Comparison/Contrast: Showing Relationships  

Selecting Items for Comparison  

Any items you compare must share some common ground.  For example, you could compare two golfers on driving ability, putting ability, and sand play, or two cars on appearance, gas mileage, and warranty; but you can’t meaningfully compare a golfer with a car, any more than you could compare violins to sunflowers or cats to telephones..  There’s simply no basis for comparison.

  Any valid comparison will present many possibilities.

Developing a Comparison

Successful comparisons rest upon ample, well chosen details that show just how the items under consideration are alike and different.  This support helps the reader grasp your meaning.

Organizing a Comparison

You can use either of two basic patterns to organize a comparison paper; block or alternating.

The Block Pattern: The block pattern first presents all of the points of comparison for one item, and then all of the points of comparison for the other.  The block pattern works best with short papers or ones that include only a few points of comparison.  The reader can easily remember all the points in the first block while reading the second.

The Alternating Pattern: The alternating pattern presents a point about one item, then follows immediately with a corresponding point about the other.  For longer papers that include many points of comparison, use the alternating method.  Discussing each point in one place highlights similarities and differences; your reader doesn’t have to pause and reread in order to grasp them.  The alternating plan also works well for short papers.

Once you select your pattern, arrange your points of comparison in an appropriate order.  Take up closely related points one after the other.  Depending on your purpose, you might word from similarities to differences of the reverse.  Often, a good writing strategy is to move from the least significant to the most significant point so that you conclude with punch.

Using Analogy

An analogy, a special type of comparison, calls attentions to one or more similarities underlying two different kinds of items that seem to have nothing in common.  While some analogies stand alone, most clarify concepts in other kinds of writing.  An analogy often explains something unfamiliar by likening it to something familiar.

When you develop an analogy keep these points in mind:

1.  Your reader must be well acquainted with the familiar item.  If they aren’t, the point is lost.

2.  The items must indeed have significant similarities.  You could develop a meaningful analogy between a kidney and a filter or between cancer and anarchy but not between a fiddle and a flapjack or a laser and Limburger cheese.

3.  The analogy must truly illuminate.  Overly obvious analogies, such as one comparing a battle to an argument, offer few or no revealing insights.

4.  Overextended analogies can tax the reader’s endurance.  A multi-page analogy between  the heart and a pump would likely overwhelm the reader with all its talk of valves, hoses, pressures, and pumping.

Writing a Comparison

Planning and Drafting the Comparison

Don’t write merely to fulfill an assignment; if you do, your paper will likely ramble aimlessly and fail to deliver a specific message.  Instead, build your paper around a clear sense of purpose.  Do you want to show the superiority of one product or method over another?  Do you what to show how sitcoms today differ from those twenty years ago?  Purpose governs the details you choose and the organization you follow.

Questions to ask:

What purpose does the comparison serve?

Who is the audience ?

What points of similarity or difference did the essays discuss?

To develop the comparison, draw up a chart:  

Next brainstorm each point in turn, recording appropriate supporting details.  When you finish, stand back and ask these questions:

Do all the details relate to my purpose?

Do any new details come to mind?

In what order should I organize the details?

When you decide upon an order, copy the points of comparison and the details, arranged in the order you will follow, into a chart:  

Use the introduction to identify your topic and arouse the reader’s interest.  If you intend to establish the superiority of one item over the other, you might call attention to your position.  If you’re comparing something unfamiliar with something familiar, you might explain the importance of understanding the unfamiliar item.

Organize the body of your paper according to whichever pattern--block or alternating--suits its length and the number of points you’re planning to take up.  If you explain something familiar by comparing it with something unfamiliar, start with the familiar item.  If you try to show the superiority of one item over another, proceed from the less to the more desirable one.

Write whatever kind of conclusion will round off your discussion effectively.  Many comparison papers end with a recommendation or a prediction.  Unless you’ve written a lengthy paper, don’t summarize the likenesses and differences you’ve presented.  If you’ve done a proper writing job, your reader already has them clearly in mind.