8. Comparison

Which candidate for senator should get my vote, Ken Conwell or Jerry Mander?

Let me know whether this new shipment of nylon thread meets specs.

Doesn't this tune remind you of an Anne Murray song?

How does high school in Australia stack up against high school in this country?

Everyone makes comparisons, not just once in a while but day after day. When we compare, we examine two or more items of likeliness, differences, or both.

Comparison often helps us choose between alternatives. Some issues ate trivial: whether to plunk the first quarter into Star Wars or Space Ace, whether to order pizza or a sub sandwich. But comparison also influences our more important decisions. We weigh majoring in chemistry against majoring in physics, buying against renting, working for Apple Computer against working for IBM. An instructor may ask us to write a paper comparing the features of two word-processing systems. An employer may have us weigh two proposals for decreasing employee absenteeism and write a report recommending one of them.

Comparison also acquaints us with unfamiliar things. To help American readers understand the English sport of rugby, a sportswriter might compare its field, team, rules, and scoring system with those for football. To teach stu­dents about France's government, a political science textbook might discuss the makeup and election of its parliament and the method of picking its presi­dent and premier, using our own government as a backdrop.

Both your classes and your job will call for comparison writing. Your humanities instructor may ask you to compare baroque and classical music and their contributions to later musical developments. Your psychology instructor may want you to compare two different types of psychosis and assess the legal and medical ramifications of each. Your biology instructor may have you consid­er how the features of two different kinds of body cells enable them to perform their functions. Comparisons in the workplace are common because they help people make decisions. An office manager may compare several phone systems to determine which one the company should install, a nurse assess the condition of a patient before and after a new medicine is given, an insurance agent point out the features of two insurance policies to highlight the advantages of one.

Selecting Items for Comparison

Any items you compare must share some common ground. For example, you could compare two golfers on driving ability, putting ability, and sand play, or two cars on appearance, gas mileage, and warranty; but you can't meaningfully compare a golfer with a car, any more than you could compare guacamole with Guadalajara or chicken with charcoal. There's simply no basis for comparison. Any valid comparison, on the other hand, presents many possibilities. Suppose you head the record and tape department of a large store and have two excellent salespeople working for you. The manager of the store asks you to prepare a one- or two-page report that compares their qualifications for managing the record department in a new branch store. Assessing their abili­ties becomes the guiding purpose that motivates and controls the writing. On the spot you can rule out points such as eye color, hair style, and religion, which have no bearing on job performance. Instead, you must decide what managerial traits the job will require and the extent to which each candidate possesses them.

Exercise 1. Imagine you want to compare two good restaurants in order to recommend one of them. List the points of similarity and difference that you might discuss. Differences should predominate because you will base your decision on them.

Developing a Comparison

Successful comparisons rest upon ample, well-chosen details that show just how the items under consideration are alike and different. Such support helps the reader grasp your meaning. Read the following two student para­graphs and note how the concrete details convey the striking differences between south and north 14th Street:

On 14th Street running south from P Street are opulent depart­ment stores, such as Woodward and Lothrop and Julius Garfinkle, and small but expensive clothing stores with richly dressed mannequins in the windows. Modern skyscraping office buildings harbor banks and travel bureaus on the ground floors and insur­ance companies and corporation headquarters in the upper stories. Dotting the concretescape are high-priced movie theaters, gourmet restaurants, multilevel parking garages, bookstores, and candy- novelty-gift shops, all catering to the prosperous population of the city. This section of 14th Street is relatively clean: the city maintenance crews must clean up after only a nine-to-five populace and the Saturday crowds of shoppers. The pervading mood of the area is one of bustling wealth during the day and, in the night, calm.

Crossing P Street toward the north, one notes a gradual but disturbing change in the scenery of 14th Street. Two architec­tural features assault the eyes and automatically register as tokens of trouble: the floodlights that leave no alley or doorway in shadows and the riot screens that cage in the store windows. The buildings are old, condemned, decaying monoliths, each occupying an entire city block. Liquor stores, drugstores, dusty television repair shops, seedy pornographic bookstores that display photographs of naked bodies with the genital areas blacked out by strips of tape, discount stores smelling per­petually of stale chocolate and cold popcorn, and cluttered pawnshops-businesses such as these occupy the street level. Each is separated from the adjoining stores by a littered entranceway that leads up a decaying wooden stairway to the next two floors. All the buildings are three stories tall; all have most of their windows broken and blocked with boards or newspapers; and all reek of liquor, urine, and unidentifiable rot. And so the general atmosphere of this end of 14th Street is one of poverty and decay.

Student Unknown

Vivid details depict with stark clarity the economic differences between the two cultures.

Organizing a Comparison

You can use either of two basic patterns to organize a comparison paper: block or alternating. The paper may deal with similarities, differences, or some combination of them.

The Block Pattern.The block pattern first presents all of the points of com­parison for one item and then all of the points of comparison for the other. Here is the comparison of the two salespeople, Pat and Mike, outlined accord­ing to the block pattern.

I. Introduction: mentions similarities in sales skills and effort

but recommends Pat for promotion.

II. Specific points about Mike

A.Leadership qualities

B.Knowledge of ordering and accounting procedures

C.Musical knowledge

III.Specific points about Pat

A.Leadership qualities

B.Knowledge of ordering and accounting procedures

C.Musical knowledge

IV.Conclusion: reasserts that Pat should be promoted.

The block pattern works best with short papers or ones that include only a few points of comparison. The reader can easily remember all the points in the first block while reading the second.

The Alternating Pattern The alternating pattern presents a point about one item, then follows immediately with a corresponding point about the other. Organized in this way, the Pat-and-Mike paper would look like this:

I.Introduction: mentions similarities in sales skills and effort

but recommends Pat for promotion.

