Anker Susan. Real Essays with Readings with 2009 MLA Update
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 16 • Comparison and Contrast 267
ASSIGNMENT 2 WRITING ABOUT AN IMAGE
The U.S. Army’s offi cial recruitment site (goarmy.com) offers download-
able, interactive games that are based on warfare, including America’s Army
Game (goarmy.com/aarmy). In a short essay, consider the ways that battle
is like and unlike a video game. In your conclusion, give your opinion on
whether the U.S. Army’s comparison between soldiers and gamers makes
sense.
ASSIGNMENT 3 WRITING TO SOLVE A PROBLEM
THE PROBLEM: You need a new DVD recorder and decide to look at Consumer
Reports’s comparison of various models before buying one. You aren’t sure if
you want a DVD-only model or a combination DVD and VCR model.
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WRITING ESSAYS
268 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays
THE ASSIGNMENT: Working either on your own or with a small group, write
a comparison and contrast essay about three DVD recorders. Use the Con-
sumer Reports chart below to write the essay, and, if possible, do some fol-
low-up research online. Keep a list of any Web sites that you use. Try sites
that specialize in reviews of technology, like CNET (http://reviews.cnet
.com), or do a Google search using “ratings DVD players” as key words.
Carefully review any site that you use for bias: Beware of advertisements or
advertisement-supported sites. In your concluding paragraph, indicate which
model you would purchase and why.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 16 • Comparison and Contrast 269
ASSIGNMENT 4 WRITING ABOUT READINGS
Read “The Ugly Truth about Beauty” by Dave Barry on page 817 and “Strug-
gling for Perfection” by Amy L. Beck on page 829. Next, review the excerpt
“When the Regulation of Eating Behavior Fails: Anorexia and Bulimia” by
Don H. Hockenbury and Sandra Hockenbury on page 257. Write a brief
paper on one of the following:
• Although their tones are very different, Barry, Beck, and the Hock-
enburys make a similar point about women’s images of themselves.
Explain that point, bringing in references from the three readings.
In your concluding paragraph, indicate which of the three makes the
point most effectively to you and why.
• Analyze why people are infl uenced by advertising images and why they
hold unrealistic expectations for themselves. To do this, draw on the
three sources and on experiences you or people you know have had.
Follow the steps in the Writing Guide below to help you prewrite, draft,
revise, and edit your comparison and contrast essay. Check off each step
as you complete it.
■ RESOURCES
Additional Resources
for Teaching REAL
ESSAYS has visual
planning forms for
comparison and con-
trast essays and the
other essays covered
in Part Two. These
forms are also online at
bedfordstmartins
.com/realessays.
WRITING GUIDE: COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
STEPS IN COMPARISON AND
CONTRAST
HOW TO DO THE STEPS
Focus.
■
■ Think about what you want to compare and contrast and
the main point you want to make about your subjects.
Review the four basics of good comparison and contrast
on page 252.
Prewrite to explore
your topic.
See Chapter 4 for more
on prewriting.
■
■ Decide on your purpose for the comparison or contrast: to
help readers understand the two subjects or to help them
make a decision.
■
■ Make a side-by-side list of possible parallel points of
comparison or contrast between your two subjects.
Write a thesis statement.
A thesis statement in com-
parison and contrast usually
presents the central subjects
and indicates whether the
writer will show similarities,
differences, or both. See
diagrams on the following
page.
■
■ Write a thesis statement that includes your subjects and
indicates whether you will discuss similarities or differences.
continued
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WRITING ESSAYS
270 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays
STEPS IN COMPARISON AND
CONTRAST
HOW TO DO THE STEPS
Write a
thesis statement (cont.).
Subject 1/ Subject 2 +
Indication of similarity/
difference =
Thesis
Facebook and MySpace appeal
to different kinds of people.
See Chapter 5 for more on
writing a thesis statement.
Support your thesis
statement.
The major support
for comparison and
contrast consists of points
of comparison or points
of contrast.
See Chapter 6 for more
on supporting a thesis
statement.
■
■ Review the list of possible points of comparison and contrast
from your prewriting.
■
■ Select from your list the points of comparison and contrast
that your readers will understand and that will serve your
purpose.
■
■ Add supporting details and examples to explain the points
of comparison.
Make a plan.
See Chapter 7 for more on
planning.
■
■ Decide whether you will use a point-by-point or whole-to-
whole organization.
■
■ Make a plan or outline that follows the point-by-point or
whole-to-whole structure and that organizes support points
most effectively (using time order, space order, or order of
importance). (See the diagram on page 256.)
Write a draft.
See Chapter 8 for more on
drafting.
■
■ Write an introduction that includes your thesis statement.
