The Comparison Essay

Sounds easy right! Write a comparison essay by comparing two or more things, simple. Not so simple. There is more to the comparison essay than just showing how and why this is different from that. The writer must explain the differences thoroughly and prove his or her argument with hard data and references. A comparison essay is not so simple and the best way to learn is by example so we present you here with one of the best we have found. This example is a comparison essay of rhetorical speeches:

Comparison Essay: Sermon on the Mound and In Praise of Mosquitos

In addition to the brilliant rhetorical aspects of her speech, the Sermon on the Mound speech is structurally attractive. Ms. Thatcher cleverly and artfully incorporates anecdotes that help her audience relate to the ideas she attempts to convey. Her structure follows a logical path in which she begins by comparing and contrasting Christian ideologies with political and familial ideologies. During the speech, she works through the fundamental similarities to find common points of reference in her audience as well as within the ideas she sought her audience to understand. References to the bible and thoughtful quotes from verse were directly appropriate for her religious audience and served to highlight the points she was making.

Finally, her use of personalization was outstanding. Throughout the speech, Ms. Thatcher speaks from personal experiences and values. She uses words like us, we, ours to personalize her experiences as they relate to those of the audience members, for example when she states, “We are all responsible for our own actions. We can't blame society if we disobey the law. We simply can't delegate the exercise of mercy and generosity to others.”

Although this author contends Ms. Thatcher left her audience with words of shared hope for a common dream not all listeners might feel the same. Critics of the speech will cite Ms. Thatcher’s self-serving interest in framing politics, taxation, education, wealth, and so forth, in a religious context to achieve her own ends and this may well be true as evidenced by the words,

“You fight your cause under the banner of an historic Church. Your success matters greatly—as much to the temporal as to the spiritual welfare of the nation,” but it does not detract from the quality of the speech itself. Ms. Thatcher presents compelling data, historical context, an artfulness of word use, moral value and psychological and political context that draws the listener to affirmative and deep thought.

To create a comparison essay, Sermon on the Mound was compared with In Praise of Mosquitos.

The writing style of In Praise of Mosquitoes is that of a modern speech. It is designed to repeatedly regain audience interest with questions and with quirky comments that make one think or laugh. In this way, it is similar to the prose of the Sermon on the Mound. The pace is quick, rousing and has many crescendos so that the words are almost less significant than the rise and fall of the authors tone. The speech is playful, it evokes humor, good will and a lighthearted feeling and yet it makes a point. It is made in jest but it is the point that compels the listener nonetheless to consider their actions, to question the randomness of thoughtless acts and the value of all life.

Again, the similarities between this speech and the Sermon on the Mound are apparent. The Sermon on the Mound is superior in rhetoric, although equal in the quality of technique, because of the subjective perspective of In Praise of Mosquitoes. Take for example the statement, “It is your arrogant impertinence and your absent-minded cruelty that deprives human kind not only of adorable beauty and amorous females.” This in comparison to the Sermon on the Mound is the speeches greatest weakness. The speaker’s views are views not likely to be held by many, nor are his claims likely to be considered statements of fact let alone science.