Compare/Contrast

A Venn diagram is a tool that helps you compare and contrast things. In the diagram below, a dog and a cat are compared and contrasted. 

Dog	Both Animals	Cat
Range from very small to very large Wide variety of breeds Bark Eat dog food Can be trained	May be pets Usually have fur Need proper care	Generally the same small size Only a few breeds Meow Eat cat food Difficult to train

The same can be done for characters in a book.

The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace

Ivan Morton	Both Characters	Bolo
Schoolteacher/politician Moves to a big house on the hill Rich	(Kind of) community leaders Date Eulalie In a position to help the problem with the church	Stickfighter Lives in the village Poor

Practice:

To practice using a Venn diagram, compare and contrast the Gerbie and the Furbie. Record how each is different. Then, write what is the same about them. 

Gerbie	Both Items	Furbie

Once you organize ideas in a Venn diagram, you can more easily write about those ideas. When writers write to compare, they must present information in a way that makes sense to readers.

___________________

There are two ways to organize a written comparison. One way is to talk first about one object, then about the other. This is called a whole-to-whole comparison. In this whole-to-whole comparison, information about an orange is in regular type. Information about a lemon is in italics.

This orange has a slightly bumpy, orange skin. When I peel the rind off, I can easily pull apart the sections. The taste is sweet. The lemon also has a slightly bumpy skin, but it is yellow. Inside, the sections are not quite so easy to pull apart. It is the sourest thing I have ever put in my mouth.

If you were doing this in a longer essay, you might consider having one paragraph about oranges and one paragraph about lemons.

The other way is to talk first about one feature, or characteristic, as it relates to both objects. Then, go on to another feature, and so on. This is a part-to-part comparison. Here is an example. Again, information about an orange is in regular type; information about a lemon is in italics.

This orange has a slightly bumpy, orange skin. The lemon also has a slightly bumpy skin, but it is yellow. When I peel the orange’s rind off, I can easily pull apart the sections. Inside the lemon, the sections are not quite so easy to pull apart. The taste of the orange is sweet. The lemon is the sourest thing I have ever put in my mouth.

Now, look back at the details you recorded about the Gerbie and the Furbie in your Venn diagram. Write a paragraph in which you compare and contrast the two items. Decide which method of organization you will use: whole-to-whole or part-to-part. Then, write the paragraph.