?How to write down a Comparative Analysis
Throughout your academic career, you'll be asked to jot down papers in which you compare and contrast two things: two texts, two theories, two historical figures, two scientific processes, and so on. "Classic" compare-and-contrast papers, in which you weight A and B equally, may be about two similar things that have crucial differences (two pesticides with different effects for the environment) or two similar things that have crucial differences, yet turn out to have surprising commonalities (two politicians with vastly different world views who voice unexpectedly similar perspectives on sexual harassment).
Around the "lens" (or "keyhole") comparison, in which you weight A less heavily than B, you utilize a as a lens through which to watch B. Just as hunting through a pair of glasses changes the way you see an object, choosing A as a framework for understanding B changes the way you see B. Lens comparisons are useful for illuminating, critiquing, or challenging the stability of the thing that, before the analysis, seemed perfectly understood. Often, lens comparisons take time into account: earlier texts, events, or historical figures may illuminate later ones, and vice versa.
Faced having a daunting list of seemingly unrelated similarities and differences, you may believe confused about how to construct a paper that isn't just a mechanical exercise in which you to start with state all the qualities that A and B have in commonplace, and then state all the ways in which A and B are different. Predictably, the thesis of this kind of a paper is usually an assertion that A and B are very similar yet not so similar after all. To jot down a awesome compare-and-contrast paper, you must take your raw data-the similarities and differences you've observed-and make them cohere into a meaningful argument. Right here are the 5 parts required.
Frame of Reference . This is the context inside which you spot the two things you plan to compare and contrast; it is the umbrella below which you have grouped them. The frame of reference may consist of an idea, theme, question, problem, or theory; a group of similar things from which you extract two for special attention; biographical or historical intel. The preferred frames of reference are constructed from exact resources rather than your have thoughts or observations. Thus, within a paper comparing how two writers redefine social norms of masculinity, you would be far better off quoting a sociologist within the topic of masculinity than spinning out potentially banal-sounding theories of your unique. Most assignments tell you exactly what the frame of reference should be, and most courses supply resources for constructing it. In case you encounter an assignment that fails to grant a frame of reference, you must come up with 1 on your have. A paper without these a context would have no angle in the material, no focus or frame for your writer to propose a meaningful argument.
Grounds for Comparison . Let's say you're producing a paper on world-wide food distribution, and you've chosen to compare apples and oranges. Why these particular fruits? Why not pears and bananas? The rationale behind your choice, the grounds for comparison . allows your reader know why your choice is deliberate and meaningful, not random. For instance, within a paper asking how the "discourse of domesticity" happens to be put to use while in the abortion discussion, the grounds for comparison are obvious; the issue has two conflicting sides, pro-choice and pro-life. Inside of a paper comparing the effects of acid rain on two forest sites, your choice of sites is less obvious. A paper focusing on similarly aged forest stands in Maine and therefore the Catskills will be build differently from one particular comparing a new forest stand with the White Mountains by having an old forest inside same region. You should have to indicate the reasoning behind your choice.
Thesis. The grounds for comparison anticipates the comparative nature of your thesis. As in any argumentative paper, your thesis statement will convey the gist of your argument, which necessarily follows from your frame of reference. But inside a compare-and-contrast, the thesis relies upon on how the two things you've chosen to compare actually relate to a particular another. Do they increase, corroborate, complicate, contradict, correct, or discussion a single another? From the most general compare-and-contrast paper-one focusing on differences-you can indicate the precise relationship amongst A and B by by means of the word "whereas" with your thesis:
Whereas Camus perceives ideology as secondary to the would need to address a specified historical moment of colonialism, Fanon perceives a revolutionary ideology because the impetus to reshape Algeria's history inside of a direction toward independence.
Whether your paper focuses primarily on difference or similarity, you may need to make the relationship relating to A and B clear on your thesis. This relationship is within the heart of any compare-and-contrast paper.
Organizational Scheme. Your introduction will include your frame of reference, grounds for comparison, and thesis. There are two fundamental ways to organize the body of your paper.
In text-by-text . you discuss all of the, then all of B.
In point-by-point . you alternate points about A with comparable points about B.
If you decide to think that B extends A, you'll probably utilize a text-by-text scheme; if you should see A and B engaged in discussion, a point-by-point scheme will draw attention to the conflict. Be aware, however, that the point-by- point scheme can come off as a ping-pong game. You may avoid this effect by grouping even more than an individual point together, thereby cutting down within the quantity of times you alternate from the to B. But no matter which organizational scheme you choose, you should have not give equal time to similarities and differences. In fact, your paper will be alot more interesting if you decide to get to the heart of your argument as shortly as plausible. Thus, a paper on two evolutionary theorists' different interpretations of special archaeological findings could possibly have as several as two or three sentences inside the introduction on similarities and at most a paragraph or two to established the contrast amongst the theorists' positions. The rest from the paper, whether organized text- by-text or point-by-point, will treat the two theorists' differences.
You might organize a classic compare-and-contrast paper either text-by-text or point-by-point. But inside a "lens" comparison, in which you spend significantly less time on the (the lens) than on B (the focal textual content), you almost always organize text-by-text. That's considering A and B are not strictly comparable: A is merely a software for helping you discover whether or not B's nature is actually what expectations have led you to definitely believe it is.
Linking of the and B . All argumentative papers require you to definitely link each individual point during the argument back again to the thesis. Without these links, your reader will be unable to see how new sections logically and systematically advance your argument. In a very compare-and contrast, you also must have to make links in between A and B while in the body of your essay when you want your paper to hold together. To make these links, use transitional expressions of comparison and contrast ( similarly, moreover, likewise, around the contrary, conversely, to the other hand ) and contrastive vocabulary (while in the example below, Southerner/Northerner ).
As a girl raised inside of the faded glory in the Old South, amid mystical tales of magnolias and moonlight, the mother remains part of the dying technology. Surrounded by hard times, racial conflict, and constrained opportunities, Julian, to the other hand . feels repelled by the provincial nature of home, and represents a new Southerner, a particular who sees his indigenous land through a condescending Northerner's eyes.
Copyright 1998, Kerry Walk, with the Creating Center at Harvard University experienced essay writers