Comparing And Contrasting Five Paragraph Essay, Body Paragraphs Help?

Question

I am writing a five paragrpah essay on comparing and contrasting of a chraracter of a book to myself. I already know the basic format to a five paragraph essay of; Introduction, 3 Body Paragraphs and Conlcusion. The thing that I am having difficulty with is with one of the Body Paragraphs. I have one 'Comparing Paragraph' and one 'Contrasting Paragraph', I just do not know what the third paragraph should be. I want to avoid doing another comparing paragraph or another contrasting paragraph alone. What other choices do I have, if any?

Answer 1

Your first problem is having one comparing paragraph and one contrasting paragraph. The way a compare/contrast essay is supposed to work is taking three points, one for each body paragraph, and comparing AND contrasting them within the same paragraph using connectors like "However," "on the other hand," "conversely," etc. If you have one whole paragraph listing things that are comparable between your character and yourself, that is not a true paragraph because it doesn't stick to one main idea.

For instance, if you say, "The character compared to me because we're both females. The character also compared to me because we both are teenagers. The character also compared to me because we both have little brothers." That is not a paragraph. It is a list.

However, if you have a paragraph that goes, "One of the ways the character compared to me is that she has a little brother. The character's relationship with her brother mirrors that of my own because__________. On the other hand, their relationship differs from the relationship between my brother and me because __________. The addition of a little brother helped me to identify with the character." That would be a true paragraph and still have a good comparison/contrast argument in it. Good luck to you!

Answer 2

Comparing Paragraph

Answer 3

Incidentally, it's actually called Oedipus Rex. THE O.M.F, HAHA. Paragraph 1: Intro. If you already know what the stories are about, you should have a pretty good idea for your thesis. Formulate your thesis around that point, it should be a somewhat broad topic so that you can have 3 main points. Note that your thesis does not have to be true to all 5 stories; this is where contrast comes in. Paragraph 1: Introduce your first point. Then, go straight to a text for evidence of that point. You might want to group stories that agree with each other on that point together. For example, if story 1 says that it's ok to leave your baby on a mountain and story 2 says the same, group those stories together. If there's a story (or stories) that are the antithesis (or otherwise, conflict) with your argument, add :However, story 3 (4, 5, whatever) . Don't forget to put your analysis of your evidence after each quote. Also remember to put line number/page numbers. Paragraph 2: Second point, folllow steps in paragraph one. Paragraph 3: Third point, same as paragraph 1. Conclusion: Remember that this is not just a summary of your thesis, but rather, an analysis of it. What are you trying to prove? Conclusions are usually the hardest part of english papers (that, and the title). Please, for the love of God, DON'T put "In conclusion", or, even worse, "In the end".

Answer 4

When doing a 5-paragraph compare-contrast essay, I generally tell my students to pick three different areas to compare and contrast. In a characterization essay, you might consider things like personality, physical characteristics, goals & ambitions, social status, point-of-view, culture, etc.

Answer 5

You are going to have to reorganize your body paragraphs. You will base each of the paragraphs off of an idea/point. In each paragraph, state illustrate the similarities between the two that have to do with the point you are trying to support. And then state and illustrate the differences that have to do with your main point. The topic sentence of each body paragraph can center around the point you are making--that they are similar in these respects and dissimilar in other respects. Of course, the similarities and differences have to be linked in some way in order to be put together in the same paragraph.