Purpose
The purpose of a Comparison/Contrast Essay is to analyze the similarities and differences between two things. For this essay, you are analyzing the similarities and differences between two newspaper articles about the same topic but from different sources.
Directions
1. Go to Grades and look for feedback on your Comparison/Contrast Essay Outline. For help viewing my comments on your outline, see this Canvas Help Guide (Links to an external site.) for students.
2. Use the feedback to make revisions to your outline.
3. Use your outline to write a 4-paragraph, MLA-formatted essay of about 450-600 words. (Academic paragraphs need to be 7-12 well-developed sentences in length.)
4. Your essay should provide a comparison/contrast analysis of the two articles, focusing on the notes you took in your Comparison/Contrast chart and discussions you have had with classmates. Remember to choose key areas to focus on.
5. Begin your essay with an introduction that introduces the newspaper articles. At the end of the introduction include a thesis sentence that introduces the points being compared/contrasted.
• Sample thesis: While both newspaper articles discuss President Obama’s State of the Union Address, there are differences in the bias and sources cited in each article.
6. Write two body support paragraphs that each begin with atopic sentence (Links to an external site.) focused on a main point from the thesis.
7. End the essay with a conclusion that summarizes your points and gives final thoughts.