Wicked Wednesday!
Please staple your reflection on TOP of your
timed writing. Put this in the basket.
Please get out your c/c prompt from
yesterday and we will continue working on it.
Timed-writing makeup will either be IN class
or AFTER school tomorrow. Your choice.
Let me know today.
Comparison
and
Contrast
Compare/Contrast
 A good C/C essay serves a purpose—it has a
point beyond just saying how things are alike and
different.
 It might:
 Illustrate something surprising and true about life
 Show how one thing is better than another
 Demonstrate a truth about each item that wouldn’t be clear
if you examined the items alone
 Help the reader understand two sides of an issue without
choosing sides
Review
Compare- to examine how thing are
similar (usually looking at big ideas)
Contrast- to examine how things are
different (usually looking at the details)
You don’t have to give equal treatment to
both.
There is more than one way to organize
your paper.
Other thoughts continued
To do a good job, make the best effort to
organize by ideas and not literary
techniques. Make good use of topic
sentences and transitions to carry the
reader from one idea to another.
In organizing by ideas, you will discuss
literary techniques and HOW they convey
the big ideas and details within each
paragraph.
Talking about differences is usually more
interesting than talking about similarities
The Prompt—for our example today
In the following two poems, adults provide
explanations for children. Read the poems
carefully. Then write an essay in which
you compare and contrast the two
poems, analyzing how each poet uses
literary devices to make his point.
Look at each poem individually first,
then together
Once you’ve chosen a read the selections
for your essay, create a chart to examine
them one at a time. What is each poem
about? What ideas do you see in each
poem?
“A Barred Owl” BY RICHARD W ILBUR
The warping night air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for
you?"
Words, which can make our terrors bravely
clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.
Themes this poem
addresses? Subject matter?
Techniques? Structure?
Tone? Images? POV
• Brainstorm with a partner
“A Barred Owl” BY RICHARD W ILBUR
Themes this poem addresses? Subject
The warping night air having brought the boom matter? Techniques? Structure? Tone?
Images? POV
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for
you?"
Words, which can make our terrors bravely
clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Darkness
Fears
Reality (gruesome images of
predator eating prey vs. Fantasy
(sweet sound of the owl’s
hooing…what the owl “says”) images
Placating a child
Rhyme scheme (sounds like a
nursery rhyme)
Need to know vs. should know
Speaker is 1st person---we are all
guilty of this? Speaker isn’t placing
judgment
Okay to tell a small white lie to calm
the fears of a child; what will it hurt?
Condoning this behavior
“The History Teacher” by Billy Collins
Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.
Themes this poem addresses?
Subject matter? Techniques?
Structure? Tone? Images? POV
And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"
 Brainstorm with a
partner
The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on
Japan.
The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,
while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.
“The History Teacher” by Billy Collins
Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.
Themes this poem addresses? Subject matter?
Techniques? Structure? Tone? Images? POV
And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"





The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on
Japan.
The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,
while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.



3rd person POV of view---speaker seems
judgy
Understatement and allusions to historical
events
Teacher lies about really important things
thinking he is protecting his students
Irony---thinks he is protecting students but
instead they are bullies (stanza 4)
Speaker seems to have a sense of sarcasm
about how the teacher is teaching
Reality (kids are bullies) vs. Fantasy
(teacher thinks they are innocent) Irony---he
is the naïve one instead
Subject matter is about historical events
(wars) that people should be familiar with so
the same mistakes don’t get repeated.
Message seems to convey that as soon as
an adult can, kids need to know the evils of
the world…so the past doesn’t get repeated.
In this instance ignorance isn’t bliss.
NEXT,
As you review your charts, ask yourself,
“How are my poems alike? How are they
alike and different?”
To be sure you’ll have enough to write
about, you should identify three points of
comparison, or features.
Things to consider
While the AP exam sometimes teaches
bad habits like organizing by technique,
we are teaching you how to write for
outside this class as well.
