Comparative Writing

Reading and Comparing Texts

You will study a pair of texts and develop your understanding of the
main concepts explored in them, including the ideas, issues and
themes. You will examine how authors use setting, character and
events to explore these concepts and discuss how different texts
provide different perspectives. You will then write a response that
compares these two texts.
Points of comparison:
Ideas, issues, themes
Plot and events
Characters
Form, perspective, structure, style
Settings
 Approaches to writing essays: Reading and
Comparing
Unlike the writing of analytical/expository text response essays where there is a clearly-
defined and expected style and structure expected, in the case of a comparative essay
writing, there are several approaches.
Several approaches should be avoided, especially:
Restating the wording of the topic repeatedly
Making vague and imprecise comments concerning the view or issue for discussion
Outlining the plot of one or both texts
Describing the main characters or protagonists in either or both texts
Students are probably well advised to perceive on of your paired texts to act as a pivot
around which the second text will be juxtaposed.
The introduction and conclusion clearly needs not only to clarify their understanding of
the views or issues raised in the topic, but also to establish a comparative approach
between the two texts. It should be substantial. Then, they should use the body to:
Different approaches
The introduction and conclusion clearly needs not only to clarify their
understanding of the views or issues raised in the topic, but also to
establish a comparative approach between the two texts. It should be
substantial. Then, they should use the body to:
Alternate the analysis of each text in each paragraph within this
comparison and provide linking comments at the end of each
paragraph.
Organise an essay with several/ blocked successive paragraphs on
each text and use linking comparative arguments.
Topic type 1:
Topics with a general comparative focus:
This type of topic asks you to make a comparison of the two texts
based on the concepts that connect them. It will usually raise an
underlying issue or theme and ask you to discuss how the two texts
explore these concepts.
Examples:
What do Montana and To Kill a Mockingbird show about the ways in
which discrimination hinders justice?
Compare how The Boat and The Happiest Refugee explore the
concept of belonging
Topic type 2: Comparing two specific aspects
This type of topic requires you to carefully analyse a specific aspect of the text,
such as character, plot or setting. You may be required to compare or contrast
specific sections in the texts and consider how characters respond in similar or
different ways.
It is important to remember: although these topics may not obviously ask you to
discuss an idea, issue or theme, your discussion must draw on the specific aspect
(such as character) to explore the broader concept (idea, issue, theme)
Examples:
The people in the stories in The Boat and The Happiest Refugee often feel like
outsiders. How do these people overcome the difficulties they experience?
Compare Elie Wiesel from Night to Liesel from The Book Thief. In what ways can
they be considered to represent individuals?
Topic type 3: Topics that compare aspects of
text construction
This type of topic focuses on the author and the choices they make when
writing. Text construction topics require you to analyse aspects such as
style, language and form, and how they contribute to larger concepts
presented in a text. In comparing the different approaches of writers to
similar concepts, you should aim to consider the authors intention, and to
contrast the ways in which texts are constructed to deliver meaning.
Examples:
How does the form of The Book Thief compare to that of Night in
conveying the horrors of the Holocaust?
How does the first-person narrative in some scenes of the stories in
Growing Up Asian in Australia (edited by Alice Pung) and in Joyful Strains
help to give an authentic voice to immigrants?
 Topic type 4: Topics based on a quotation
from the text
This type of topic gives you a quotation from each text and asks you to build your response based on the two
quotations. Consider the key ideas or concepts that each quotation raises and then consider how these ideas
or concepts are represented in each text:
Examples:
Compare Montana and To Kill a Mockingbird, using the following quotations as the basis of your response.
Thats not the way it works. You know that. Sins- crimes- are not supposed to go unpunished. Montana 1948.
Simply because we got licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win. To Kill a
Mockingbird.

Compare Black Diggers and The Longest Memory using the following quotations as the basis of your response.
Africans may be our inferiors, but they exhibit the same qualities we possess, even if they are merely imitating
us. (Mr Whitechapel, pp. 32-33) The Longest Memory
Recruiting CPL: Jesus Christ! Pardon the profanity. You cant come in here.
Ern: Why not?
Recruiting CPL: Well youre youre not a citizen. (p.22) Black Diggers.
Planning your response: What and how?
You must consider WHAT you will compare, and HOW you will structure
your comparison.
WHAT- You may choose to compare the setting, plot, events and
characters, the ways in which the texts are structured or the different
perspectives and concepts raised in the text. You may choose to focus on:
Similarities between the texts: connections or aspects that they have in
common.
The differences between the texts: the points of divergence and contrast,
or:
The similarities and differences between the texts.
Structuring your comparison:
There is no set way to structure your comparison. However there are
two main conventions to comparative writing that will help you to
structure your thinking in a logical way.
First: Select one aspect and discuss how it is explored in one text, and
then move on to a new paragraph and discuss how that aspect plays
out in the second text.
Second: Structure each paragraph so that it discusses one aspect and
how it materialises in both texts. Each point of comparison is explored
in detail with reference to both texts.
Regardless of the approach you use, you must always support your
discussion with close reference to the texts.
Understanding the topic:

First, identify and highlight key words in the essay topic.

Second, consider how both texts relate to the essay topic.
Finally, make a note of similarities and differences in how the texts
explore the topic
 Compare the ways in which Black Diggers and The Longest Memory
represent the influence of racism on relationships and individuals