Comparison Essays

              Description For this essay you will use both the Personal Description and Comparison methods of development. You will use Personal Description to introduce your topic, and then you will compare and contrast two things. This is a personal essay, so you will choose your own topic. You might want to compare people: for example, two of your friends or two aunts or two cousins or two of your children. You might decide to compare two classes you have taken or the teaching styles of the two instructors. You could comare two places you have lived or two schools you have attended or two jobs you have had. You might want to compare two products, two brands of something. If you like, you could compare two books you have read on the same subject or compare the book with the movie based on the book. The choices are endless. (You can also glean ideas from the example essays in your text, but be aware that these do not show you the required structure for this assignment.) Here is a list of possibilities: 1. Two college teachers (or college pressures or college courses) 2. Two pet owners (or pets) 3. Two drivers 4. Two churchgoers 5. Two internet users 6. Two friends, bosses, or relatives 7. Two talk show hosts or talk shows 8. Two sports announcers (or fans) 9. Two herbal remedies or alternative medicines 10. Two laundromat users 11. Two people waiting in line 12. Two cell phone users you know 13. Two break-ups you've had Use this form. Likenesses-Differences 1. Introduction 2. Similarities (likenesses) between A and B 3. Differences between A and B 4. Conclusion Notes about the Likenesses-Differences organizational plan: * This plan is easy and appropriate if there are about the same number of likenesses as differences. However, it would not work well if there are many similarities but only a few differences or vice versa. * Body paragraphs should be balanced (about the same length). * Compare the similarities back and forthe between the two peopel or things; compare the differences back and forth between the two. Use many comparison terms. (Similarities: like, alike, similar, also, in agreement, agree, share, in common, in accord, likewise Differences: differ, difference, but, yet, however, in contrast, on the contrary, on the other hand, disagree, whereas Degrees of similarity and difference: more, most, less, few, fewer, bigger, smaller, taller, shorter)