Numero 2

Comparison and Contrast

To contrast two persons, places, or things is to examine the ways in which they are different. To compare them is to examine the ways in which they are similar.

Contrast and comparison are useful skills in daily life, work, and college. When you shop, you often compare and contrast. For instance, you might compare and contrast two dishwashers to get the better value.In fact, the magazine Consumer Reports was created to help consumers compare and contrast different product brands.

Your employer might ask you to compare and contrast two computers, two telephone services, or two shipping crates. Your job is to gather information about the similarities and differences to help your employer choose one over the other. In nearly every college course, you will beexpected to compare and contrast—two generals, two types of storm systems, two minerals, or two painters of the same school.

A. The Contrast Paragraph and the Comparison Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Here is the topic sentence of a contrast paragraph Although soul and hip hop both spring from African American roots, they are very different musical expressions.

● The writer begins a contrastparagraph with a topic sentence that clearly states what two persons, things, or ideas will be contrasted.

Paragraph and Plan
Here is the entire paragraph:

Although soul and hip hop both spring from African American roots, they are very different musical expressions. Soul music borrows from gospel and rhythm and blues. The singer’s voice, backed up by live instruments, soars withemotion, with soul. This music captures the optimism of its time—the civil rights movement of the 1960s and hope for social change. There are two types of soul—the smooth Detroit style of the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and The Temptations and the more gritty, gospel-driven Memphis style of Otis Redding and Booker T and the MGs. Soul music is upbeat and often joyful; its subjects are love and affirmationof the human condition. On the other hand, hip hop (or rap) draws on hard rock, funk, and techno. The rapper chants rhymes against a driving instrumental background that may be prerecorded. Rap grew out of the New York ghettos in the late 1970s and the 1980s, when crack and guns flooded “the hood” and many dreams seemed broken. Of the rival East and West Coast rappers, New Yorkers includeGrandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, and the murdered Biggie Smalls, while Los Angeles rappers include Ice Cube and the murdered Tupac Shakur. The subjects of hip hop are racism, crime, and poverty. Both soul and hip hop claim to “tell it like it is.” Hip hop’s answer to the soulful Four Tops is the Furious Four. What’s in a name? Perhaps the way the listener experiences reality.
—Maurice Bosco, Student● The writer first provides information about (A) soul music and then gives contrasting parallel information about (B) hip hop.

Before composing the paragraph, the writer probably brainstormed or freewrote to gather ideas and then made an outline like this:

TOPIC SENTENCE: Although soul and hip hop both spring from African American roots, they are very different musical expressions.Points of Contrast A. Soul B. Hip Hop
1. influences gospel, R&B hard rock, funk, techno
2. sound soaring voice, live chanted rhymes;
instruments instrumentals may be prerecorded
3. time period 1960s, civil rights, 1970s–1980s, crack,
hope for change guns
4. types Detroit, Memphis New York, Los Angeles
5. subjects love, affirmation racism,crime, poverty

Organized in this manner, the plan for this contrast paragraph helps the writer make sure that the paragraph will be complete. That is, if the historical period of soul is discussed, that of hip hop must also be discussed, and so on, for every point of contrast.

Here is another way to write the same paragraph:

Although soul and hip hop both spring from African American...