Set a pair of subjects side by side to compare and contrast them. When you compare, you point out similarities; when you contrast, you discuss differences. You can use two basic methods of organization for comparison and contrast — the opposing pattern and the alternating pattern — as illustrated for a comparison and contrast of two brothers.
| OPPOSING PATTERN, SUBJECT BY SUBJECT | ALTERNATING PATTERN, BY POINT |
|
Subject A: Jim Point 1: Appearance Point 2: Personality Point 3: Interests Subject B: Jack Point 1: Appearance Point 2: Personality Point 3: Interests |
Point 1: Appearance Subject A: Jim Subject B: Jack Point 2: Personality Subject A: Jim Subject B: Jack Point 3: Interests Subject A: Jim Subject B: Jack |
For sample essays and advice on writing a comparison and contrast essay, see Ch. 7.
You need a reason to compare and contrast — a final evaluation, perhaps a decision about which thing is better or another purpose. For example, compare Jack and Jim to do more than point out lanky or curly hair. Use their differences to highlight their powerful bond as brothers or their similarities to support a generalization about a family strength.
Both patterns open Chapter One of Rousseau’s Dog by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (New York: HarperCollins, 2006). The book tells the story of the bitterness that grew between David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, two very different eighteenth-century philosophers.
Alternating pattern
On the evening of January 10, 1766, the weather in the English Channel was foul — stormy, wet, and cold. That night, after being held in harbor by unfavorable winds, a packet boat beat its way, rolling and plunging, from Calais to Dover. Among the passengers were two men who had met for the first time some three weeks earlier in Paris, a British diplomat and a Swiss refugee. The refugee was accompanied by his beloved dog, Sultan, small and brown with a curly tail. The diplomat stayed below, tormented by seasickness. The refugee remained on deck all night; the frozen sailors marveled at his hardiness.
Significance
If the ship had foundered, she would have carried to the bottom of the Channel two of the most influential thinkers of the eighteenth century.
Opposing pattern
Subject A
The diplomat was David Hume. His contributions to philosophy on induction, causation, necessity, personal identity, morality, and theism are of such enduring importance that his name belongs in the league of the most elite philosophers, the league that would also include Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and Wittgenstein. A contemporary and friend of Adam Smith’s, he paved the way to modern economics; he also modernized historiography.
Subject B
The refugee was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His intellectual range and achievements were equally staggering. He made epochal contributions to political theory, literature, and education. His autobiography, The Confessions, was a stunningly original work, one that has spawned countless successors but still sets the standard for a narrative of self-revelation and artistic development. Émile, his educational tract, transformed the debate about the upbringing of children and was instrumental in altering our perceptions of childhood. On the Social Contract, his most significant political publication, has been cited as an inspiration for generations of revolutionaries. More fundamentally, Rousseau altered the way we view ourselves, our emotions, and our relationship to society and to the natural world.
As the first chapter continues comparing and contrasting, the difference between the temperaments of the two men — and the potential for deep conflict — grows increasingly clear to readers.