What is a comparison? A comparison is a way to establish differences, essential differences. Without comparisons we could not think. Without comparisons we could not perceive. Perhaps because comparisons are fundamental to everything we do, we have a difficult time thinking of what we can write about when we try to write comparisons.
There are two different ways to compare based on two fundamental types of things compared: things that change because of the passage of time and things that are different because they occupy different space. If you compare yourself now to how you were in the past, that is a difference based on the passage of time. If you compare a truck to a car, that is a difference based on shape, size, design, color, and other capabilities and qualities that are due to spatial difference.
Temporal comparisons will tend to be easier to write and better understood expressed in a block format; spatial comparison will tend to be easier to write and better understood if expressed in an alternating format.
Look at this model for the two types of comparison themes and use it as a guide to writing your own comparison. The model is an illustration of the theme's structure. It allows you to say something about how a theme is organized, how the body of the theme is put together to do what the body of any theme is supposed to do: give details that support the thesis.
| INTRODUCTION |
The Introduction, whether one or several paragraphs, always does what introductions do: gets the reader interested and tells the reader what the essay is about.
INTRODUCTION = Interest & Information.
| Block A
Story of something; how something was. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Block B Story of something; how something is. |
The Blocks can be one or more paragraphs. The reason the Block format is preferred to compare things that have changed because of the passage of Time is that usually such comparisons are told in the form of a narrative. And narratives are easier to follow if they are not broken up into small units. We don't like to keep going back and forth between stories. It is too easy to get confused.
BODY=Details
| CONCLUSION |
Conclusions do what conclusions always do: they unify the theme and they leave the reader with something to remember, often a powerful image, perhaps only an idea or a feeling. CONCLUSION = Unity & Image.
This model is for a comparison that is primarily narrative, primarily designed to take note of the difference that has happened and made noticeable because of the passage of time.
The other model is for a comparison that is primarily descriptive, primarily designed to take note of the difference that has happened and made noticeable because the things compared occupy different spaces. Examples of such things are cars & trucks, two people (even absolutely identical twins occupy different spaces), two cities or a city & a town. The list is endless.
The following is a model for the Alternating type of comparison.
| INTRODUCTION |
Although all Introductions are different, they always do the same thing: get the readers' interest and present information about the details that will be developed in the Body of the paper.
| Some aspect of one thing compared to a similar aspect of another: A-1 to B-1. |
Think about this alternating style as if you had two things in front of you and you were describing different parts of them to someone you were talking to on the telephone. If the objects were complex, wouldn't it be natural to take one part of one object and compare it to a similar part of the other object? I believe that this natural tendency is the basis for this type of comparison. This example represents a spatial comparison. There is less narrative involved in this type and more description.
| Another aspect of A is compared to another aspect of B: A-2 to B-2. |
You can also mix the types of comparison formats. Sometimes it makes very good sense to use both the alternating and the block styles.
| This process can go on until you have made all the necessary comparisons: A-3 to B-3, A-4 to B-4, etc. |
Can you think of an example of why you would need to use both styles?
| CONCLUSION |
To prepare for your own comparison paper, you should make up a list of topics and, quickly, determine which ones would be better, and easier to write about using either the block or the alternating formats.
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