorical goal (to persuade, to inform, to motivate to act, etc.)
When opening your comparison and contrast essay, determine if you need to justify for your readers the trajectory of the essay. For
example, if comparing the myth of acting to the reality of acting, then you might want to establish that significant misconceptions about
being an actor exist and that such misconceptions must be cleared up in order to begin to appreciate and accurately evaluate an actor’s
performance. The scope of your essay needs consideration as well. To compare Major League Baseball to the National Football League
would be too massive a topic to tackle in 5 pages. Rather, comparing each sport’s policies regarding drug abuse would provide a limited
scope that can be clearly addressed in under 6 pages.
Common strategies for organizing comparison and contrast essay:
1. Sequencing—compare each item point by point.
2. Chunking by subject—deal with each item as a whole before moving on to the next
3. Chunking by comparison—group all the similarities in one section and all the differences in another
Essays:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pollit, Katha. “Why Boys don’t Play with Dolls.”

General prompt.
Bérubé, Michael. “Analyze, Don’t Summarize.”

Option #1: General prompt,

Option #2: Examine Bérubé’s “rules for literary analysis” in paragraph 20. Which of these rules does his essay most
effectively illustrate?
Hustvedt, Siri. “Eight Days in a Corset.”

Option #1: Assert a claim and then develop support of the claim regarding Hustvedt’s use of figurative language—specifically
metaphor and simile—as a rhetorical strategy.

Option #2: Assert a claim and then develop support of the claim regarding the tone Hustvedt adopts towards the corset as
an intentional choice regarding her purpose.
Frazier, Ian. “All-Consuming Patriotism.”

Option #1: General Prompt

Option #2: Prompt #2, page 396
Homework responses are to be composed in analytical format. Students striving to earn a score in the 8-9 range should integrate two
quotes per response, each with unique commentary.
General Prompt:
Based on the interactions of speakeraudiencesubject, how does the author strategically employ a specific
writing technique to achieve a particular end or purpose?
10/13

Read Pollit in Class
10/20
NO SCHOOL


Pollit assignment due
Read Bérubé in class


Bérubé assignment due
Read Hustvedt in-class.


Work on Essay
Read Frazier in class


Frazier assignment due
Essay Work Day

Compare Contrast essay due
10/27


Hustvedt assignment due
Introduce Essay Assignment

Essay Work Day
11/3
Krause
AP Language and Composition
Fall 2014
Compare and Contrast Essay Unit