II.Leadership qualities

A.Mike's qualities

B.Pat's qualities

III. Knowledge of ordering and accounting procedures

A.Mike's knowledge

B.Pat'sknowledge IV. Musical knowledge

A. Mike's knowledge

B. Pat's knowledge

V. Conclusion: reasserts that Pat should be promoted.

For longer papers that include many points of comparison, use the alter­nating method. Discussing each point in one place highlights similarities and differences; your reader doesn't have to pause and reread in order to grasp them. The alternating plan also works well for short papers.

Once you select your pattern, arrange your points of comparison in an appropriate order. Take up closely related points one after the other. Depend­ing on your purpose, you might work from similarities to differences or the reverse. Often, a good writing strategy is to move from the least significant to the most significant point so that you conclude with punch.

Using Analogy

An analogy, a special type of comparison, calls attention to one or more simi­larities underlying two different kinds of items that seem to have nothing in common. While some analogies stand alone, most clarify concepts in other kinds of writing. Whatever their role, they follow the same organizational pat­tern as ordinary comparisons.

An analogy often explains something unfamiliar by likening it to some­thing familiar. Here is an example:

The atmosphere of Earth acts like any window in serving two very important functions. It lets light in, and it permits us to look out. It also serves as a shield to keep out dangerous or uncomfortable things. A normal glazed window lets us keep our houses warm by keeping out cold air, and it prevents rain, dirt, and unwelcome insects and animals from coming in.... Earth's atmospheric window also helps to keep our planet at a comfortable temperature by holding back radiated heat and protecting us from dangerous levels of ultraviolet light.

Lester del Ray, The Mysterious Sky

Conversely, an analogy sometimes highlights the unfamiliar in order to help illuminate the familiar. The following paragraph discusses the qualities and obligations of an unfamiliar person, the mountain guide, to shed light on a familiar practice—teaching:

The mountain guide, like the true teacher, has a quiet authority. He or she engenders trust and confidence so that one is willing to join the endeavor. The guide accepts his leadership role, yet recognizes that success (measured by the heights that are scaled) depends upon the close cooperation and active par­ticipation of each member of the group. He has crossed the terrain before and is familiar with the landmarks, but each trip is new and generates its own anxiety and excitement. Essential skills must be mastered; if they are lacking, disaster looms. The situation demands keen focus and rapt attention: slackness, misjudgment, or laziness can abort the venture.

Nancy K. Hill, "Scaling the Heights: The Teacher as Mountaineer"

When you develop an analogy, keep these points in mind:

1. Your readers must be well acquainted with the familiar item. If they aren't, the point is lost.

2. The items must indeed have significant similarities. You could develop a meaningful analogy between a kidney and a filter or between cancer and anarchy but not between a fiddle and a flapjack or a laser and limburger cheese.

3. The analogy must truly illuminate. Overly obvious analogies, such as one comparing a battle to an argument, offer few or no revealing insights.

4. Overextended analogies can tax the reader's endurance. A multipage analogy between a heart and a pump would likely overwhelm the reader with all its talk of valves, hoses, pressures, and pumping.

Planning and Drafting the Comparison

Don't write merely to fulfill an assignment; if you do, your paper will likely ramble aimlessly and fail to deliver a specific message. Instead, build your paper around a clear sense of purpose. Do you want to show the superiority of one product or method over another? Do you want to show how sitcoms today differ from those twenty years ago? Purpose governs the details you choose and the organization you follow.

Whether you select your own topic or write on an assigned one, answer these questions:

What purpose will my comparison serve?

Who will be my audience and why will they want to read the essay?

What points of similarity or difference will I discuss?

Next, brainstorm each point in turn, recording appropriate supporting details. When you finish, stand back and ask these questions:

Do all the details relate to my purpose?

Do any new details come to mind?

In what order should I organize the details?

When you decide upon an order, copy the points of comparison and the details, arranged in the order you will follow.

Use the introduction to identify your topic and arouse the reader's inter­est. If you intend to establish the superiority of one item over the other, you might call attention to your position. If you're comparing something unfamiliar with something familiar, you might explain the importance of understanding the unfamiliar item.

Organize the body of your paper according to whichever pattern—block or alternating—suits its length and the number of points you're planning to take up. If you explain something familiar by comparing it with something unfamiliar, start with the familiar item. If you try to show the superiority of one item over another, proceed from the less to the more desirable one. Note that both of the Pat-and-Mike outlines put Mike ahead of Pat, the superior candidate.

Write whatever kind of conclusion will round off your discussion effec­tively. Many comparison papers end with a recommendation or a prediction. A paper comparing two brands of stereo receivers might recommend purchas­ing one of them. A paper comparing a familiar sport, such as football, with an unfamiliar one, such as rugby, might predict the future popularity of the lat­ter. Unless you've written a lengthy paper, don't summarize the likenesses and differences you've presented. If you've done a proper writing job, your reader already has them clearly in mind.

Revising the Comparison

Revise your paper in light of the general guidelines in Chapter 3 and the questions that follow:

Have I accomplished my purpose, whether to choose between alternatives or acquaint the reader with something unfamiliar? For something unfamiliar, have I shown clearly just how it is like and unlike the familiar item?

Have I consistently written with my audience in mind?

Have I considered all points of similarity and difference that relate to my purpose? Have I included appropriate supporting details? Are my comparisons arranged effectively?

Suggestions for Writing. Write a comparison essay on one of the topics below or another that your teacher approves. determine the points you will discuss and how you will develop and arrange them. Emphasize similarities, differences, or both.

1. Two advertisements

1. Parents versus teachers as educators

2. Something natural and something artificial

3. A novel and movie that tell the same story

4. Two teachers

5. A television family and your family

6. Two cities

7. Suburban home life and apartment life

8. The working conditions on two jobs