Comparatively Speaking

If you should ever find yourself having to teach a class on writing compare and contrast essay, we encourage you first to admonish your students that they may not use the words "better" or "worse" in their thesis statements. Of course, in everyday life, when we compare and contrast, we generally do so in order to make just such an evaluation. But let's face it, you want to avoid setting yourself up to read 30-odd (in some cases VERY odd) papers on why Lady Googoo is "better" than Casey Perry. Or vice versa.

(Huh? Yes, we're sure about the names. Why?)

In academic writing, the more interesting comparative essays compare and contrast two things in order to draw some larger conclusion about the thing(s) being compared. Thus, you might compare the use of nature imagery in sonnets by Shakespeare and, say, someone-other-than-Shakespeare in order to illustrate a thesis about the use of nature imagery in poetry. Or you might analyze, as we did today, different newspaper headlines about a major event (in this case, 9/11) in order to discuss the different journalistic approaches of different periodicals.

Comparison is a fundamental skill in a writer's arsenal. Once students master that skill, they are well on their way to mastering other critical-thinking arts.