ACADEMIC WRITING

Organisation
Argumentation
Compare and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Classification

Compare and Contrast

When you want to examine two ideas/topics/issues/subjects in your academic writing and want to show the similarities and/or differences between them, you will write a comparison/contrast text. The type of writing may be used to persuade, explain or inform. Comparison/contrast essays can follow two different patterns of presentation. You can explain each subject one at a time or you may discuss them point-by-point, one aspect at a time. In comparing, you focus on how the two are similar; in contrasting, your essay focuses on how the two are different. Your chosen topic for this form of writing must have some basic similarities. For example you may compare and contrast two movies, two books, two plays, two poems or even two models of cell-phones etc.

CHECK POINTS

- is there a clear indication that this is a compare/contrast essay?
- does the introduction clearly state the purpose of the text?
- does the text follow one pattern of compare and contrast? Or is there a mixture of both patterns?
- does the linking/connecting between comparisons/contrasts work?