Compare and contrast essays Far more than lists of comparable points
Asking students to write on a comparison or a contrast essay topic
often produces nothing more than a list of comparable facts.
Getting from collecting strings of comparable data points to composing
an essay that has a thesis statement requires thinking at the very
highest levels.
Most students need help to get started.
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Function of comparison thinking
The function of compare/contrast thinking is to indentify something
that can be learned through the comparison process.
(Note: Compare means to look at similarities; contrast
means to look at differences. However, we usually use the term comparison,
as in comparison essay, to include both. Differences are usually
more significant than similarities.)
By comparing A to B, someone can, for example:
Learn why A and B are different.
Learn where A and B work best.
Learn when is the best time to do A or B.
Learn whether A or B is superior.
Learn how to avoid a mistake made by both A and B.
In the 2010 American health care debate, for example, people did
not merely list similarities and differences between the Republicans'
plan and the Democrats' plan. Instead, they compared and contrasted
the plans and came to a conclusion.
The conclusion that a writer reaches on the basis
of comparing and contrasting two items is the writer's thesis
statement.
C&C essay pre-thesis research
What makes the C&C essay development tricky is that writers
have to do at least a preliminary investigation of the evidence
before they can come up with a working thesis.
If students are doing compare-contrast on a topic they have studied,
the prep work may be no more elaborate than a two-column list of
comparable elements of item A and item B.
For something they have not yet studied, the prep work may involve
a considerable amount of reading.
Compare and contrast writing poses particular problems to struggling
writers. All students, struggling or not, must be taught explicitly:
That they need a thesis statement in a comparison essay.
How to create a thesis statement for a comparison essay.
