Preparing for the First Draft of the Comparison-Contrast Essay ► Subscribe Hide Description This week you will submit the rough draft of your second writing assignment, the comparison-contrast essay. The purposes of this discussion topic are for you to make sure you have a clear topic and points of comparison and to see what topics and strategies your fellow students are using for that essay. Before responding to this thread, you should have read through the instructions for the comparison-contrast essay. For your comparison-contrast essay, you will need two subjects to compare/contrast. You will also need three points of comparison/contrast -- three areas in which you can compare/contrast your two subjects. For example, if you are comparing/contrasting two computer software programs, three possible points of comparison/contrast are the functionality, the user interface, and the cost. When selecting points of contrast, please steer clear of points like "pros and cons," "advantages," or "disadvantages." If your subjects have advantages and disadvantages, they will come out as you discuss more specific points of comparison. For example, in the case of the two software programs, it might come out in investigating the second point that user interface is a strong point of one program and a weak point of the other. Please post the following to this discussion: -The two subjects that you would like to compare/contrast -The three points of comparison contrast that you would like to develop in the essay Please also post a substantive response to a classmate. For example, you might ask a question about the person's post or make a suggestion. In this week's first discussion topic, you identified subjects for comparison for your comparison/contrast essay. You also identified three points of comparison/contrast. Because the essay assignment asks you to use the alternating pattern of organization (also called the point-by-point method), you will discuss each of the points of comparison/contrast in one or two paragraphs of the essay. Overall, your essay will be organized like this: Introduction end with thesis statement Point 1 -first subject -second subject Point 2 -first subject -second subject Point 3 -first subject -second subject Conclusion Each of the orange boxes represents one of your points of comparison, which you may choose to discuss in a single paragraph or in two paragraphs. For this discussion topic, please • write one topic sentence for each of your points of comparison/contrast (a total of three sentences) • post any questions you have about topic sentences • respond to at least one other student's post with a substantive response such as a question or suggestion