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L N C C P: Ecture Otes On Ompare and Ontrast Attern
L N C C P: Ecture Otes On Ompare and Ontrast Attern
Table of Contents
Compare and Contrast Summary ............................................................................................... 1
Decision, deciding to use the C/C Pattern ................................................................................... 3
Organization of C/C Writing ....................................................................................................... 3
Title/subject line .......................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3
Choosing criteria for comparison ............................................................................................ 4
Comparison/Contrast Body ......................................................................................................... 4
Writing the Body as a Comparison Summary Table ............................................................... 5
Writing the Body as Paragraphs of Text ................................................................................. 9
Writing the Body as a Combination of Both ......................................................................... 10
Making Objective vs. Subjective Comparisons ..................................................................... 10
Knowing What Not to do in the body Sections ..................................................................... 11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 11
Recommendation ....................................................................................................................... 12
Pre-writing Stage: Getting Started............................................................................................ 12
To extend the C/C pattern .......................................................................................................... 13
When the Comparison as Paragraphs of Text is More Than a Paragraph................................. 13
To Use Comparison as Paragraphs of Text Requires Criteria Definitions ............................... 13
Uses of C/C Pattern ..................................................................................................................... 14
Formatting a Table in Word ...................................................................................................... 15
Title/subject line
In any C/C writing, the author needs to let the reader know that the upcoming document will help
them with the decision they need to make. Use specific words in the title to let the reader know a
C/C writing is coming along. Examples include the following:
"choosing which "
"need to pick "
"deciding <identify the decision that needs to be made without mentioning the subjects>"
Introduction
The introduction section must
1. Acknowledge your audience.
For example, "As a student at UWB, you"
2. Acknowledge the decision that needs to be made, without including the subjects.
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For example, you might need to choose a section of a course to take; that is the decision.
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It is not, choosing between section A and section B; those are the subjects.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
3. Introduce the list that is your subjects (the options to choose from)
4. Forecast the criteria (i.e., list them) (not any sub-criteria)
The introduction section must not do the following:
Do not make the decision for the reader
o E.g., "The best choice would be"
Do not explain the decision in terms of the subjects
o E.g., "You need to pick x or y"
Do not tell the reader what to do
o E.g., "You should", "You need to", "You must"
Do not begin the comparisons
o E.g., Start to include comparison information
Comparison/Contrast Body
The body sections contain the comparison/contrast.1
The body can be constructed in the following ways:
1. as a comparison summary table (CST)
2. as paragraphs of text organized as either whole-by-whole (W/W) or part-by-part (P/P)
3. as a combination of both
The following sections discuss each of these options.
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Note: body has a lower case letter because it is referring to the sections of the document that constitute the middle
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of the document. In technical writing, the body sections headings should always be words that describe its content.
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There should NEVER be a heading called "body" in technical writing. By contrast, "Introduction" and "Conclusion"
ought to be used for headings because they are understood by a common audience.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
7) Use grid lines in your table, so readers can see what lives in each table cell. Your reader
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should never guess what table cell information goes with what column/row headings.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
8) Align the left edge grid of the table with the T in "Table." In Word, when you create a
table, the first column juts out to the left and needs to be brought into alignment with the
text.
9) Always Left-align the first column.
10) Always align all cells of a column the same. The eye jerks around if table cells in a
column are not all aligned the same.
11) Use abbreviations and fragments to reduce table cell content, no ending punctuation.
12) Use enough white space to read content easily in grid cell.
13) If the table cell contents do not text wrap, consider centering the columns.
14) Omit information that is not relevant to your purpose. Avoid chart junk.
15) Put the source(s) in the last (merged) cell of the table so that the reader can find the
original information. Why full source? Because good tables get borrowed. If borrowed,
then once it's in another document, the full source can still help the reader find the
original source.
These rules apply for ALL tables that you create, not only comparison summary tables.
Table 3 shows a sample table formatted properly.
Table 3: Properly Formatted Table
Column heading Column heading Column heading Column heading
Row heading Table cell content Table cell content Table cell content
Row heading Table cell content Table cell content Table cell content
Row heading Table cell content Table cell content Table cell content
Source: Full bibliographic source where the information came from
4) Figures and tables should always be numbered within a document. Figures and tables should
be numbered separately (starting both at 1).
5) Place the figure or table after the paragraph that references them. Not before, where the
reader will stumble across them.
6) Include enough white space on the page before and after the figure/table so it's not crowded.
Selecting Criteria
You want the criteria you use to be a concept or idea, then the table cell would be how that
concept relates.
In other words, when deciding on your criteria, you want to avoid using criteria that would
generate "yes" or "no" for the table cell. When that happens, it puts all the pressure on the criteria
to make the sense for all readers. For example, if you were comparing laptops, see the two rows
in Table 4 that show how the question criteria is not an informative row, while the second criteria
row is more helpful.
Table 4: Example Criteria Comparison
Criteria Some laptop Another laptop
Stylus included? Yes No
Stylus 6" resin stylus included with No stylus included. Optional stylus
list price available for additional cost
See Table 1 for another example of how to create criteria and table cell content.
In any table, the 1st table column (after the heading row) needs to be parallel. Parallelism is using
successive verbal constructions that correspond in grammatical structure. That is, if the criteria is
a noun, then they all are nouns. If they start with a command verb, then they all start with a
command verb. For more information, see grammar homework #3 for a discussion of
parallelism. Therefore, the criteria needs to be parallel.
