COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY

Coffee Versus Green Tea
Part 1
WHAT DO YOU HAVE SO FAR?
 You have built a 5-paragraph Compa
re and Contrast Essay.
 Not all essays are created equally!
 Here are some areas where students
have struggled.
 Let’s work through some examples t
ogether.
THE ATTENTION GETTER
Assignment: You are writing a compare / co
ntrast essay about coffee and green tea.
The thesis statement is:
Coffee and green tea are both great choic
es at the café, but they differ in health ben
efits, cost, and eco-friendliness.
Make a good attention getter for this essay.
Write something now! You have 3 minutes!
THE ATTENTION GETTER
 Do you know coffee and green tea?
 This is possibly the worst attention getter EVER! It is n
ot even a logical question! Plus, it makes the reader w
onder if the writer thinks he is stupid asking such a du
mb question!
 Do NOT ask “Do you know….?”

 Which do you prefer; coffee or green tea?

 This is slightly better. It does ask the reader a logical q
uestion but still a BORING one!
 How do you wake up in the morning?
 This is better. It is a more thought-provoking question
for the reader. It is the kind of question that lends itse
lf well for more explanation.
THE ATTENTION GETTER
 Remember! Exciting facts, cool quotes or interestin
g personal stories also make excellent attention ge
tters!
 Fact: The Irish drink more tea per capita than any o
ther group in the world.
 Quote: The morning cup of coffee has an exhilarati
on about it which the cheering influence of the aft
ernoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected t
o reproduce.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., "Over the Teacups," 1891
 Story: When I was a student in university, I survived
with an IV of Maxwell House. Coffee pulled me thr
ough the depths of genetics, psychology, and an e
ssay on Descartes…
 BODY PARAGRAPH
 You need a topic sentence for each body paragraph.
This sentence introduces the category that you are g
oing to discuss.
Assignment: You are writing a compare / contrast ess
ay about coffee and green tea.
The thesis statement is:
Coffee and green tea are both great choices at the c
afé, but they differ in health benefits, cost, and eco-
friendliness.
Make 3 topic sentences. One for each body paragrap
h.
*Use transition signals, so you can tell which sentence
is for which paragraph. You have 4 minutes!
BODY PARAGRAPH
 First of all, coffee and green tea have different he
alth benefits.
 Second, in addition to the many health benefits, c
offee and green tea also differ in their cost.
 Finally, besides the health benefits and cost, coffe
e and green tea are also different in terms of thei
r eco-friendliness.

Each topic sentence begins with a transition to sho

w you are moving from one paragraph to the nex
t. The new category is introduced and you are rea
dy to start comparing and contrasting.
BODY PARAGRAPH
 Last week, you worked on the first body paragraph.
 First of all, coffee and green tea have different health ben
efits.
You needed to:
1. read the research

2. build the outline in point form

3. change the point form outline into a paragraph wit

h sentences which are paraphrased, not copied, fro
m the researched information
How did you do?
Let’s compare paragraphs for a few minutes.
BODY PARAGRAPH
 First of all, coffee and green tea have different he
alth benefits.
 1. Cancer prevention
 Coffee help prevent skin cancer.
 Men who drank 3 cups daily- 9% less skin cancer
 Coffee absorbs harmful sun and promotes cell repair
 Tea contains catechins- prevent prostate cancer
 Polyphenols-antioxidant in tea protect against skin damage
 2. Weight loss
 EGCG(antioxidant) and caffeine in tea can shrink fat cells and activate
muscle cells
 No evidence with coffee

 3. Diabetes prevention
 Coffee drinking linked to decreased chance of type 2 diabetes
 people who drank 4 cups daily –30-56% less chance of diabetes
 No evidence with tea
BODY PARAGRAPH
First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. Both
beverages are known to help prevent cancers. For example, studies h
ave shown that men who drink 3 cups of coffee daily are 9% less like
ly to develop skin cancer than those men who don’t drink coffee. It is
believed that coffee actually absorbs harmful sun rays while promotin
g cell repair. Similarly, antioxidants found in green tea, also repair cell
damage and can prevent skin cancer. However, green tea also contai
ns catechins, a special type of antioxidant, proven to help prevent pr
ostate cancer. In addition to preventing cancer, green tea has been s
hown to promote weight loss. Caffeine and the antioxidant EGCG fo
und in green tea can shrink fat cells and activate muscle cells. On the
other hand, another health benefit associated with coffee is its ability
to decrease your chances of developing type 2 Diabetes. Different stu
dies have shown that people who drink 4 cups of coffee daily are 30-
56% less likely to get the disease than non-drinkers. Drank in moder
ation, both coffee and green tea can improve your health.

This is only one example of what could have been written.

*Note the use of transition signals and compare / contrast signal words
throughout the paragraph.
BODY PARAGRAPH
 Your body paragraphs must be organized!
 Your outline and paragraph need:
 Topic sentence specifying category
 First point of compare or contrast
 Explain and example

 Next point

 Explain and example

 Next….

 If comparing, explain the similarity.

 Example: Both beverages are known to help prevent cancer
s. Both contain antioxidants that repair cell damage.
 If contrasting, explain both sides and how they are diff
erent.
 Example: Green tea leaves are more expensive than coffee
beans. Green tea leaves costs $13.95/250g, while coffee b
eans only costs $11.95/454g.
BODY PARAGRAPH
 Assignment: You are writing a compare / contrast ess
ay about coffee and green tea. The second category t
o be compared and contrasted is “Cost.”
 Organize the sentences for body paragraph#2. The s
entences are scrambled but you can determine the or
der if you pay attention to the transition signals used.
 Go ahead. Try the worksheet putting the sentences in
to a logical order.
You have 10 minutes!
BODY PARAGRAPH
Second, in addition to the many health benefits, coffee and green tea also d
iffer in their cost. When purchased by the cup at your favorite café, both tea
and coffee are about the same price. For instance, it doesn’t matter if you ch
oose coffee or green tea at McDonalds because both cost $1.49 per cup. H
owever, while your brew is approximately the same price per cup in the rest
aurant, the market prices for the raw materials of both are very different. To
illustrate, the popular café, Starbucks, sells both coffee beans and tea leaves
for customers to brew a home. The House Blend which is a typical coffee be
an is $11.95 per 454g while the Tazo Green Tea which is a typical loose leaf
tea is $13.95 per 250g. In general, green tea leaves are more expensive tha
n coffee beans. This is true for ordinary store brands as well as exotic special
ty types. For example, Kopi Luwak, considered the most expensive coffee in
the world, is only $350 per kilogram, but Panda Tea, the most expensive gre
en tea in the world, is a whopping $64,000 per kilogram. In addition to var
ying significantly in the price per kilogram, another factor effecting cost is th
e amount needed to brew a single cup. Tea and Coffee expert, Blue Raven s
ays one kilogram of tea leaves will produce approximately 180 cups of tea
while the same amount of coffee beans will only make about 60 cups of cof
fee. Each kilo of tea leaves will produce nearly three times as many cups of b
everage as the equivalent amount of coffee beans. Furthermore, while it is c
ommon to steep multiple pots of tea from the same leaves, coffee beans ar
e normally used only once. Thus, the cost per cup changes even greater wh
en this fact is taken into consideration.
RECAP
Introductions:
Is it interesting?
“Do you know it is interesting?”
Body Paragraphs:
Is there a topic sentence introducing the category
to be discussed?
Have you explain and given examples?
Have you researched and paraphrased the inform
ation?
Have you used transition signals to move betwee
n paragraphs and more importantly between poi
nts within the paragraph?
THE END