Warm-Up for Narrative Arguments

In 2014, actress Emma Watson spoke to the United Nations in support of gender equality. Her speech touched on a number of contentious issues—patriarchy, feminism, gender roles—but to illustrate her points, she also got personal, weaving in stories about her own experiences. Here's a portion of her speech:

Editing Comparatives and Superlatives

Modifiers have special forms that help you compare topics. A comparative adjective can show which of two topics is bigger, faster, less messy, or more cost-effective. A superlative adjective can show which of three or more topics is biggest, fastest, least messy, or most cost-effective. Add er to most one-syllable words to make the comparative form, and add est to make the superlative form.

Most One-Syllable Adjectives

For most adjectives of two syllables or more, add more or less for comparative forms and most or least for superlative forms. (Note that some two-syllable adjectives can still take er and est.)

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The first sentence or two of your comparison-contrast essay needs to grab your reader's interest. You can experiment with a number of different strategies to write an effective lead.

1. Start with a fascinating question.

   Would you rather be completely normal, with all the typical abilities and disabilities, or exceptional in one or two areas but impaired in others?

2. Start with a thoughtful quotation.

   "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."

   —Albert Camus

3. Provide an anecdote.

   We've all been stuck on a slow bus, starting and stopping in heavy traffic, crammed with others just waiting to get to a destination. When the patent clerk Albert Einstein was stuck on such a bus, he imagined instead riding on a photon at the speed of light . . . and came up with the Special Theory of Relativity.

4. Make a shocking statement.

   People with synesthesia process sound with the part of their brains meant to see pictures. As a result, they see music. When the rest of us hear a D major chord, they might see a bright blue mountain or a vibrantly orange rabbit.

Prewriting to Select Two Topics

If your topics truly interest you, analyzing them will be easy. You might also want to select two interesting topics from a current area of study so that your comparison-contrast essay can help you in more than one class. If you don't know what you want to write about, you can start by selecting an interesting general category from the Basics of Life list and thinking of two topics within that category.

For example, if you choose "Personality," you can compare two types of personality (introvert vs. extrovert) or two tests that measure intelligence (Stanford-Binet vs. Wechsler Intelligence Scale) or two psychological conditions (Asperger's syndrome vs. savant syndrome). If you choose "Food," you can compare and contrast two types of cuisine (French vs. German), or two processes for preserving meat (smoking vs. salt curing), or the history of two different drinks (coffee vs. tea).

Reading a Comparison-Contrast Essay

Before you write your own comparison-contrast essay, you should read and respond to an essay written by another student. This student was studying the civil rights movement in Advanced Placement U.S. History and decided to compare and contrast two key documents from the leaders in 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Reading a Student Model

Read the following comparison-contrast essay, in which Lamar analyzes King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and Malcolm X's "Message to the Grassroots." Lamar introduces both documents, reviews each separately (topic-by-topic organization), looks at the similarities and differences of each, and then evaluates both using argumentation and analogy. Click on the side notes to see the features of this comparison-contrast essay.

Warm-Up for Comparison-Contrast Essays

People often say, "You can't compare apples and oranges." Of course you can. Apples and oranges are both fist-sized fruits with an outer protective covering, sweet inner flesh, and seeds. Both grow on trees and appear in supermarkets. Both come in delicious varieties. These fruits are different in many ways as well: color, texture, taste, vitamins, acidity, availability, seasons, and so on. By comparing and contrasting apples and oranges, you learn more about each.

This kind of analytical thinking can help you understand just about any two topics, whether protagonists in novels or types of respiratory systems in animals or generals in the Civil War. In this unit, you'll select two topics from your own areas of study or from personal interest and compare and contrast them.

What Are Comparing and Contrasting?

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When you compare two topics, you find the similarities between them. When you contrast them, you focus on differences. Yes, you can compare and contrast apples and oranges, but your thinking needs to use parallel structure. In other words, you compare and contrast the appearance of both, and then the taste, and then the color. You shouldn't say, "While an orange has a tangy, slightly acidic taste, an apple comes in different colors." You shouldn't compare the taste of the orange to the color of the apple.

As you can see, a comparison-contrast essay needs to keep ideas neatly sorted. You have two separate topics, the similarities and differences between them, and the many points of comparison and contrast. This unit will help you manage all of this complexity, thinking effectively about your topics and developing a clear, thorough, and compelling essay.

You can warm up your thinking by comparing and contrasting yourself and one of your friends or family members.

Thinking About People

You may have a lot in common with a friend or family member, or very little in common, or some combination. You can analyze the similarities and differences between yourself and a person you like by writing about each of you, point by point. One student compared and contrasted himself to his best friend by completing the following chart.

Editing to Check Facts

The quickest way to get rejected is to misspell the name of the reader, or botch the person's title, or mangle the company name. If you need to write to Ms. Leslie Wilcox, Editor in Chief of the Burlington Standard Bugle, but you instead write to Mr. Leslie Willcox, Editor of the Burlington Daily Bugle, you probably won't even get a reply, let alone a chance to interview.

You must fact-check every name, title, business, department, street address, email address, telephone number, job title, and job-specific term in your résumé and cover letter. Look up each one on the Internet, preferably using the employer's own Web site. Check off any detail you have fact-checked, and correct any that were incorrect.

Revising for Key Details

Remember that your cover letter and résumé are really meant for the employer, not for you. You already know who you are. The employer needs to know, so these documents should provide the key details without distraction. You can check for details by reviewing item 3 on the prewriting activity "Take the Employer's Perspective."

What employer needs did you fail to address in your cover letter and résumé? For example, Joyce realized that she forgot to mention that she is a skilled photographer, so she can provide images for her articles. She added a line to the "Skills and Qualifications" section of her résumé.

Writing with Parallel Structure and Telegraphic Style

All similar elements in your résumé should use parallel structure, which means the same grammatical form. For example, each work experience item should list job title, employer, dates of employment, and duties—in that order, with the same punctuation and treatment for each element. By contrast, lists of skills and qualifications might all be adjectives: