Writing the
Comparison/Contrast
Paper
I. A comparison/contrast paper explains the similarities and differences between subjects
to make a point about how the two compare or contrast in some significant way.
A. To compare subjects is to look for similarities; to contrast subjects is to look for
differences.
1. You will often find that you can't do one without the other.
2. To find differences often requires similarities in the first place.
a. For example, to contrast two novels is to recognize already that they have the common
characteristic of being novels.
b. Don't hesitate to point out similarities or differences even if you are seemingly only
comparing or contrasting.
A. The point of the paper is not simply to illustrate that two subjects are the same or
different; the point is to analyze how they compare or contrast and why their similarities
or differences are important.
B. To simply say, "A Dell computer is different from a Gateway computer" doesn't
explain how or why the difference is important.
C. The comparison/contrast paper needs to focus on the need for the comparison or
contrast rather than the fact of the comparison or contrast.
D. Because the how and why are more important than the fact, a comparison/contrast
paper is a good method for analyzing subjects, be they cars, medicines, or poems.
II. If you are assigned to write a comparison/contrast paper, select your subjects carefully.
A. Literally anything can be compared or contrasted to something else, but you want
subjects that provide you some basis for analysis.
1. Select subjects that have enough in common that you have something to write about.
2. For example, if you are looking at the use of cousins in literature, don't compare a
short story to a novel; instead, compare one short story to another.
3. If you are looking at treatments for Parkinson's disease, you could compare the
efficacy of chemical treatments over physical therapy.
4. If you are buying appliances for a home, don't compare the features of a refrigerator to
a range, unless you want to decide which is more important to your home.
B. Always keep in mind that the purpose of the comparison/contrast is more important
than the two subjects.
III. Your organization will be based on how you think the subjects can best be compared
or contrasted.
A. Before you organize, you need a reason for the comparison or contrast.
1. This reason will help determine what points on which you want to compare or contrast.
2. For example, if you are looking at cousins in William Faulkner's novels and in Eudora
Welty's novels, your purpose may be to illustrate how Southern authors use extended
families in their writing.
3. If you are writing about treatments for Parkinson's disease, your purpose may be to
determine the most economic treatment.
4. If you are buying appliances, you may need to choose which you need to buy first.
B. If you are given subjects on which to compare, you may need to look at similarities
and differences before determining a reason.
1. Charting the subjects may help you set up their similarities and differences.
2. Here are two possible charts:
a. Use a Venn diagram (two overlapping circles)
Red circle: refrigerator; blue circle: range; interlocking circle: similarities
Refrigerator
basic appliances;
Cold storage
food preparation
Range
cook food
Preserve food
heat room
i. The diagram illustrates needs for a refrigerator and needs for a range and what they
have in common.
ii. You might conclude that a refrigerator is more important than a range.
b. Use a table
SLR
Sharpness of picture
Different lens possibilities
Longer battery life
Better control of camera
Less flexibility
Have pictures developed
Scan pictures for computer
Bulkier
No motion picture
Digital
Dependent on pixels
Limited lenses
Short battery life
Harder to hold
Can shoot quickly
Instant development
Download instantly
Easy to carry
Video possibility
i. The above table was used for the sample paper.
ii. It lists features for cameras by pointing out how each model represents that feature.
iii. You could conclude that the SLR is better for picture quality.
C. Once you have a purpose for the comparison or contrast, then select what points you
will use for the comparison or contrast to lead to that purpose.
1. For example, from the Venn diagram, you can see that food preparation, food storage,
and auxiliary uses are referred to in the points for each appliance.
2. From the table diagram, you can see that picture quality, ease of use, size, and
flexibility are points on which the two can be compared.
