Whenever you are writing a comparison/contrast paper (paragraph, essay, research paper), you need to plan it out very carefully on paper first.
Try this:
1. List all the information about one of your topics on one page. (Topic A)
2. List all the information about the other topic on another page. (Topic B)
3. Then put them together in this order:
1. Intro, including thesis statement
2. Similarities in both topics
3. Specific contrast items about topic A
~~~2A. detail 1
~~~2B. detail 2
~~~2C. detail 3
~~~2D. detail 4
~~~2E. detail 5
4. Specific contrast items about topic B
~~~3A. detail 1
~~~3B. detail 2
~~~3C. detail 3
~~~3D. detail 4
~~~3E. detail 5
5. Concl.
The number of details for each topic will vary depending on your main points. You can include comparisons (how they are similar) in the introduction and conclusion if there are very few, but if there are several points of comparison, then write those in their own paragraph. Sections 3 and 4 and all those particular details will be stating and explaining how they are different (contrast).
There are two recognized patterns for writing comparison/contrast papers. One is casually referred to as "zig-zag,” but can be very confusing for the reader if you don’t use transitions effectively. The other is topic-by-topic (which is what I've outlined above) and is much easier for the reader to follow.
See http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/comparcontrast.html for further help with comparison/contrast writing.
Once you have organized your information, please repost if you’d like feedback from someone here.
=)
Compare and contrast two or more poems from Songs of Innocence and Experience.
I have chosen 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' but I'm not sure how to write this type of essay or what the introduction should be.
Any tips, help would be really great. Thanks!
1 answer
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