See if you can use one of the introductory techniques in
Chapter 8.
■
■ Write topic sentences either for each of the subjects or for
each point of comparison and contrast.
■
■ Write body paragraphs that give detailed examples to
support your topic sentence.
■
■ Write a concluding paragraph that makes an observation
about the subjects based on the points you have made in
your essay.
■
■ Title your essay.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 16 • Comparison and Contrast 271
STEPS IN COMPARISON AND
CONTRAST
HOW TO DO THE STEPS
Revise your draft.
See Chapter 9 for more on
revising a draft.
■
■ Ask another person to read and comment on your draft.
■
■ See if your thesis statement could be clearer or more
interesting to your readers.
■
■ Reread the body of your essay to make sure the points of
comparison and contrast are parallel and support your thesis.
Add other examples and details that would further show the
similarities and differences between your subjects.
■
■ Add transitions to connect your ideas.
■
■ Reread your introduction, and make changes if it is dull or
weak.
■
■ Reread your conclusion to make sure it reinforces your main
point.
■
■ Make at least fi ve changes to your draft to improve unity,
support, or coherence (see pp. 127–40).
■
■ Check to make sure the draft follows the four basics of good
comparison and contrast.
Edit your draft.
See Parts Four through Seven
for more on editing.
■
■ Use the spell checker and grammar checker on your
computer, but also reread your essay carefully to catch any
errors.
■
■ Look for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. In
comparison and contrast, some students write fragments and
run-ons and make errors in subject-verb agreement. Focus
fi rst on these errors, and then edit for verb errors and other
areas where you often make mistakes.
■
■ Ask yourself: Is this the best I can do?
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272
You Know This
You already use
cause and effect to
understand things.
• You understand
that washing
your red shirt in
hot water caused
white items to
turn pink.
• You understand
ads that show
causes and
effects.
17
Cause and Effect
Writing That Explains Reasons or Results
Understand What Cause
and Effect Are
A cause is what makes an event happen. An effect is what happens as a
result of an event.
In the following paragraph, each number corresponds to one of the
four basics of good cause and effect.
1 Little doubt remains that global warming is a threat to our world,
but not everyone understands why it is happening and what the effects re-
ally are. Many experts believe that this warming trend is largely the result
of 2 greenhouse gases, including 4 carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from
cars, and pollutants from industrial processes. 2 Deforestation is another
■ IDEA JOURNAL
Write about a time
when you should have
thought before you
spoke or acted.
FOUR BASICS OF GOOD CAUSE AND EFFECT
1.
The main point refl ects the writer’s purpose — to explain
causes, effects, or both.
2. If the purpose is to explain causes, it presents concrete causes.
3. If the purpose is to explain effects, it presents real effects.
4. It gives readers clear and detailed examples or explanations of
the causes and effects.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 273
signifi cant cause. To date, the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol, a worldwide agreement that would limit emissions of the gases
that cause global warming. Ironically, if current warming trends continue,
the United States is most at risk for 1 negative consequences, although the
entire world will be affected. Scientists predict that 3 sea levels will rise
dangerously and 4 fl ood coastal areas. There will also be 3 more droughts
and changes in precipitation patterns, 4 such as the rapid sequence of hur-
ricanes in the fall of 2004. In addition and possibly most destructive is the
3 threat to plant and animal life and, consequently, to public health.
Analyzing causes and effects goes beyond asking “What happened?”
to also ask “Why?” and “How?”
SITUATION: On a hot summer day, you leave a rented video on the front
seat of your car while you are at work. When you come out of work, you
fi nd that the video has melted.
The cause of the video’s melting was leaving it in a hot car all day. The
effect of leaving the video in a hot car all day was that it melted.
Jim Rice of Quinsigamond Community College helps his students
visualize the cause and effect relationship by suggesting that they think of
three linked rings:
Many situations require you to determine causes or effects.
COLLEGE In an information technology course, you must discuss
the effects of a virus on a local-area computer network.
WORK You analyze the likely effects of laying off 15 percent of
your department’s employees.
EVERYDAY You try to fi gure out what is causing your computer
LIFE to freeze.
CAUSES EVENT/
SITUATION
EFFECTS
Drinking
Driving fast
Talking on
cell phone
Car accident
Ticket
Suspended license
Wrecked car
Broken ribs
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WRITING ESSAYS
274 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays
Main Point in Cause and Effect
The main point in a cause and effect essay should refl ect your purpose.
For example, if you are writing about why a certain event in history hap-
pened, your main point would be to explain the causes. If you are writing
about what happened as a result of that event, your main point would
be to explain the effects. Consider the following thesis from an essay on
drunk driving:
Topic + cause + effect = Thesis
Drunk driving destroys thousands of lives every year.