As such, we are strongly encouraging that
you organize by ideas and NOT technique,
regardless of what the sample essays
show you.
Venn Diagram---one way to organize your
thoughts
Alike
Differences (Barred Owl)
Make sure to consider
techniques used to
convey these ideas
Similarities
Consider what’s alike
and then consider how
these similarities
diverge and why?
Differences (History
Teacher)
Make sure to consider
techniques used to
convey these ideas
Childhood is time of
innocence; white lies
okay (rhyme scheme)
Both address childhood
Childhood is a time to tell
the truth; kids need to
know not repeat past
mistakes
(understatement;
allusions)
1st person point of view:
makes speaker seem
less judgy and more
sympathetic to the white
lie---job adult to protect
children (real vs. fantasy
imagery)
Both talk about
responsibility of adults
3rd person creates sense
of judgment and
irony/satire; job of adults
to teach younger
generation
Lying is seen as
necessary (word choice
makes it feel like a
bedtime story)
Both talk about lying
Lying is seen as
dangerous (ironic ending
about kids bullying and
teacher’s naiveté)
Organization
Point by Point (strongly
encouraged)
Poem by Poem (block method--strongly discouraged!)
Outline #1 - Block Method—Subject by Subject
Warning: these are VERY basic outlines
I.
Introduction—ALWAYS have a
thesis…a full intro is not
needed unless you have time
(AP exam rule only…for this
paper, you need some kind of
intro)
a) Attention Getter or Hook
b) Background Information
c) Thesis
III. Poem 2
• Childhood
• Responsibility of Adult
• Lying
IV. Conclusion
a) Emphasize Major Ties
b) Give insightful final thoughts
II. Poem 1
• Childhood
• Responsibility of Adult
• Lying
Maybe not the best method b/c you could run out of time before you get to
second poem, and sometimes, it feels like you are writing a mini essay on poem
1 and then on poem 2 without ever connecting the two.
Outline #2 - Point by Point
I. Introduction
a) Attention Getter or Hook
b) Background Information
c) Thesis
II. Childhood
a) Poem 1
b) Poem 2
III. Responsibility of Adult
a) Poem 1
b) Poem 2
IV. Lying
a) Poem 1
b) Poem 2
IV. Conclusion
a) Emphasize Major Ties
b) Give insightful final thoughts
Follow same order in each paragraph. A better idea to use b/c you can address
similarities and/or differences of each poem next to each other. If you run out of
time, you will have at least written about both poems thus answering the prompt.
Writing a Thesis Statement
Review your data
Decide to what extent you will stress the
similarities between your subjects and to
what extent you will stress their
differences
Create a thesis statement that reflects that
decision
What is your point? Thesis Statement
 Here, the point is to compare and
contrast.
 What will you compare and contrast?
literary elements, events, or beliefs
Weak Thesis Statements
They are both somewhat alike and
somewhat different.
I can see some similarities and some
differences too.
Both of them involve (only a single
similarity, no differences).
Example one --- starts with what’s
different and ends with what’s the
same
Example 2—starts with similarity and then
moves to differences…a little wordy
Transitions—make good use of these so
it doesn’t sound choppy.
 To Compare
 also
 as
 in the same way
 like
 likewise
 similarly
 comparable
 equally
 in addition
 To Contrast
-although
-but
-even though
-however
-on the other hand
-otherwise
-yet
-still
-conversely
-as opposed to
-different from
-whereas
From Henry V
 King Henry is rallying a rag-tag group of soldiers to
fight the very powerful French army
 Even though he is the king, he will be fighting with
ordinary men that he will consider his brothers.
 St. Crispin’s Day—the battle King Henry and his
men are fighting happens on this day
 Westmoreland is an ally to King Henry
 Saints Crispin and Crispinian are the French
Christian patron saints of cobblers, tanners,
and leather workers.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Latin and it means---”It is sweet and right”
Full saying seen at end of poem: Dulce et
decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet
and right to die for your country.