D. Finally decide on how best to organize the points.
1. You can organize the paper by subjects or by points.
a. In doing so, you explain the first subject entirely and then the second.
b. You develop the explanation of each subject point-by-point.
c. Make sure that when you develop the second subject, you organize the points in the
same order as you did for the first subject.
d. As you discuss the second subject, you explain how it compares with the first.
e. Here is a sample subject-by-subject outline for the paper on cameras:
I. Introduction
A. Attention getter: Situation for camera use.
B. Thesis: Digital cameras are better than still cameras for family events when the nonprofessional photographers want their cameras.
II. Body
A. Background
1. Define SLR camera.
2. Define digital camera.
B. SLR camera
1. Good pictures
2. Heavy and bulky
3. Requires adjustments
4. Only still pictures
5. Need time to develop pictures
C. Digital camera
1. Satisfactory pictures
2. Light and small
3. Relatively point and shooot
4. Video capabilities
5. Instant pictures with email
III. Conclusion
A. Review of main points: Digital camera has the size and flexibility to make it better for
family gatherings than the SLR camera would be.
B. Closing attention getter: Sharing pictures of weird relatives.
2. The second method of organization is to develop the comparison or contrast point by
point.
a. You discussion the point in terms of how each subject fits it.
b. In each point, end with the subject that you are stressing.
c. This organization works well when you are discussing how specific objects compare to
a final end.
d. See Sample Comparison Outline.
IV. Writing the paper means following the thesis and your outline.
A. Your thesis should state what subjects you are comparing and for what purpose.
1. You may also include the points of comparison, as is done in the sample paper.
2. If you are using a point-by-point organization, organize the thesis so that it follows the
order used in the outline.
B. Provide good details to illustrate each point so that readers can see how the subjects
compare or contrast.
1. You need to let readers "see" the subjects as you do, so provide plenty of specific
examples or details.
2. When you present the details, analyze them to explain how the details illustrate the
point made in the thesis.
3. Tell readers what they are to conclude about the comparison or contrast.
C. See sample paper.
Leon Krasting
Composition I
Dr. Ama Hand
12 February 2005
Download the Relatives
1) My wife’s family rarely has family reunions because her aunts, uncles, cousins,
brothers, sisters, and parents are scattered all over the world. Nevertheless, yesterday we
received an invitation to her nephew’s wedding along with a note about using the
occasion as a time for the family to have a reunion. Since I love family reunions, I
couldn’t wait to respond with a definite “Yes!!!”
2) Two days before we left for the reunion, I began packing. I sorted through
clothes, personal items, books, and finally came to the issue of cameras. I have a CanonAE1, single-lens reflex (SLR) camera and a Vivitar ViviCam 3.3 digital camera. I love
my Canon, but I also know that my digital has its moments. [1] After pondering the
choices, I finally came to the decision that for this occasion, the digital was preferable to
the SLR because it was smaller, quicker for taking pictures, video-capable, and had
instant gratification for pictures with easy email properties. [2]
3) My first consideration is based on the fact that my wife, two children, and I
were traveling across the country to a three-day family event [20]. We have a four-door
sedan with good trunk space, but still space is limited. We also would be spending many
hours in dress clothes and many hours moving from family member to family member
while visiting.[5] These facts had digital written all over them. My Canon takes up 135
cubic inches of space and weighs over two pounds. My digital takes up 10 cubic inches
and weighs 10 ounces. [4] I can carry it in my shirt or suit coat pocket and don’t even
have to think about finding space for it in my already over-crowded suitcase and car.