The main point of the essay is to discuss the effects of drunk driving —
thousands of destroyed lives. The body of the essay will give examples.
Sometimes a thesis statement for a cause and effect essay will include
both what caused the topic and what resulted from the topic. The topic
sentence in the paragraph on page 272 follows this pattern:
Topic + cause + effect = Thesis
Little doubt remains that global warming is a threat to our world, but
not everyone understands why it is happening and what the effects are.
Sometimes the writer does not directly indicate causes or effects in the
thesis statement, as in the following example:
Until local police departments enforce restraining orders, women and
children will continue to be the victims of violence.
Although the writer does not indicate a specifi c cause or effect, the
main point of the essay is clear — to discuss how unenforced restraining
orders have resulted in violence. The body of the essay will likely give
examples of such situations.
As you begin to write cause and effect essays, you might fi nd it helpful
to include both the topic and an indicator of cause or effect in your thesis
statement.
Support in Cause and Effect
In a cause and effect essay, support consists of explanations of causes and
effects, and it demonstrates the main point stated in your thesis. Take, for
example, this thesis statement:
Irresponsible behavior caused my car accident.
■ DISCUSSION
Ask students to
identify a local or
campus-related change
and list its apparent
causes and effects.
■ For online
exercises on main
point and support,
visit Exercise Central
at bedfordstmartins
.com/realessays.
Also visit
bedfordstmartins
.com/rewritingbasics.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 275
The writer supported this thesis by presenting the causes with details
that explain them.
CAUSE Driving too fast CAUSE Talking on my cell phone
DETAILS: DETAILS:
Rainy and slippery Not paying close attention
Going too fast to control car Hit a curve while laughing
Couldn’t stop Didn’t react fast enough
CAUSE Drinking
DETAILS:
Not focused
Slowed reaction time
When you are writing about causes, be careful that you don’t say
something caused an event or situation just because it happened before-
hand. For example, many of us have gotten sick after a meal and assumed
that the food caused the sickness, only to fi nd out that we’d been coming
down with the fl u even before the meal.
When you are writing about effects, do not confuse something that
happened after something else with the effect. To return to the previous
example, just as the meal didn’t cause the illness, the illness was not the
effect of the meal.
Organization in Cause and Effect
Cause and effect essays are organized in different ways depending on their
purpose.
MAIN POINT PURPOSE ORGANIZATION
Global warming is a
serious threat to life as
we know it.
To explain the effects
of global warming
Order of importance
(saving the most
serious effect for last)
Global warming will
fl ood many coastal
states.
To describe how the
U.S. map eventually
might look
Space order
Over the next century,
the effects of global
warming will be
dramatic.
To describe the effects of
global warming over the
next 100 years
Time order
■ RESOURCES
To gauge students’
understanding of
main point, support,
and other writing and
grammar issues, use
the Testing Tool Kit
CD available with this
book.
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WRITING ESSAYS
276 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays
A typical plan for a cause and effect essay is on the left.
As you write your essay, add transitions to show how each cause or
effect relates to your main point. Here are some common transitions that
are used in cause and effect writing.
Common Transitions in Cause and Effect
one cause, reason, effect, result as a result
also because
another thus
fi rst, second, third, and so on
Read and Analyze Cause and Effect
Before writing your own cause and effect essay, read the following three
examples — from college, the workplace, and everyday life — and answer
the questions that accompany them.
Cause and Effect in College
The following is an excerpt from a college textbook.
VOCABULARY
The following words are italicized in the excerpt: developmental,
thrive, generativity, maturity, anthropologists, cohort, contemporary,
ambivalence, extent, equity, and adept. If you don’t know their mean-
ings, look them up in a dictionary.
WHAT MAKES MARRIAGES WORK?
1 From a developmental perspective, marriage is a useful institution:
Children generally thrive when two parents are directly committed to
their well-being, and adults thrive if one other person satisfi es their need
for intimacy and for generativity. Yet, clearly, not all marriages accomplish
these goals. Why do some marriages work well, while others do not?
2 One developmental factor that infl uences the success of a marriage
is the
⻬
maturity of the partners. In general, the younger the bride and
PAUSE: Do you
have thoughts
about what
makes a success-
ful marriage or
partnership?
Cause 1 or effect 1
Detailed
explanation or
example of the fi rst
cause or effect
Cause 2 or effect 2
Detailed
explanation or
example of the
second cause or
effect
Cause 3 or effect 3
Detailed
explanation or
example of the
third cause or effect
Conclusion
Reminds readers
of your main point
and makes an
observation about it
based on what you
have written
Thesis statement
Indicates causes,
effects, or both
CAUSE AND EFFECT
AT A GLANCE
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