ENC 1101 Freshman Composition I
Task
Write a comparison and contrast essay in which you evaluate any two items (athletes, teachers, friends, siblings, TV shows, movies, lifestyle/career choices, political parties, etc.).
Discuss what criteria or qualities make them similar, as well as those that distinguish them.
Requirements Format:
Your essay must be typed, double-spaced with a standard font (Times New Roman or Ariel), a standard type-size (12), and standard margin spacing. Your essay should have a title centered at the top of the first page of writing. Length: 2 ½ - 5 pages Process Decide on a topic.
Make sure your subjects are enough alike, sharing enough features, to make comparison worthwhile.
Decide what your purpose is – what is the aim of your comparison? To explain or to evaluate? Create a thesis statement based upon your purpose, topic, and intended audience.
Decide on an appropriate organization: subject-by-subject or point-by-point. Choose a method of organization that does justice to your subjects and helps readers follow the comparison.
Write a rough outline – do some planning. Flesh out your outline and begin arranging your ideas in paragraph form.
Revise.
- Check to see if you made your purpose clear.
- Check to see if your thesis establishes a limited basis for comparison so that you have room and time to cover all the relevant similarities and differences.
- Check to see if you have covered the same features of both subjects.
- Check to see if you have avoided a rigid back-and-forth movement that could bore or exhaust a reader.
Edit your draft, checking for spelling mistakes, misuse of homonyms, grammatical errors, awkward word choice or phrasing, typographical errors, errors in sentence structure, punctuation or capitalization errors, etc.
