Organizing a Comparison

First, remember for that many assignments, the term "compare" might mean compare the similarities, contrast the differences, or engage in some combination of the two. Please clarify this with your instructor before you begin writing. In my classes, compare means compare and/or contrast. Keeping that in mind, here are two basic structures for comparison/contrast papers.

Block by block	Point by Point
A block by block structure discusses one of the elements of the comparison completely first and then moves on to compare the second in a separate section. These papers tend to have longer conclusions, because the author needs to pull the information together here, since no direct comparisons are made within the body of the paper itself.	A point-by-point comparison structure discusses both works together, within the same paragraph. Generally, I recommend students use this structure in a comparison, since the reader can see how the ideas relate as the paper progresses.
Intro Object 1 (this might be one paragraph or several) Object 2 (again, this could be one paragraph or a full section) Conclusion	Intro Point 1 (in both object 1 and 2) Point 2 (in both object 1 and 2--please note you need to keep the order pretty consistent--first 1 then 2 in every paragraph) Any other points as needed Conclusion

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