Based on size and weight, the digital is the best choice for this occasion. [3]
4) If I want the best pictures, I need to take the Canon. It’s 50 mm, 1:1.8 lens that
has shutter speeds ranging from 1/30 of a second to 1/1000 of a second produces
beautiful pictures in either color or black and white. However, relatives are relatives [20],
and I don’t expect beautiful pictures, even if I were a professional photographer with a
$3000 digital SLR camera. Besides, setting up beautiful pictures takes time with the
focusing, adjusting shutter speed, changing lenses, and hefting the camera to my eye. For
that reason, the Canon just won’t work. [6]
5) OK, the digital doesn’t take the best quality pictures, particularly since my 3.3
mega pixel is on the low end of the range for good digital photography.[1] [23] Still, as I
said above, I don’t need Ansel Adams quality photography; I need pictures of Denise’s
Uncle Balam, who literally has three eyebrows, or of her brother Donelle, who may be a
Rhodes scholar and professional-quality rugby player, but who also has a smile that
haunts my children in their sleep. [5] For those relatives [20], I only need a camera that
can be pointed in the direction of the subject and which I don’t have to focus. [7] One
problem is that the actual process for taking the picture does take more time than on a
SLR camera since the digital camera must record the image on the sensors before it
actually has taken the picture. Thus, when I click the shutter, I must wait until the red
light stops blinking (a second) before I have actually captured the image. The result is
that I don’t always capture what I wanted. [8] Nonetheless, if I don’t get all that eyebrow
or miss the smile that drives dogs under beds, I can always delete those pictures anyway,
and I have always looked forward to deleting relatives [20].
6) Part of this reunion experience [9] is the wedding which will take place on the
top of a hill on Denise’s brother’s farm. Her nephew Carl, a good Lutheran boy, will
marry Jabari, a Yoruban from Nigeria. Following the ceremony, there will be a reception
and dance at the farm.[5] My SLR would be great for capturing the color of the wedding
since it takes such clear pictures with vibrant colors, but I want to capture the
intermingling of the colors as the staid Lutherans in their pastels and dark colors mix on
the dance floor with the Nigerians in their brilliantly-colored clothes. Here’s where the
digital has a big advantage since it allows for limited video. [7] The limited battery length
on a digital camera makes for short videos, but even one of Uncle Haakon in his black
suit dancing the polka with Jabari’s mother in her bright yellow wrap dress would be a
gem [20]. [10] Hey, with a simple mode selection, I can take pictures that could someday
make me a big winner on America’s Funniest Home Videos. [11]
7) I love sharing my pictures whether it’s with family, friends, or the whole
nation. When I get my SLF camera’s film developed, I am capable of minutes or even
hours of boredom as I pass the pictures around and comment in detail on each and every
shot. However, it can take me anywhere from one hour to a week to get those pictures so
that I can bore the world, and then, once I get them, I don’t know just how many will
have the quality that I desire for sharing. [7] On some, I may have moved and blurred the
picture; on others, I may have too much or too little light. Sometimes I haven’t framed
the picture correctly and end up missing a portion of some important element—say, a
person’s head or arms. When I’ve taken pictures during a vacation and am focusing on
scenery rather than people, such delays are acceptable, but when the subject is a peopleevent, such as a wedding and reunion [20], I want to share the pictures quickly. I can’t do
so with my SLR. [12]
8) The digital to the rescue. One of the chief features of a digital camera is that the
operators can see immediately what the picture will be, and then they can share those
pictures immediately with the subjects and other interested parties.[13] True, the screen is
small on the cameras, so that those elderly relatives [20] may have difficulty picking out
the details in the picture. Nevertheless, the picture is there and those who can make out
the picture can enjoy seeing themselves and their families and friends immortalized on a
camera’s sensor plate.
9) That fact leads us immediately to another important feature of the digital
camera which makes it a blessing at a family gathering [20]: the pictures can be
immediately deleted![14] Perhaps Uncle Balam does not want his three eyebrows
preserved on film for eternity, and maybe Grandpa Albert doesn’t appreciate Aunt
Felicity’s rabbit ears behind his head. No problem—a couple of clicks and the offending
pictures are history. I know that SLR pictures can be culled and shredded and burned, but
negatives remain, and since negatives are often in strips, cutting the offending negative
out isn’t always desirable. [15] The digital has no negatives, so the evidence of any
misdeeds or bad hair days is eliminated immediately and completely. I can take the good
pictures home, print them off myself on my own printer, and delete the pictures once I am
through them—or I can save them on my computer for future blackmail possibilities. [16]
10) The reunion [20] is finally over, and my family, camera, and I have returned
home. Now comes one of the most fun parts of owning the digital camera—email.[17] If
I were to have taken my SLR, I would have to wait until the pictures are developed, scan
them into my computer, and then email them. [18] Doing so would work well with my
wife since she has the patience of Job, but I am into instant gratification. So I
immediately download my pictures (while children and wife unload the car) and start
emailing the reunion attendees and those poor family members who missed the occasion.
