Contrast Essay: Point by Point Style

From Kerrigan’s Writing to the Point: 6 Basic Steps

Why focus on contrast essays?

1. Contrast essays

are especially

difficult to write.

Why focus on contrast essays?

2. The process of

contrast has special

value: stimulates

thought, clarifies

ideas.

Why focus on contrast essays?

3. Students are often

asked to contrast

ideas, people,

events, theories, etc.

Why is contrastthought stimulating?

• We perceive items and ideas in terms of

their similarities and differences.

• We define them in terms of what they

are and what they are not (how they

are different from similar items or

ideas).

7 Rules for Contrast

Thomas Jefferson Karl Marx

Example Subjects to Contrast

Thomas Jefferson vs. Karl Marx

American founding father

Principal author of the Declaration of Independence

Third President of the US

Spokesman for democracy

Author of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital

German philosopher and economist

Founder of revolutionary socialism

Advocate for communism

1. Select for treatment differences

that are important & meaningful.

• For example, which is better: to

compare Karl Marx and Thomas

Jefferson in terms of their physical

appearance or in terms of their ideas

regarding ownership of property?

2. Contrast like parts or qualities of

the objects, persons, or ideas.

• For example, if you compare The

Communist Manifesto and The

Declaration of Independence, don’t

write “TCM was written in 1848,

whereas TDI was written by a group

of authors.”

3. Say about one the opposite of

what you have said about the

other.

• Use contradictories: direct opposites,

e.g., tall & short, light & dark, quick &

slow, monarch & subject, employer &

employee.

• Use contraries: two different choices

from a list within the same category.

– Examples: freshman & sophomore

– Book & pamphlet

– Communist, socialist, and capitalist

– German & American

• To be sure what you are saying is

opposite, ask yourself, “Can a

person/idea/object be both A & B in the

same way at the same time?”

• For example, can a student be both a

freshman and a sophomore at the same

time?

4. If you are stating a contrast

between 2 people/ideas/objects,

nothing that is not about that

contrast should be included.

5. Develop one contrast at a time. Say “X” about Marx & next “not X” about Jefferson, not “X” about Marx and then “Y” about Marx.

• If you just wrote, “Marx died at the age

of 65 with his major work, Das Kapital,

unfinished,” what comes next?

a) “He died in London, where he had lived

for 34 years.”

b) “Jefferson died at the age of 83, 50

years after the publication of The

Declaration of Independence.”

5. Order the ideas/people/objects

you are contrasting the same

throughout the essay.

• For example, if your thesis puts Marx

first, keep him first for every contrast

you state: always Marx, first;

Jefferson, second.

6. When you are writing contrasts,

use the words difference,

different from, dissimilar, not

alike instead of saying “A

contrast between Marx and

Jefferson is . . .”

6. (continued) When you compare

two ideas/people/objects, use

the words likeness, similarity,

resemblance, alike, have in

common instead of saying “A

comparison between Marx and

Jefferson is . . .”

7. Do not use the expressions “on

the contrary,” “on the other

hand,” or “where” to mark

contrasts.

– Used to empathize a denial or

contradiction.

• FYI: “On the contrary” signals a

denial of what has just been said.

• A: “After the end of the Cold War,

communism was no longer practiced.”

• B: “On the contrary, communism is still

practiced in some places, for example,

North Korea.”

Comparison

• Things described as similar are rarely identical.

• Things that are contrasted always have similarities. Otherwise, contrasting them is pointless.

Writing our next essay

• Even though well written essays that

emphasize contrasts may also contain a

section on similarities, our essays will

focus only on stating contrasts.

• We will again use the six steps of

writing a basic essay.

Writing our next essay

• Our essays will have more specific

thesis statements than “A and B are

different.”

• Our theses will state a fundamental

difference, and our topic sentences will

state different aspects of that difference.

Writing our next essay

• The essays we’ll read will show

how contrast can be used to

clarify the nature of

ideas/people/objects.

Writing our next essay

• These essays may be organized

differently from the ones we will write,

but they will give us examples of how to

do step 4: how to develop ideas with

specific, concrete details and examples.

Writing our next essay

• Comparing two products to decide

which to buy

• Suggestion: Write about a product that

you really know something about, that

interests you, or that you want to

purchase.

Write what you care about

• Our model essay

“Pizza! Pizza!” was

written by a student

who was working at

Little Caesar’s.