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.