1. Seven Modes:
Compare and Contrast

2. What is it?
When you compare two or more things, you are looking for similarities;
When you contrast them, you are looking for differences.
However, doing one implies doing the other – when you look for what is similar, you will also notice what is different.
You can compare things at all levels:
From trivial – colored shoelaces and plain ones;
To quite serious – a career in medicine or a career in law.
We often consider things at a serious level in an effort to make a choice. Therefore, it is helpful to have a systematic, useful way to analyze similarities and differences. The same process is needed when writing a compare-and-contrast essay.

3. Purpose STRICT COMPARISON: FANCIFUL COMPARISON
Explores relationships between things in the same class or category
Items being compared are fundamentally quite alike
Actors with actors
Musicians with musicians
NOT actors with musicians
Emphasis is typically on how things in the same category are different in important ways
Ultimate goal is usually to make a judgment and then a choice
FANCIFUL COMPARISON
Explores relationships between things from different classes or categories
Imaginative, insightful comparison between two things that don’t seem at all alike – metaphorical
Can help to clarify a complex idea
Ex: Comparing the human heart to a pump allows one to envision the heart at work
Not often the focus of an entire essay
More a device for highlighting basic similarities for the purpose of clarification or explanation
Used to catch reader’s attention and show new connections between unlike things

4. Audience Before writing, consider:
What readers will already know and what they will expect
Readers may be familiar with both items or ideas
Ex: two popular television shows
Requires less time pointing out similarities
More time can be devoted to reasons for the comparison
Readers may be unfamiliar with both items or ideas
Ex: Buddhism and Shintoism
Requires definition
Use concepts readers are familiar with to explain the unfamiliar concepts
Only after definition can important contrasts be highlighted
Readers may be familiar with one and not the other
Ex: Football and rugby
Use the known to explain the unknown
Emphasize what is familiar about the known and explain how the unknown is in part like it and in part different from it
Keeping your essay fairly balanced
Equal time devoted to each item or idea being compared
If division is uneven, essay will seem less like a compare/contrast and more like a platform to discuss the item or idea more heavily emphasized

5. STRATEGIES to convey a distinct purpose and a clear focus:
Two basic strategies for organization:
Divided or subject-by-subject comparison
Presents all information on one topic before introducing another (i.e. completely describing football and then completely describing rugby as a different sport)
Presents each item or idea as a whole
Works well in short essays where reader is unlikely to get “lost” in excess information
Can begin to feel like two separate essays
Alternating or point-by-point comparison
Works through comparison point-by-point (i.e. Describing scoring in football, then scoring in rugby; then describing player positions in football and player positions in rugby, etc.)
Gives information first on one aspect of the topic, then on the other
Works well to give emphasis to the individual points you are comparing
Good for longer essays, where information is complex and plentiful
If used for only a few points of comparison on a simple topic, can sound choppy and disconnected, like a list
Combining the strategies
Start using a divided pattern to give an overview of the topic(s) early in your essay
Shift to alternating pattern to highlight points of comparison in your subject(s)

6. POINTS TO REMEMBER:
Decide whether you want the pattern of your comparison to focus on complete units (divided) or specific features (alternating).
Consider the possibility of combining the two patterns.
Determine which subject/item/idea should be placed in the first position and why (better known by audience, simpler to understand, etc.).
Arrange the points of your comparison in a logical, balanced, and dramatic sequence.
Make sure you introduce and clarify the reasons for making your comparison.

7. Fallacies
Slots 3rd
1st
Ad hominem 4 3
Damning the Origin
Ad Populum 2
Bandwagon Fallacy
Begging the question
Circular Reasoning
Either/ Or reasoning
Straw Man Fallacy
Hasty Generalization 5
Non-sequitor
Sweeping Generalization
Post-Hoc Propter Hoc
Slippery Slope
Red Herring
Pointing to Another Wrong
Unnecessary Vagueness
Over-precision
Logical Fallacies
You will sign up for a set of logical fallacies to compare and contrast. Here are your options (pick two to do research briefly tonight for homework):

8. Presentation
You and the other students who signed up for your topic will present your research findings as part of your final.
You will need to create a presentation, using powerpoint, prezi, or video format
Your presentation must be minutes in length
MUST INCLUDE: Compare and Contrast
Fallacies: definition of both (or all three)
Examples from media, politics, and literature
Differences and similarities between the two
Make a judgment on which is stronger and which is the most destructive
Research portion:
Include internal citations in your presentation
A packet of research: first page of all cited sources
An annotated bibliography
A works cited page