Description
For this essay, you will use both the Personal Description and Comparison methods of development. You will use Personal Description to introduce your topic, and then you will compare and contrast two things. This is a personal essay, so you will choose your own topic.
You might want to compare people: for example, two of your friends or two aunts or two cousins or two of your children. You might decide to compare two classes you have taken or the teaching styles of the two instructors. You could compare two places you have lived or two schools you have attended or two jobs you have had. You might want to compare two products, two brands of something. If you like, you could compare two books you have read on the same subject or compare the book with the movie based on the book. The choices are endless. (You can also glean ideas from the example essays in your text, but be aware that these do not show you the required structure for this assignment.) Here is a list of possibilities:
- Two college teachers (or college pressures or college courses)
- Two pet owners (or pets)
- Two drivers
- Two churchgoers
- Two internet users
- Two friends, bosses, or relatives
- Two talk show hosts or talk shows
- Two sports announcers (or fans)
- Two herbal remedies or alternative medicines
- Two laundromat users
- Two people waiting inline
- Two cell phone users you know
- Two break-ups you've had
Use this form.
Likenesses-Differences
- Introduction
- Similarities (likenesses) between A and B
- Differences between A and B
- Conclusion
Notes about the Likenesses-Differences organizational plan:
- This plan is easy and appropriate if there are about the same number of likenesses as differences. However, it would not work well if there are many similarities but only a few differences or vice versa.
- Body paragraphs should be balanced (about the same length).
- Compare the similarities back and forth between the two people or things; compare the differences back and forth between the two. Use many comparison terms.
(Similarities: like, alike, similar, also, in agreement, agree, share, in common, in accord, likewise
Differences: differ, difference, but, yet, however, in contrast, on the contrary, on the other hand, disagree, whereas
Degrees of similarity and difference: more, most, less, few, fewer, bigger, smaller, taller, shorter)
Sample Solution