Sample Compare and Contrast Essays English 9
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
Below are two essays. The first one is a block essay and the second one is a point by point essay. I would like you to make two notices and two wonders about each essay.
This is a fun activity that is often done in the classroom. Let’s see if we are able to do this well in an online environment.
I have hidden the responses of your classmates until you complete yours. When the other come available, make at least two comments on what others noticed.
Notice: Highlight a paragraph that shows one of the styles listed: block or point by point. Explain what is unique to that style
Wonders: Hightlight any questions that you have about either of the essays.
I have hidden the responses of your classmates until you complete yours. When the other come available, make at least two comments on what others noticed.
Sample Compare and Contrast Essays
The Senate and the House of Representatives
Do you think it is better to put the similarities or differences first? I believe that the similarities should go first.
I believe that the similarities should go first, because it wouldn’t sound right if the differences were at the beginning.
Yeah, I agree with you all. It would sound weird because you are trying to decide which one is better. If you just said they are different, then wrapped up with they are the same, I wouldn’t make sense.
story 1
wonders
-Why is the president the head of the senate?
-Why must he vote if the senate is in a tie?
notices
-The house of representatives has 435 representatives.
-The amount of representatives is determined by the state population.
Story 2
wonders
-Why is there danger in tent camping?
-How long has tent camping been around?
Notices
-Tent camping is good for those who are on a budget.
-Going to a hotel is more comfortable.
I understand your concern. When it comes to official documents, in my opinion, it is important to consult only reliable and verified sources.
The government of the United States is made up of three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. The legislative branch, called Congress, is responsible for making laws. Congress is made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. In this essay, you will learn the differences and similarities between these two houses of Congress.
This is a very good introduction to the subject. It has the subjects that are being compared and contrasted and it shares the make up of the subject.
How many representatives does Idaho have?
Probably only one or two representatives.
In this introductory paragraph, it is obvious that the essay will be in block format because the thesis statement only points out that there are differences and similarities that will be discussed. It doesn’t go into individual points.
Is block paragraph a good style for my comparison of Gandalf and Dumbledore?
This is a point by point because it explains that the government of the US is broken into three branches and states the branch types.
I like the beginning of this essay. It states the topic as a whole and its very clear.
What are the other two branches made up of? And how do they work?
There are many differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Vice President of the United States is the head of the Senate. He must vote in the Senate if there is a tie. On the other hand, the House of Representatives’ leader is called the Speaker of the House. The representatives elect him or her. Another difference is that the Senate is made up of 100 senators, two from each state. The House of Representatives, however, is made up of 435 representatives. The number of representatives from each state is determined by that state’s population. The greater the population in a state, the more representatives that state will have in the House. A third difference is that senators are elected to sixyear terms, while representatives are elected to serve two-year terms. Every two years, the nation holds an election for members of Congress. At that time, all members of the House of Representatives and onethird of the Senate are up for re-election.
Differences are explained in this paragraph. But there are very detailed examples of each difference.
This is a point-by-point essay. The author gives the differences and similarities point-by-point, meaning he/she writes what the number of people in one house is, then what the number of people in the other house is, directly after, instead of giving each subject it’s own paragraph.
How many bills become laws in a single year?
This paragraph is an example of a block essay because instead of talking about each topic bu itself, this essay talks about the comparisons and differences all together. So, instead of saying something about the Senate in one paragraph and the House of representatives in a different paragraph, they are both compared in one paragraph.
This paragraph shows this is a block essay because the entire paragraph is dedicated toward differences of the two topics being compared.
If I have a bunch of differences can I have two paragraphs on differences?
If you have to much differences then go ahead and write to paragraphs. This could equal a longer essay.
The second and third paragraph is using the block style method. In the first paragraph, its talks about all of the differences between the two houses of Congress. In the second paragraph, it talks about all of the differences. Therefor, this is the block method.
I also have wondered why the terms are different, and why every different part of the government has its own way of doing things. What is the weirdest thing to you?
This a point-by-point essay. The paragraph compares the Senate and House, one at a time, describing the differences.
So when writing a compare and contrast, should you add an opinion?
In this one, the first part after the introduction is all the differences. Then the similarities are the next part, followed by the conclusion.
This paragraph displays the differences of the branches, the next paragraph going on to explain the similarities. Because of this, I can determine that this is an example of a point-by-point essay. The first point is the differences between the houses, going on to explain one house and noting the differences in contrast; and the second point is to explain all of the similarities between the houses. In each paragraph, the author lists the beginning statement about one of the houses and then goes on to list the differences raised because of the other houses.
As said in the read-write-think lesson, "In this structure, you explain one point of comparison before moving to the next point. "
Hmm unfortunately I’m getting to this late and I see everyone’s post so it’s affecting what I’m thinking in a way. I don’t know if I read something different or if I skipped over some stuff on accident but this seems like a point by point essay. The author compares two subjects in the same point which is (what I thought) point by point.
This is a block style essay because it is covering only the differences between the two topics.
I’m surprised the Vice President votes only when there is a tie, I probably shouldn’t be but I need to learn more about this stuff. And it makes me wonder how many representatives Idaho has then for it’s size.
We can see that they decided to talk about differences first.
I wonder what difference it would have made if the author started with similarities.
I find it interesting that they began with the differences. I would personally start with their similarities.
I am curious why the amount of senators for a state does not depend on the amount of people in the state like that of representatives.
Who exactly do the choose to be in the Congress? How many people often run to be in the Congress, and do they have to have certain credentials?
There are also similarities between the Senate and the House of Representatives. For example, both houses of Congress are made up of men and women. Both senators and representatives are members of Congress who must work together toward the same goal: to create, discuss, debate and vote on bills, some of which eventually become laws. In the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C., senators and representatives often meet with each other and in smaller groups to discuss laws. Before the President can sign a bill into law, it must first be approved by a majority of members in both the House and Senate.
