Comparison and Contrast of Nonfiction

Introduction

A Writer’s Checklist

Finding your nonfiction texts

Gathering information

Determining your relevant features

Composing your thesis statement

Arranging your supporting details

A Writer’s Model

Your Turn: Write a comparison-contrast essay

Introduction

How are these things alike and different?

a book . . .

and a movie based on the book?

and windsurfing?

snowboarding. . .

alternative music . . .

and rap music?

Introduction

When you analyze the similarities and differences between any two things, you are comparing and contrasting them.

You can compare and contrast any two things that are at least somewhat alike. For example, you can compare and contrast two nonfiction texts to determine how they address a topic.

A Writer’s Checklist

When you write an essay comparing and contrasting nonfiction texts, you should:

Gather information by reading and analyzing two texts.

Find two pieces of nonfiction about which to write.

Determine the relevant features of the two pieces you have chosen. Compose a thesis statement so that your readers

will understand what you are comparing and contrasting.

Arrange the supporting details and determine the structure of your essay.

To begin to compare and contrast nonfiction works, you must find and analyze two appropriate nonfiction texts.

Your sources for such analysis can include:

books

newspaper articles

magazine articles

informative Web sites

Finding your nonfiction texts

Remember that the two works you choose should address a narrow, focused topic so they can be effectively compared.

Finding your nonfiction texts

Here are some ideas to help you choose your two nonfiction texts:

Surf educational or informational sites on the Internet for articles or ideas.

Visit your local library and preview nonfiction books or magazines written about a topic that interests you.

Brainstorm a list of nonfiction books that you have read and liked.

Finding your nonfiction texts

After you’ve selected two solid sources to compare and contrast, you should begin to focus on choosing a topic. When searching for a topic, make sure that it is not too complex or lengthy to analyze in a short essay.

Kelly had always been fascinated by Abraham Lincoln.

She knew that comparing two complete accounts of his life would be too large a task, so she decided to focus on accounts of his assassination.

Gathering information

Once you have found two texts to compare, read them carefully.

You are looking not just for information, but specifically for similarities and differences between the two texts.

Determining relevant features

Kelly carefully read two articles on Lincoln’s assassination and created this chart to list differences between them.

Workman Article

There was a planned, three-man conspiracy.

Hobbes Article

Booth took advantage of a spontaneous opportunity.

The plan was to kill Lincoln.

Booth’s original intention was to kidnap Lincoln.

Booth did not write a letter detailing his plans.

Booth wrote a letter detailing his plans.

Determining relevant features

Based on your reading of your nonfiction texts, you will determine the relevant features that you will discuss in your essay.

Kelly identified her relevant features:

Relevant Features of the Articles

conspiracy theory

intent of plot (to kill or kidnap Lincoln)

Booth’s letter

Relevant features are the specific areas of the topic that both texts address.

Composing your thesis statement

Write a thesis statement that will identify the subject of your essay and alert your readers to your approach—whether you will address the similarities, differences, or both.

Although the main facts of Lincoln’s assassination are not in dispute between at least two qualified historians, there are many disagreements about the events leading up to it.

Here is Kelly’s thesis statement. Is she focusing on similarities, differences, or both?

Arranging your supporting details

The manner in which you arrange the supporting details for your main idea will determine how readable your essay is.

You can arrange this information in one of two ways:

the point-by-point method

the block method

or

With the point-by-point method, you show how how one text addresses the first relevant feature, then the second, third, and so on. This method works best for essays with many comparisons.

Arranging your supporting details

Relevant Feature conspiracy theory

intent of plot

Booth’s letter

Hobbes: John Wilkes Booth acted alone.

Hobbes: Booth originally planned to kidnap Lincoln.

Hobbes: Booth wrote a letter detailing his plan.

Point-by-Point Method

Workman: Booth was part of a conspiracy.

Workman: The plan was always to kill Lincoln.

Workman: There was no letter.

Arranging your supporting details

With the block method, you discuss all the relevant features for the first text and then all of the relevant features of the second text. This method works best for shorter essays with fewer features.

Block Method

Hobbes: John Wilkes Booth acted alone and spontaneously. He originally intended to kidnap Lincoln and wrote a letter to that effect.

Workman: Booth planned Lincoln’s assassination for months. He had accomplices. He had no intention of kidnapping the president and never wrote a letter saying that he did.

A Writer’s Checklist

Use the checklist as you look at the following Writer’s Model and as you evaluate and revise your own comparison-contrast essay.

Gather information by reading and analyzing two texts.

Find two pieces of nonfiction about which to write.

Determine the relevant features of the two pieces you have chosen.

Compose a thesis statement so that your readers will understand what you are comparing and contrasting.

Arrange the supporting details and determine the structure of your essay.

attention-getter

Prologue To a Tragedy

The news spread quickly by word-of-mouth and through the nation’s newspaper headlines: “The President Has Been Assassinated!” Few wanted to believe the terrible and tragic truth. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. At 7:22 the next morning, after attempts by doctors to save his life, the President died.

background information

statement of similarities

The major facts of Lincoln’s untimely and public demise are not in dispute between noted historians Joseph Hobbes and Kevin Workman. Both of the men consider the overall historical record of the incident at Ford’s Theatre to be “beyond controversy.” (Hobbes) However, Hobbs and Workman dispute each other noticeably regarding the key events leading up to the presidential assassination. This is where their major differences lie.

comparison-contrast clue words

thesis statement (focus on differences)

relevant features of first text (block method)

In his September 27, 2005, article in the magazine Southern Sketches, Hobbes maintains that Booth acted on his own. It was a whim, sparked by Booth’s dislike of Lincoln’s politics and local gossip that the President would be attending a play that evening. Booth had, in fact, originally planned to simply kidnap Lincoln. He told nobody of his plans, but he did give a friend a letter to be given to the press on the following day. The letter, Hobbes writes, was never delivered and is long since lost.

comparison-contrast clue words

Workman, on the other hand, recounts a darker, more sinister, tale. He writes on the same compelling subject in the Winter, 1999, issue of The Lincoln Quarterly Chronicle and Report. In contrast to the almost random events recounted by Hobbes, Workman steadfastly maintains that the plan to assassinate President Lincoln had been carefully planned and in place for a handful of months.

relevant features of second text (block method)

comparison-contrast clue words

Unlike Hobbes’s vivid and well-drawn portrait of Booth as an angry loner, Workman writes resolutely of the assassin as the leader of a three-man conspiracy. Workman also strongly insists that despite Hobbes’s assertions, the idea was never, at any point, to kidnap the United States President. Neither, he says, did Booth give a ransom letter to a friend, family member, or anyone else. This clearly illustrates that the intention was never to kidnap the President.

relevant features of second text (block method)

connection of support to thesis

There will probably always be conflicting versions of the events that led to Lincoln’s assassination. In fact, the truth may become even more elusive as the years pass. However, nothing can lessen the historical significance of that fateful April day.

comparison-contrast clue word

insightful closing statement

Your Turn: Write a comparison-contrast essay

Write a comparison-contrast essay in response to one of the prompts below. Then use the Writer’s Checklist as a guide to writing, evaluating, and revising your work.

Compare and contrast two nonfiction texts on a topic that is of interest to you.

Compare and contrast a newspaper article about a recent event with an article about the same event from a weekly newsmagazine.

The End