Course Sample for Our Writing the Compare and Contrast Essay Homeschool Language Arts Course

To view a full sample of this course, click here.

Here’s what you’ll be doing in this homeschool language arts lesson:

• Exploring the concept of compare-and-contrast thinking
• Studying a lengthy sentence by H. G. Wells
• Persuading someone with your focused compare-and-contrast sentence
• Appreciating the married state

You can check each box after you’ve finished the corresponding section, either in the list above or in each section below, if you like.

Explore the concept of compare-and-contrast thinking.

You already know how to compare and contrast—in your head, that is. You read a book. Then you watch the movie. Automatically you begin to compare the two versions of the same story. How are the two similar? Where are they different? How is the movie better or worse than the book? Which do you like better? You’ve been comparing and contrasting for years.

The skill of comparing is finding the similarities. The skill of contrasting is finding the differences.

But the compare-and-contrast tool isn’t just for school. Movie critics use it when they compare two recent movies that feature the same actor or when they contrast one director’s work with another’s. Remakes are always compared with their originals, and so are sequels.

Historians naturally compare leaders with each other. When discussing war, historians will review the strengths and weaknesses of two generals or will show the differing effects of two battles. Comparing and contrasting gives meaning to an event.

Comparing and contrasting is already one of your life skills. Are you thinking about your future—career, college, marriage, or wait and see? This involves examining the advantages and disadvantages of all your choices and the similarities and differences between them (College A has smaller class sizes, College B allows freshmen to have cars on campus, and College C has a more interesting male/female ratio). When you weigh your options, you are comparing and contrasting.

Someday, you may be sitting in a meeting when the boss tells you to get the information on mobile-device plans for company-wide use. You will call mobile-device companies; collect data on rates, minutes, features, contracts, and so forth; and put the information on a handy chart or in a report for your boss to examine. You will have done the work of comparing and contrasting so the boss can make an informed decision.