Contrast Essay: Point by Point Style From Kerrigan’s Writing to the Point: 6 Basic Steps

Why focus on contrast essays? 1.Contrast essays are especially difficult to write.

Why focus on contrast essays? 2.The process of contrast has special value: stimulates thought, clarifies ideas.

Why focus on contrast essays? 3.Students are often asked to contrast ideas, people, events, theories, etc.

Why is contrast thought stimulating? We perceive items and ideas in terms of their similarities and differences. We define them in terms of what they are and what they are not (how they are different from similar items or ideas).

7 Rules for Contrast

Thomas Jefferson Karl Marx Example Subjects to Contrast

Thomas Jefferson vs. Karl Marx American founding father Principal author of the Declaration of Independence Third President of the US Spokesman for democracy Author of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital German philosopher and economist Founder of revolutionary socialism Advocate for communism

1.Select for treatment differences that are important & meaningful. For example, which is better: to compare Karl Marx and Thomas Jefferson in terms of their physical appearance or in terms of their ideas regarding ownership of property?

2.Contrast like parts or qualities of the objects, persons, or ideas. For example, if you compare The Communist Manifesto and The Declaration of Independence, don’t write “TCM was written in 1848, whereas TDI was written by a group of authors.”

3.Say about one the opposite of what you have said about the other. Use contradictories: direct opposites, e.g., tall & short, light & dark, quick & slow, monarch & subject, employer & employee.

Use contraries: two different choices from a list within the same category. –Examples: freshman & sophomore –Book & pamphlet –Communist, socialist, and capitalist –German & American

To be sure what you are saying is opposite, ask yourself, “Can a person/idea/object be both A & B in the same way at the same time?” For example, can a student be both a freshman and a sophomore at the same time?

4.If you are stating a contrast between 2 people/ideas/objects, nothing that is not about that contrast should be included. Develop one contrast at a time. Say “X” about Marx & next “not X” about Jefferson, not “X” about Marx and then “Y” about Marx.

If you just wrote, “Marx died at the age of 65 with his major work, Das Kapital, unfinished,” what comes next? a)“He died in London, where he had lived for 34 years.” b)“Jefferson died at the age of 83, 50 years after the publication of The Declaration of Independence.”

5.Order the ideas/people/objects you are contrasting the same throughout the essay. For example, if your thesis puts Marx first, keep him first for every contrast you state: always Marx, first; Jefferson, second.

6.When you are writing contrasts, use the words difference, different from, dissimilar, not alike instead of saying “A contrast between Marx and Jefferson is...”

6.(continued) When you compare two ideas/people/objects, use the words likeness, similarity, resemblance, alike, have in common instead of saying “A comparison between Marx and Jefferson is...”

7.Do not use the expressions “on the contrary,” “on the other hand,” or “where” to mark contrasts. –Used to empathize a denial or contradiction.

FYI: “On the contrary” signals a denial of what has just been said. A: “After the end of the Cold War, communism was no longer practiced.” B: “On the contrary, communism is still practiced in some places, for example, North Korea.”

Comparison Things described as similar are rarely identical. Things that are contrasted always have similarities. Otherwise, contrasting them is pointless.

Writing our next essay Even though well written essays that emphasize contrasts may also contain a section on similarities, our essays will focus only on stating contrasts. We will again use the six steps of writing a basic essay.

Writing our next essay Our essays will have more specific thesis statements than “A and B are different.” Our theses will state a fundamental difference, and our topic sentences will state different aspects of that difference.

Writing our next essay The essays we’ll read will show how contrast can be used to clarify the nature of ideas/people/objects.

Writing our next essay These essays may be organized differently from the ones we will write, but they will give us examples of how to do step 4: how to develop ideas with specific, concrete details and examples.

Writing our next essay Comparing two products to decide which to buy Suggestion: Write about a product that you really know something about, that interests you, or that you want to purchase.

Write what you care about Our model essay “Pizza! Pizza!” was written by a student who was working at Little Caesar’s.