NOTE: When you have sub-criteria, only the criteria are forecasted in the introduction, not the
sub-criteria. If you tried to forecast both, the sentence would get very convoluted for the reader.
NOTE: If you need to define a criteria term, then the brief definition would go in the table cell
where the criteria is identified. See Table 1 for an example of the use of definitions.
Recommendation: Merge the cells for the criteria that breaks down into sub-criteria and format
the look of the sub-criteria differently (as seen in Table 5). You could indent them, or assuming
there's no text wrap in the sub-criteria phrase, you might center or right align if that look works.
Criterion Table cell content [6] Table cell content Table cell content
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COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
Column heading Column heading [1] Column heading [2] Column heading[3]
Sources:
[1] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
[2] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
[3] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
[4] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
[5] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
[6] Last name, first name. "Title." Publisher. Location. Date.
Subject A Criterion 1
Criterion 1 Subject A
Criterion 2 Subject B
Criterion 3 Criterion 2
Subject A
...
Subject B
Subject B
Criterion 1 Criterion 3
Subject A
Criterion 2
Subject B
Criterion 3
...
...
Conclusion
Conclusion Recommendation (optional)
Recommendation (optional)
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COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
subject X is $99 and Subject Y is $110. You don't need to say that Subject X costs less.
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When the author tells the reader what to do, "pick zz for best results." Instead avoid this
construct.
See Table 7 for a sample of using facts instead of impressions.
Table 7: Comparing Facts to Impressions
Criteria Objective (FACTS) Subjective (Impressions)
Time 2 hours 30 minutes A lot; half of the morning
Height 6 feet 5 inches Taller than me
Weight 120 pounds Just right, heavy, light
Power 240 horsepower Outclasses compact vehicles
0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds
Source: Full bibliographic source where the information came from
Conclusion
Your Conclusion section helps the reader make the decision by evaluating each criterion, now
that they've read/understood the data about the subjects. It's not a place to summarize the
comparison.
The topic sentence reiterates the subjects and criteria. Afterwards, the rest of the conclusion
consists of bullets that provide a series of "if" statements that help the reader make the decision.
They take the following form:
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Recommendation
In a separate section, you can optionally offer a recommendation based on your (the author)
wisdom. This section needs its own heading so that the shift in tone is clear to the reader.
In general, if you include a recommendation, then use 1st (singular) POV to refer to yourself and
use biased language as you are providing your own perspective. It's best to base your
recommendation on your own research or experiences.
In this section only can you actually tell the reader what to do: "Based on my personal
experience with subject X and subject Y, my recommendation would be...."
NOTE: Do not use "if" or "consider" statements in a recommendation; those phrasings are
reserved for the C/C conclusion.
2. Audience: Who are the decision makers? Analyze their knowledge level with respect to the
subjects, criteria, and decision that will be made.
3. Audience analysis: What can you assume about the reader's knowledge of the topics? You
want to analyze any assumptions you can make about the reader's ability to understand the
content so that you can know when you need to define terms, what order the criteria should
be placed in, etc.
4. Do you have any secondary audiences? A secondary audience is someone who might also
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read the work, but not need the end result. In this case, a secondary audience might be
someone who is paying for the subject or may be involved in helping the reader make the
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COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
decision. If you have any secondary audiences, what is their role in the decision making
process? What might need to be done to make sure what they need is clear?
6. What criteria does the reader need to see evaluated to understand how to make the decision
the subject? Select criteria based on the decision that needs to be made.
First column = Criteria, following columns are one per subject to be compared.
Whole-by-whole does not work. Plus each criterion must be defined. See Figure 3.
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COMPARE AND CONTRAST PATTERN
You can alter the contents of the introduction. For example, you may not need to
acknowledge the audience. That may be established in the TO field of an email without
needing to be repeated in the beginning paragraph.
You can consider omitting the conclusion section with the "if" statements and only
include the recommendation section. This would be common if you don't need to help the
reader make the decision, rather only tell them your recommendation of what to do.
You can combine these P/P and W/W models. For example, you could use the part-by-
part to explain the differences between two solutions (where the subjects are the
solutions). In the recommendation, pick one of the solutions. Then compare and contrast
using whole-by-whole, comparing the difference between "before the use of the solution"
and "after the use of the solution" as the subjects.
You can use a comparison summary table (CST) (a table of columns: criteria and
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subjects, and rows each criteria) as the body (only) or content along with other writing in
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So headings repeat at top of next page, when tables span page boundary, select table
headings, R-Click, Select Table Properties, Select Row tab, Set Heading Row Repeat
So rows do not span a page boundary (easier to read table across pages), select (whole)
Table, R-Click, Select Table Properties, Select Row tab, disallow Row to break across
pages
So Table Title stays with table when co-located at a page boundary, select Table Title, R-
Click, Select Paragraph, Select Line and Page Breaks tab, set keep with next
So Table Title lays just above the table, without any white space, select Table Title, R-
Click, Select Paragraph, adjust the After space to be 0
To create a row for Source, Notes, or Legend (each ought to be its own row, not
combined rows), select all cells in last row, R-Click, Select Merge Cells
NOTE: Each Sources, NOTES, or Legend must be in their own table cell so that the
reader can find the information.
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