Page 130 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

expository Writing: Compare/Contrast
aCTIvITy 2.2
Learning Targets
• Analyze and explain how a writer uses the compare/contrast structure to communicate ideas.
• Write a paragraph that demonstrates an ability to use compare/contrast organizational structure.
Review of Expository Writing
You have had many experiences writing in the expository mode. Every time you explain something or define a concept or idea, you are writing an expository text. One form of expository writing is compare/contrast. This method of organization is an important model of exposition to master and can be used in many different writing situations.
1. Brainstorm ideas for topics for different school subjects that would require you to write a compare/contrast essay.
2. Writers use planning and prewriting to decide how to organize their ideas. The graphic organizer below shows two methods of organizing a compare/contrast essay, using “reptiles vs. mammals” as a topic.
my Notes
aCademIC voCabUlary
Compare/contrast is a
rhetorical strategy and method
of organization in which a
writer examines similarities
and differences between two
people, places, ideas, or things.
Subject-by-Subject Organization
Feature-by-Feature Organization
Discuss all the features of one subject and then all the features of the other.
Select a feature common to both subjects and then discuss each subject in light of that feature. Then go on to the next feature.
Subject A: Mammals
Habitat Reproduction Physiology
Subject B: Reptiles
Habitat Reproduction Physiology
Habitat
Subject A: Mammals
Subject B: Reptiles
Reproduction
Subject A: Mammals
Subject B: Reptiles
Physiology
Subject A: Mammals Subject B: Reptiles
3. Why would a writer select one organizational structure over the other?
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia 103
learNING STraTeGIeS:
Graphic Organizer, QHT, Close Reading, Marking the Text, Summarizing, Rereading, Brainstorming, Drafting
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