Compare and Contrast

When a writer compares and contrasts he or she is using a literary figure that helps find the similarities, and differences between two or more objects and associates them to each other. The writer associates these topics to give the reader a better view of a certain subject. Like in Forest Gump's quote of, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get." Sometimes we get what we want in life, it tastes sweet yet rich all at once. Or sometimes we don't get our way, and we grab that gross coconut or lemon flavored chocolate that tastes bitter, and you feel like you just took a bite into some awful cardboard. When the writer implements contrast into their writing, the writer is describing how things can be different. Say the writer is describing two flowers, they may both be similar in the fact that they are both flowers, and that they smell sweet. However they are different in fact because of their color, or where they originated from, how many petals they have, what kinds of soil they can grow in, what kind of climates do they prefer, and even though they smell sweet the two scents can be very different. We Use compare and contrast in our everyday lives to tell certain objects apart. When we smell food we compare sights, smells, and textures to tell what the food or ingredient is. When we walk up and down a street we compare and contrast what we see, smell, and feel to tell what is a tree, bird, building or a car. We even use this tool when we meet people, our minds automatically compare and contrast the person's features, and we can tell if the people we meet are girls or guys based on their physical characteristics.

The two ways a writer can structure a comparison, and contraction paper can be in the side-by-side format, or the subject-by-subject format. Both formats can are an acceptable use in writing comparison essays. When I used to debate in High school I used both of these writing styles. For orational speaking, or impromptu speaches when I was given two objects to talk about I would use the side-by-side style. Which allowed me to keep the flow of one topic before beginning another, and in the conclusion I would bring the two topics together. It helped with clarity, so that the audiences would not get confused about which subject I was talking about. When I competed in Public Forum, or Parliamentary procedure, the writing style I used was the subject-point-by-subject-point style. This form of writing allowed for an easier refute of the opposing person's case. In example, a vegetable to a candy bar comparison. The vegetable is better than the candy bar because the vegetable is healthy and the candy bar is not. Or it could work the other way around. The candy bar is better than the vegetable, because the candy bar tastes better due to the sugar content, and the vegetable does not have sugar therefore it tastes bad. Then it goes on to the next point. So the next time anyone is to write a compare and contrast essay we will be able to implement these formats into our writing styles.