Prewriting for Comparison-Contrast Essays
Instead of just leaping into writing, you should spend some time choosing a topic, gathering information, and organizing your thoughts. That's prewriting. This lesson will help you select a topic and gather details for a comparison-contrast essay.
Prewriting to Select a Topic
Explore writing topics.
Write two different people, places, things, and ideas that interest you and that you think would be interesting to compare and contrast. Circle the two subjects you like best.
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People |
Places |
Things |
Ideas |
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People |
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Places |
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Things |
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Ideas |
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If you are still unsure of a writing topic, consider comparing these ideas.
- One school subject to another school subject
- Hand tools to power tools
- Meat to vegetables
- Freedom to slavery
- One climate to another climate
- Riding a bike to riding a horse
- Rollerskating to ice skating
- A house to an apartment
- Face-to-face communication to social-media communication
- Being strong to being funny
- Leading to following
- One president to another president
- 8th grade to 7th grade
- Baseball to cricket
Choose your writing topic.
From the table or the bulleted list, pick two topics to explore in your comparison-contrast essay.
Prewriting to Gather Details
Gather details.
In the following T-chart, list details about each topic. Place check marks next to the similarities. Underline any differences. This step will likely involve research. Use books, encyclopedias, and Web sites to learn new information about your topics.
Topic 1 |
Topic 2 |
Teaching Tip
Introduce this lesson in the library or somewhere where your students have Internet access to help research their topics.