Comparative Essay Sample Activity

Question: Compare and Contrast the social, academic, and family lives of Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati.

Sentence 1: Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati are both AP World History teachers at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, VA and there are many similarities and differences in their social, academic and family lives between the years of 1980 to 2008.

Sentence 2: Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati are similar socially in that they have many of the same friends at SBHS, but they differ in their friends and acquaintances outside of school.

Sentence 3: Academically Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati are similar in that they are both scholars of history, but they differ in the colleges they attended.

Sentence 4: Mrs. Rosati and Mr. Freeman grew up in similar families and they have similar families today, but they differ in their birth order.

Paragraph 2: Since Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati began working at SBHS, in 2003 and 2000 respectively, they have made many of the same friends. They both work in the Social Sciences Department and frequently attend school dances, sporting events, and fine arts productions with their “cool” teacher friends.

Paragraph 3: Socially Mrs. Rosati and Mr. Freeman differ in that they have separate lives outside of school. Mrs. Rosati spends her time with friends, family and two cats in Leesburg, VA. Mr. Freeman spends his time with friends, family and an adorable dog in Centreville, VA.

Paragraph 4: A shared interest in the study of history is an important academic similarity between Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati. They both are particularly interested in social history and have taken numerous courses between them. They teach the same course and find World History jokes hilarious, such as any historical reference in The Simpsons, or Monty Python.

Paragraph 5: Despite their shared love of history, Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati cultivated their passions for all things history related at different colleges. Mr. Freeman graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina and Mrs. Rosati matriculated from the College of William and Mary and George Mason University, both in Virginia.

Paragraph 6 Mrs. Rosati and Mr. Freeman both grew up in similar families, despite living in different states. They both only have one sibling a piece and for each it is a brother. Their families today are similar in that they are both married and they both have “children”. Mr. Freeman’s “baby” is an adorable Shi Tzu named Olive, and Mrs. Rosati’s “kids” include her human sons Calvin and Linden, and her two cats: Violet and Indigo.

Paragraph 7 One of the major differences between Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati is that Mrs. Rosati was the oldest in her family and Mr. Freeman was the youngest in his family. In retrospect, Mrs. Rosati’s brother, J.P., claims that at times she was “bossy” and Mr. Freeman’s brother claims “he got everything that he wanted.”

Conclusion Despite their different backgrounds, Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Rosati share many similarities today. Prime amongst them is a desire that all AP World students learn to write outstanding Comparative Essays where they address similarities as well as differences and always address how and why.