Asking students to write on a comparison or contrast essay topic
is often the equivalent of asking them to plagiarize.
In a couple of keystrokes, students can locate comparison points
on almost any writing prompt suggested in the teacher's manual of
most English language arts textbooks. A little copy-and-paste and
they're done.
Or so they think.
Students often use copy-and-paste because they don't realize that
a compare and contrast essay requires more than a list of comparable
facts.
What teaching C&C essays entails
In teaching the compare-contrast essay, your first job is to make
students realize they need a thesis statement in a compare and contrast
essay.
Your second job is to teach students how to create a thesis
statement for the compare and contrast essay.
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. That's one of the
myriad terminology traps in English studies.
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 will not know how to begin.
Fortunately, once they understand how to begin, they usually have
little trouble following through, providing they already know how
to write a basic thesis + support essay.
C&C essay must develop a thesis
Every essay has to have a point, which we call a thesis statement.
The C&C thesis says, in effect, "This is what the differences
between A and B boils down to." (Differences are usually
more significant than similarities.)
In the American health care debate, for example, people did not
merely list similarities and differences between the Republican's
plan and the Democrats' plan. Instead, they compared and contrasted
the plans and came to a conclusion about the plans that is
the equivalent of a writer's thesis statement.
Why a C&C essay needs a thesis
If you want students to learn to write compare and contrast essays
instead of just stringing comparable lists of facts together, you
must first teach them why they need a thesis statement.
(Even if you taught the importance of the thesis for standard five-paragraph
essays, do it with C&C content as well. Students need explicit
instruction.)
1. Make students aware of everyday situations that use to compare
and contrast to reach a conclusion. They may be things like
these:
-
"I don't know whether I ought to go to the soccer game
in Honesdale or not."
-
"I think it would be cool to have a tattoo but my dad
says it's stupid."
-
"If I play basketball next year, I won't be able to take
the computer class I want."
2. Point out that comparison thinking usually is used to answer
a question.
Have students identify the question that each of the comparisons
already discussed seeks to answer.
That instruction activates students' knowledge. As a result, compare
and contrast becomes something everybody uses instead of being "dumb
stuff my English teacher makes me do."
3. Have students formulate a working thesis statement for the
two possible answers to the the questions.
This sets them up to see how compare and contrast can be used to
produce a working thesis.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 with some less personal material.
For example, ask them to find examples of issues that require comparison
thinking in their class material, their community, or in the news.
If you go through those four steps with students, they will realize
that the goal of comparison is to come up with an answer to question
that hinges on knowing how two things are alike or different.
That answer is the thesis statement.
Without additional instruction, students who know how to write
a thesis + support essay will be able to write compare-contrast
essays when given a topic. That means they will be able to handle
typical school and job writing that involves analysis by comparing
and contrasting two elements.
Encourage C&C topic development
Students going beyond high school to a four-year college degree
or a career that requires creative thinking (which is not the same
as creative writing) should be taught to develop their own comparison
essay topics.
The first step in that process is to teach students how to develop
a purpose for a comparison paper. The purpose is going to be a question
to be answered. The answer is going to be the thesis statement.
To teach this vital step, you need to give students ample practice
responding to this question:
What question could be answered by comparing
A and B?
Again, the easiest way to begin can be with everyday comparisons,
such as
-
A slice of pizza, a bagel with cream cheese
-
A live concert, a concert on TV.
-
Studying engineering, studying accounting.
-
Community college, 4-year college
-
Solar energy, wind energy
When students show they can identify questions that could be answered
by these everyday comparisons, move on to topics within the academic
curriculum, which is close at hand.
Note: Your colleagues might provide you with some paired topics
so you can have a variety of disciplines represented, but be sure
you have some from English language arts.
Sample ELA comparisons
Within the English language arts curriculum, you might ask students
to develop questions that could be answered through the process
of comparing and contrasting elements such as:
-
Studying a vocabulary book and learning vocabulary through
reading.
-
Learning my first language and learning a second language.
-
Prose and poetry.
-
Watching a play on TV and watching a play in a theater
-
The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird and the setting
of Pride and Prejudice.
Through this exercise, you activate students' knowledge of the
purpose of compare and contrast analyses. They will understand that
they are seeking the answer to a question about the relationship
between two elements.
In many arenas of life, the ability to come up with good questions
is a far more valuable asset than the ability to solve problems.
People who ask good questions can change the world.
