Write a five- or six-paragraph contrast essay on one of the topics below.
Topic 1: Contrast the life of the typical young adult and the typical middle-aged adult.
Topic 2: Contrast being an only child with having siblings.
Topic 3: Contrast driving in two different places (e.g. your hometown and Dallas).
Topic 4: Contrast ways in which people interact with each other in two different cultures (e.g. your culture and U.S. culture).
Topic 5: Contrast being a child today with being a child 30 years ago.
Topic 6: Contrast the lives of women today with the lives of women in the past.
Topic 7: Contrast two different groups of people from your country (e.g. the people from the north and the people from the south).
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You may write a contrast essay on a different topic only if you have asked for and received my permission ahead of time.
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Pointers for Writing Contrast Essays
thesis statement
Here are some examples of contrast thesis statements:
There are three important differences between Coke and Pepsi.
Coke and Pepsi are different in three important ways.
Coke is different from Pepsi in three important ways.
Coke and Pepsi differ in three important ways.
Coke differs from Pepsi in three important ways.
point-by-point and block
There are two approaches to organizing the body (i.e. the supporting paragraphs) of a contrast essay: the point-by-point approach and the block approach.
Let's say that you are writing an essay contrasting Coke and Pepsi with the points of contrast being sweetness, acidity, and carbonation.
If you use the point-by-point approach, you will have three supporting paragraphs with the following structure:
1. sweetness a. Coke b. Pepsi
2. acidity a. Coke b. Pepsi
3. carbonation a. Coke b. Pepsi
If you use the block approach, you would have two supporting paragraphs with the