Compare /Contrast Essay
Select your own topic, or you may use one of the sample topics listed below. However, you should choose a topic that you have knowledge of so that you have sufficient points of comparison or contrast to discuss in your essay.
Compare or contrast two or three primary points about the two subjects you choose to write about, resulting in an essay with either four or six body paragraphs, an introductory paragraph, and a conclusion.
Compare or contrast two cities you’ve visited or that you’ve lived in
Compare or contrast two members of your family
Compare or contrast two sources of news
Compare or contrast two singers in different music genres
Compare or contrast two historical figures
Compare or contrast two artists (for example, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso or Keith Haring and Andy Warhol)
Compare or contrast two eras in time
Compare or contrast two television series
Compare or contrast two types of technologies (for example, Android and Apple phones or PlayStation and Xbox)
Compare or contrast two medical topics (for example, traditional medicine and modern medicine or doctors and midwives)
After you’ve drafted your essay, answer the following questions about your writing. Include answers to all of the questions below your essay.
1. Did you use the point-by-point or block method to organize your body paragraphs? What made you decide to organize your essay in this way (3-4 sentences)? Which organization did you choose and why?
2. In what ways did writing a comparison/contrast essay differ from the Narrative essay you wrote in Touchstone 1? Give specific examples (3-4 sentences).
3. Remember that the writing process is a recursive process, and your first draft of an essay is rarely your last. What part of the draft did you struggle with (3-4 sentences)?
