Comparison Essay

Comparison Assignment

The last essay was simply a task in telling completely what one author had to say about a certain subject. This essay will take this a step further, asking the question, "What do two writers have to say about a subject, and how do these two views compare?" The essay should be under 600 words.

Your essay will require you to find two differing views of a subject. The subject might be an item in the news, a current film, a television program, a work of music, a play, or a book, among other things. You will need to locate these views on the internet, looking in newspapers, magazines, and other sites on the web. You can begin here. You will provide the web site addresses of these articles.

An example might be to look at reviews in different places of a television program or movie that's getting a lot of attention--"Pearl Harbor" is one of those. Perhaps you find an article in one place that says it's a good example of what the attack was like, and yet in another place you find a writer who says the movie makes too many changes to be considered realistic. You could contrast those two views using summaries and explanations of the two articles. You could also add comments of your own if you have watched the program.

Usually in academia your task is to convince your audience—often only your professor—that you’re familiar with the information on what you’re discussing. You want to convince them that you’ve read well, absorbed the material, and that you can present it in a thoughtful fashion. At the heart of your thinking as you write should be the idea that someone always reads what you write. Imagine why you might be asked to do such a task as this, either in a course or as a part of work. In either case, you want to have a favorable response from your reader. Keep that reader in mind and you’ll have an end result in mind that can help guide your work.

The writers of the essays in our reader intend to influence the reader to think in a certain way on a subject, to move their thinking or to make them see something in a new light. The best arguments are built on logic, providing the reader with information and a perspective that helps them see things in a new light. Writers also use other means besides logic, however, and readers are often persuaded by character--how the writer projects him or herself as intelligent or informed, someone you want to agree with. Another method is to appeal to the reader’s emotions—to get the reader to respond with their emotions rather than (or in addition to) their logic.

These methods are most obvious in advertising, where companies try to persuade you to buy things. Sometimes they’ll use logic, giving you statistics, dollar amounts, or figures to compare. But most effective ads depend on making an emotional appeal or using character. Ads for carbonated beverages are a good example. What logical argument could a company make that you should drink a soda? There’s not much. So they bring in people you admire to tell you to drink it (using character), or they provide you with scenes that make you feel like drinking some or that your life will be more enjoyable if you drink it (using emotions). These methods work.

One of our tasks in the course is to make you more aware of these types of appeals—to help you see them at work, whether it’s in an ad on TV or in a persuasive essay. In your comparison paper, you may want to comment on what methods the writer uses, in addition to the views they present.

In this essay we'll also begin the deliberate use of transitional words and phrases to help make the essay hold together. Remember that readers don't always pay attention the way we'd like, and we have to keep them by the hand, making sure that they don't fall between the cracks, as I usually put it. We have to signal as we shift from one idea to another. Make use of these words.

Guidelines are here.

One last thing: You'll need to make sure you have a clear thesis. Click here to read about it.