This talks about the similarities that the Senate and the House have. It talks about what they have in common.
My question is that is it a point-by-point or is it similarities and differences? Or both?
Still seems like point by point since they talk about both subjects in the same point.
Ha another thing I should probably not be surprised about and should know (or maybe I do I just don’t get it right now) but besides signing bills made into laws, what else does the President do with the House and Senate?
Although Congress is made up of two types of lawmakers, they must work together for the benefit of all Americans.
Before reading this, I thought there was only one type of lawmaker. Now I wonder about the rest of the government system and how it works.
I guess that just goes to show that your essay will show someone something they don’t know! What are you writing about?
Vacations
Vacations are one of the favorite things for people to do. There are a couple ways to do this, and they have their pros and cons.
Through the thesis we can see that this essay is a point by point essay.
Yeah its very clear that this is a point by point essay, this was a good example.
I feel like this sentence should be worded differently. Possibly:
“Many people enjoy vacations, and set aside time from work and school to take them.” Do you think this flows a little better?
I agree, the sentence does seem a bit off.
Tent-camping and staying at hotels are two of the most common ways of vacationing. Tent camping has been around for years. This is a good option for those whose budget is limited, although some campgrounds’ sites these days rival the charge of hotels. There is also a little bit of an element of danger in tent-camping, although others just see this as part of the adventure.
The author starts out with the positives and negatives of tent camping as a vacation choice.
How do you get point by point? I really am open to answers since I just don’t understand. In point by point it’s both subjects per paragraph right? This is one per paragraph.
This is an essay written in the block style. Block style is where each topic is given separate paragraphs to tell about their pros and cons, then at the end in the conclusion the author decides which is better, instead of contrasting each point to each other at the same time, then telling the conclusion in the conclusion paragraph.
I agree, the author doesn’t give enough details on the subject, or enough facts.
Could I have every other sentence a difference and all the others be a similarity?
I agree, there should be more pros to tent camping.
This essay appears to be in whole to whole style.
Talks about both the positives and negatives
This essay is a block essay. I can tell this because each of the following paragraphs explains one thing as a WHOLE (whole-to-whole is another term for block essays). The first paragraph explains the situations dealt with in tent-camping vacationing and the second paragraph explains the situations dealt with in hotel vacationing.
Each paragraph deal with each subject completely, not adding specific similarities and differences between the two.
Again it seems to me like this is a block essay but I’m starting to think I’ve read something wrong and don’t understand the difference. This paragraph focuses on one subject instead of combining both, that is a block type essay.
This is a point by point style essay because it’s covering one topics pros and cons at a time in a paragraph.
I wonder what difference it would have made if he started with hotels first.
I wonder how many times the author has camped. It really seems that they are against the idea, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that number was low…
The author sort of states their position on the subject by saying “others”. This implies that that the author isn’t part of the group who believes that the ‘danger’ in camping is an adventure, so they must be against that dangerous aspect.
Hotels are definitely a more comfortable way of vacationing if you have the financial resources. They provide comfortable beds and all the amenities of home. You also have reservations for peace of mind, and don’t need to worry about the weather.
Then the author shares about the positives and negatives of hotel vacations. Over all the author prefers the hotel vacation over camping due to a bad experience.
For this question, I was wondering why in this essay “Vacations”, Why are the paragraphs so short? I think that there could have been more information but that may just be my own opinion.
Is point by point a better format for my comparison of Gandalf and Dumbledore?
Block… Still only talking about one subject (Hotels) in the paragraph which is block, right?
It’s not like you got camping in a city… usually if you do then you go to a hotel, not always about weather. I see how it can be about the price and budget but I think it’s more about what you prefer (after you plan a vacation where you actually have both options).
The two ways I’ve discussed are both good in some ways; it largely depends on the amount of money you have to spend. Personally, after a bad tent-camping experience with the weather, I’d recommend hotels because this could be the difference between a good trip and a soggy mess!
This paragraph is a point by point paragraph because it talks about both of the types of camping.
But don’t you think that camping in bad weather builds character?
So I made a wonder earlier asking whether or not we should add an opinion in a compare and contrast essay, and I found one here. It’s seems to that it’s up to the author.
The whole essay is nothing but opinion, so whould it even out the opinion to add more facts?
The introduction is stating what will be written about, followed by separate paragraphs. Each paragraph is one topic. The conclusion states the author’s thesis with opinion, and sums up the point.
This one seems to be.
Ha I wonder how bad his experience was if he completely recommends hotels. Usually you don’t get soaked because you can tell if it will rain or you stop it from raining on you before you do get soaked.
The author uses both similarities and differences on each subject in order to make a concluding sentence.
General Document Comments 0
1. Two notices about the first essay
a. my highlights show very clear introduction sentences to the similarity and difference paragraphs of the block style essay.
b. purpose of essay is to teach about similarities an differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives
2. two wonders about first essay
a. Why is only one-third of the Senate up for re-election?
b. Why does this benefit all Americans?
3. two notices for second essay
a. the font of the last paragraph is different from the other paragraphs
b. there is one main point that the author keeps repeating – in my opinion there should be several strong points that can be reworded in the last paragraph instead of just two
4. two wonders on second essay
a. What are the dangers involved with tent-camping?
b. Why do reservations give you peace of mind?
At the end, although the author specifically says that they aren’t better to each other in whole (there are obviously pros and cons), they do go on to state their position on the subject.
I’m also really curious as to how bad this weather experience was? I mean, was it just some rain that made the ground muddy or was it more serious?
icons on the left to see existing comments.
0 archived comments