1. Comparison and Contrast
Chapter 10
Comparison and Contrast

2. To contrast two persons, places, or things is to examine the ways in which they are different. To compare them is to examine the ways in which they are similar. Contrast and comparison are useful skills in daily life, work, and college.

3. Contrast Paragraph
Although soul and hip hop both spring from African American roots, they
are very different musical expressions. Soul music borrows from gospel and
rhythm and blues. The singer’s voice, backed up by live instruments, soars with emotion, with soul. This music captures the optimism of its time—the civil rights movement of the 1960s and hope for social change. There are two types of soul—the smooth Detroit style of the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and The Temptations and the more gritty, gospel-driven Memphis style of Otis Redding and Booker T and the MGs. Soul music is upbeat and often joyful; its subjects are love and affirmation of the human condition. On the other hand, hip hop (or rap) draws on hard rock, funk, and techno. The rapper chants rhymes against a driving instrumental background that may be prerecorded. Rap grew out of the New York ghettos in the late 1970s and the 1980s, when crack and guns flooded “the hood” and many dreams seemed broken. Of the rival East and West Coast rappers, New Yorkers include Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, and the murdered Biggie Smalls, while Los Angeles rappers include Ice Cube and the murdered Tupac Shakur. The subjects of hip hop are racism, crime, and poverty. Both soul and hip hop claim to “tell it like it is.” Hip hop’s answer to the soulful Four Tops is the Furious Four. What’s in a name? Perhaps the way the listener experiences reality.
—Maurice Bosco, Student

4. Transitional Expressions for Contrast
Transitional expressions in contrast paragraphs stress opposition and difference.
Transitional Expressions for Contrast
conversely nevertheless
however on the contrary
in contrast on the one hand
in opposition on the other hand
although, even but, yet
though, whereas,
while

5. Comparison Paragraph
In my family, personality traits are said to skip generations, so that might explain why my grandfather and I have so much in common. My grandfather arrived in the United States at sixteen, a penniless young man from Italy looking for a new life and ready to earn it. He quickly apprenticed himself to a shoe cobbler and never stopped working until he retired fifty-three years later. Similarly, when I was fourteen, I asked permission to apply for my first job as a bank teller. My parents smiled and said, “She’s just like Grandpa.” Though everyone else in my family spends money the minute it reaches their hands, my habit of saving every penny does not seem strange to them. My grandfather also was careful with money, building his own shoe repair business out of nothing. He loved to work in his large vegetable garden and brought bags of carrots and tomatoes to our house on Saturday mornings. Like him, I enjoy the feeling of dirt on my fingers and the surprise of seedlings sprouting overnight. Though I raise zinnias instead of zucchinis, I know where I inherited a passion to make things grow. Only in opportunities, we differed. Although my grandfather’s education ended with third grade, I am fortunate to attend college—and hope that education will be my legacy to the generations that come after me.
—Angela De Renzi, Student

6. Transitional Expressions for Comparison
Transitional expressions in comparison paragraphs stress similarities.
Transitional Expressions for Comparison
also in a similar way
as well in the same way
equally likewise
in addition similarly

7. Image source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

8. © Cengage Learning 2014

9. Suggested Topics for Comparison or Contrast Paragraphs
Compare or contrast two attitudes toward money (the spendthrift and the miser) or partnership (the confirmed single and the committed partner).
Compare or contrast two ways of dealing with anger, loss, grief, or disappointment.
Compare or contrast a job you hated and a job you loved.
Compare or contrast two consumer items of the same type (cars, computers, phones).
Compare or contrast the way something is done in the United States and the way it is done in another country (or the ways something is done in two different states).
Compare or contrast two high schools or colleges you have attended (perhaps one in the United States and one in another country).
Compare or contrast two athletes in the same sport (or two entertainers, politicians, professors).
Compare or contrast your expectations of a person, place, or situation and the reality.
Compare or contrast two career fields you are considering.
Writer’s choice

10. Comparison AND Contrast Paragraph
Sometimes an assignment will ask you to write a paragraph that both compares and contrasts, one that stresses both similarities and differences.

11. Comparison AND Contrast Paragraph
Although contemporary fans would find the game played by the Knickerbockers—the first organized baseball club—similar to modern baseball, they would also note some startling differences. In 1845, as now, the four bases of the playing field were set in a diamond shape, ninety feet from one another. Nine players took the field. The object of the game was to score points by hitting a pitched ball and running around the bases. The teams changed sides after three outs. However, the earlier game was also different. The umpire sat at a table along the third base line instead of standing behind home plate. Unlike the modern game, the players wore no gloves. Rather than firing the ball over the plate at ninety miles an hour, the pitcher gently tossed it underhand to the batter. Since there were no balls and strikes, the batter could wait for the pitch he wanted. The game ended not when nine innings were completed but when one team scored twenty-one runs, which were called “aces.”

12. TM and Copyright ©20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved
TM and Copyright ©20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection
© The Granger Collection, New York
TV’s Dr. House and Sherlock Holmes have more in common than inquiring minds.

13. Suggested Topics for Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs
Compare and contrast two different places you’ve lived.
Compare and contrast the requirements of two jobs or careers.
Compare and contrast weddings, parties, or funerals in two different cultures.
Compare and contrast two albums, videos, or websites on similar subjects.
Compare and contrast your life now and your life five years ago.
Compare and contrast two singers, bands, or artists.
Compare and contrast shopping at two different discount stores (or another type).
Compare and contrast two popular television programs of the same type (newscasts, talk shows, situation comedies, and so on).
Compare and contrast two attitudes toward one subject (firearms, immigration, and so on).
Writer’s choice

14. EXPLORING ONLINE http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/ParDevCC.html
Review of the comparison/contrast paragraph, with examples.
Print these graphic outlines to help you plan your paragraph.