I don’t have to wait until the car is unloaded to get the film down to the local one-hour
developer, and I don’t have to wait another hour for the film to be developed before I can
share my pictures. Voila! There they are and there they go—into cyberspace and family
history. [19] [20]
11) Family reunions come and go, but having pictures makes the occasions last
forever. My SLR camera would have taken beautiful still photographs that I can pass
around the dinner table, but my digital camera also has taken good photographs that I can
pass around the table after I print them and that I can pass around the world when I email
them. [21] After all, the world is supposed to be one large community, and it’s important
they we know what we look like! [22]
[1]
Digital cameras capture an image on a sensor which contains thousands of photosites. Each photosite
captures a pixel (a 3.3 mega pixel has 3300 pixels); therefore, the more pixels the better the image.
1) Extended attention-getter to set the scene. It's in two paragraphs because of a shift in
time of two days and a focus on cameras. The middle of the second paragraph provides a
transition from the attention-getter about the wedding and the reunion to the thesis about
which camera is better for the situation set up in the attention-getter. Return to paragraph
2.
2) The thesis includes the subjects being compared (SLR and digital camera), on what
points they will be compared, and how the one is better than the other for the purpose of a
family get-together. Return to paragraph 2.
3) The topic sentence in this paragraph comes at the end of the paragraph. The specific
details for proof come in the middle, and the analysis, who the size fits the need, comes in
the sentence following the specific data. Return to paragraph 3.
4) Use of specific data to prove topic sentence. Return to paragraph 3.
5) Use of specific example to set up need for this particular comparison. Return to
paragraph 3, 5, 6.
6) The last two sentences are the topic sentence to this paragraph. The However in the
middle of the paragraph shifts the emphasis from quality of pictures to ease of pictures,
which is the point being analyzed in the paragraph. Return to paragraph 4.
7) Topic sentence in the middle of the paragraph. Return to paragraph 5, 6, 7.
8) Drawback, but followed immediately by analysis that explains away drawback. Return
to paragraph 5.
9) Referral back to reunion to provide connection between this new point and the rest of
the paper. Also sets the scene for the new point. Return to paragraph 6.
10) Analysis of the specific example of the wedding dance and of the topic sentence
about the need for video capability. Return to paragraph 6.
11) Allusion to television show to make a connection between writer and reader by
providing a common reference point. Return to paragraph 6.
12) Specific details are analyzed to explain how they fit the thesis about the need for a
specific time of camera for a family get-together. Return to paragraph 7.
13) Topic sentence containing proof. The topic sentence is then followed by analysis of
how the details prove that the digital is better for the family get-together. Return to
paragraph 8.
14) Topic sentence that continues the point about how the digital camera is better because
its instant pictures can also be deleted. Return to paragraph 9.
15) Explanation of why the SLR camera can't meet the need of deletion. Return to
paragraph 9.
16) Explanation of digital camera's ability to meet the need. Return to paragraph 9.
17) Topic sentence to make point about the need for email capability. Return to
paragraph 10.
18) Explanation of why SLR can't meet the need. Return to paragraph 10.
19) Explanation of how digital camera meets need. Return to paragraph 10.
20) Continual references to family gathering to remind readers of the specific purpose set
up in the thesis. Return to paragraph 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
21) Conclusion that restates main points about how digital camera is better for family gettogether than SLR. Return to paragraph 11.
22) Closing attention-getter. Return to paragraph 11.
23) Use of footnote to add information that helps in understanding the paper but isn't
necessary to the paper's content. Return to paragraph 5.
Return to Writing the Comparison Contrast Paper or OWL.