In theory, the compare contrast essay's topic sentences are written
exactly the same way as those of a standard, single-topic,
thesis-and-support essay.
The topic sentences for both types of essays are built on the
working thesis using formula:
topic sentence = thesis
+ reason statement.
Comparison writing is recursive
In practice, however, developing those C&C topic sentences
is difficult. The problem arises from the recursive nature
of writing a comparison essay.
Writing a basic thesis-and-support essay can be a fairly linear
process. The topic sentences can be written using familiar strategies
as soon as the writer has a working thesis statement.
By contrast, writing a comparison essay is a jerky, skipping-about
process. It lacks step-by-step strategies.
Writers must be constantly checking to see how changes to the
thesis end of their essay process affects the individual pieces
of data.
During that skipping about, struggling writers are apt to lose
sight of their objective. They often wind up with piles of data,
but no idea what to do with it.
C&C skills can be learned early
If students are taught how to use compare contrast before they
are required to write their first C&C essay, the difficulties
are minimized.
In order to write topic sentences for comparison essays, students
must:
-
Observe.
-
Analyze.
-
Group.
-
Label.
-
Describe in writing.
Students can begin learning those skills long before they are
old enough to cope with the cognitive demands of thesis-and-support
thinking.
Teach from fact to topic sentence
Here's what teachers need to do to help students learn the cognitive
skills they will need to write topic sentences for comparison
essays:
Beginning with lists of comparison points between two items,
have students sort the lists two different ways:
-
Sort data into two groups according to whether both
items are alike in regard to a characteristic or
unlike in regard to it.
-
Sort those sets of grouped data into groups in which all
the items share a common characteristic that can be
described with a keyword (or key phrase).
Both of these activities involve using vocabulary words
carefully. If, for example, the comparison items each have to do
with where an organism lives, students would need to recall words
that fit that definition.
How one defines common words may determine whether two items
are like or unlike. For example, young students might say a horse
and cow are different because the cow gives milk and the horse does
not. Older students might disagree if they define nursing young
as "giving milk."
Teachers can bridge the gap between the immediate lesson and later
lessons in compare contrast writing by simply asking students to
write a single sentence summarizing the comparison they observed.
Such activities need to be repeated at regular intervals throughout
elementary and middle school. Students may not be mature enough
to benefit from this type of activity the first few times teachers
do it. Over time, however, students will grasp compare contrast
thinking as a tool for mastering content across the curriculum.
Learn how to
lead students through the process of activating their knowledge
of comparison thinking so they understand that point of doing
a compare contrast analysis is to reach a conclusion (i.e., a
thesis statement) about the relationship between the two.
