Writing a Compare and Contrast Essay

In this unit, students will write a compare and contrast essay on Runners vs Smokers. They will study a model essay written by Santiago and use Epstein's essay as a frame of reference. They will walk through a writing process begining with brainstorming ( tapping into prior knowledge on the topics), categorizing inforamtion to analyzing the similarities to differences. They will aslo research information to back up their claim on whether the two topics share more similarities or differences. They will analyze the information they will cite to support their claim.

Resources

1. Keep Running vs. Quitting Smoking: which is harder?

2. How to write a comparative analysis

Day 1
L.O. Students will read “Race…Other” and elicit points of similarities and differences between the two kinds of Puerto Ricans.
Aim: How does the author see her identity differently from the way her mother sees her?
Materials needed:

• “Race…Other” by Esmeraldo Santiago
• “Runners vs. Smokers” BY Joseph Epstein
• “How to Write a Comparative Analysis” by Kerry Walk, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

Agenda
Activity 1: Write freely about an experience where you disagreed with someone on an issue but it turned out you agreed more that you disagreed.
Activity 2: Read the article “Race…Other” and underline similarities of the mother daughter views and circle their differences on Puerto Rican identity.
Activity 3: Create on a blank document a T chart and in each column,write mother’s view & daughter’s view. Jot down as many views as possible.
Activity 4: Categorize the information- race, attitude, self-image, choices, visions of future
Conclusion:

• How does Santiago compare and contrast her difference views on race with her mother’s?
• What method can we learn from her writing?

Day 2:
Writing as a process worksheet
Step 1: Brainstorming

• Your views of Runners:
• ( Frame of Reference) Epstein’s view on Runners:

• Your views on Smokers:
• ( Frame of Reference) Epstein’s view on smokers:

Step 2: Categorizing

• Identify patters in Runners:
• Add Epstein’s information to the category

• Identify patterns in Smokers:
• Add Epstein’s information to the category

Step 3: Sort information by similarities and differences

Step 4: Draw a conclusion: are there more similarities or differences between the two types of people?
Your answer to the above question will become your thesis of the compare nad contrast paper.

Step 5: How to structure the essay?

Read  “How to Write a Comparative Analysis” by Kerry Walk, for the Writing Center at Harvard University to learn about the structure of the essay
Excerpt: “Faced with a daunting list of seemingly unrelated similarities and differences, you may feel confused about how to construct a paper that isn't just a mechanical exercise in which you first state all the features that A and B have in common, and then state all the ways in which A and B are different. Predictably, the thesis of such a paper is usually an assertion that A and B are very similar yet not so similar after all. To write a good compare-and-contrast paper, you must take your raw data—the similarities and differences you've observed—and make them cohere into a meaningful argument. Here are the five elements required.

• Frame of Reference.
• Grounds for Comparison
• Thesis: in a compare-and-contrast, the thesis depends on how the two things you've chosen to compare actually relate to one another. Do they extend, corroborate, complicate, contradict, correct, or debate one another? In the most common compare-and-contrast paper—one focusing on differences—you can indicate the precise relationship between A and B by using the word "whereas" in your thesis:

Whereas Camus perceives ideology as secondary to the need to address a specific historical moment of colonialism, Fanon perceives a revolutionary ideology as the impetus to reshape Algeria's history in a direction toward independence.
Whether your paper focuses primarily on difference or similarity, you need to make the relationship between A and B clear in your thesis. This relationship is at the heart of any compare-and-contrast paper.

• Organizational Scheme. Your introduction will include your frame of reference, grounds for comparison, and thesis. There are two basic ways to organize the body of your paper.

• In text-by-text, you discuss all of A, then all of B.
• In point-by-point, you alternate points about A with comparable points about B.

• Linking of A and B. All argumentative papers require you to link each point in the argument back to the thesis. Without such links, your reader will be unable to see how new sections logically and systematically advance your argument. In a compare-and contrast, you also need to make links between A and B in the body of your essay if you want your paper to hold together. To make these links, use transitional expressions of comparison and contrast (similarly, moreover, likewise, on the contrary, conversely, on the other hand) and contrastive vocabulary .

You need not give equal time to similarities and differences. In fact, your paper will be more interesting if you get to the heart of your argument as quickly as possible. Thus, a paper on two evolutionary theorists' different interpretations of specific archaeological findings might have as few as two or three sentences in the introduction on similarities and at most a paragraph or two to set up the contrast between the theorists' positions.”

Day 3 Writing the Daft of the essay

Tip 1: If you have discerned more similarities on the two topics, then summarize the differences  and express them succinctly in the introduction. The body paragraphs then focus on the development of the differences.
Tip 2: Choose either block by block or point by point structure for your essay.
Tip 3: Evidence you provide for the comparison has to come from either the frame of reference by Epstein or your own research
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Final Essay Check List

• I wrote a title that informs my reader about the two things that I will be comparing and contrasting.
• I wrote an introduction that briefly tells the reader about the two things I am comparing and contrasting-their main similarities and differences
•  I wrote a paragraph using specific examples to show the differences between my two topics.
•  I wrote a paragraph using specific examples to show the similarities between my two topics.
• I used words and phrases that show contrast, such as however,
  but, on the contrary and on the other hand.
• I wrote a conclusion with a new point about my two topics.
• I checked my writing for misspelled words.
• I checked my writing for errors in punctuation.