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Guided Writing Assignment: Comparison and Contrast

Adapted from The Short Prose Reader by Gilbert H. Muller and Harvey S. Wiener.

Comparing means looking for similarities. Contrasfing means looking for differences. When writing a comparison-and-contrast essay, you will analyze similarities and differences between two or more things, people, or experiences. Usually the purpose of such an essay is to help you decide which is better. For example, you might compare and contrast rap music and iazz in order to say that jazz is better. But sometimes a comparison and contrast is written simply to examine the relationship between things, people, or experiences. In "Mom's unforgiving Mirror," Deborah rannen compares and contrasts mothers and daughters, using the differences in behavior to illuminate the relationship between them.

After you read "Mom's Unforgiving Mirror," write an essay in which you also examine two family members and their relationships to each other-for example, fathers and sons, or brothers and sisters.

1. First, introduce to your audience the two family figures you will be comparing and contrasting in your essay.

2. In the first paragraph, provide a thesis statement that serves as the governing idea ofthe paper.

3. Use a specific pattern to develop the thesis. Either discuss each family figure in turn (the block method) or alternate between the family figures based on traits [the alternating method). You can also try experimenting with a combination of the methods.

4. Use personal stories about your own family members or the family members of friends to help illustrate your points about these two family figures.

5. You are welcome to use a motif or pattern flike Tannen's mirror) to help keep your essay unified and organized. A motif or pattern can also help clue your readers in to ideas and dnrich parts ofyour essay.

6. Conclude by restating your thesis in different language and summarizing the main ideas you raised in the introduction and throughou! the paper about each family figure.

. Areas of Comparison

B

. Areas of Contrast

49