Grade 5: Compare-Contrast Essay

Is your essay a little confusing? Try one of these ways to organize it.

Write about all the similarities first. Then write about all the differences. (You can start with the differences if you want.)

[The first paragraph tells only similarities.] Growing flowers is similar to growing vegetables in how you go about it. For both kinds of gardening, you need to place your plants where they'll get the right amount of sun. You need to prepare the soil by loosening it and sometimes by fertilizing it. As both kinds of plants start growing, you need to water them if there isn't enough rain, and you have to keep up with the weeding.

[The second and third paragraphs tell only differences.] However, growing flowers and vegetables each have different advantages and disadvantages. For vegetables, the main advantages of growing them, of course, is that you can eat them. They taste great, and they're good for your health. Most common flowers, on the other hand, are not nutritious for people, and some are even poisonous.

Unlike vegetables, flowers are valued mainly for their appearance and scent. Flowers add beauty to your garden, and if you cut them, they add beauty to your house. Sure, vegetables are nice-looking in their own way, but did you ever see a living room decorated with a bowl of carrots?

Use feature-by-feature order. With this way of organizing, you show both similarities and differences in the same paragraph, but each paragraph is about just one feature. For example, suppose you use this method to write about in-line roller skating and ice skating. One paragraph might be about equipment. Another paragraph might be about places to skate.

[This paragraph tells both similarities and differences about one feature—equipment.] The main equipment for both ice skating and in-line skating is, of course, the skate. Ice skates have a thin metal blade attached to the bottom of each boot, but in-line skates have a single line of wheels instead. For both sports the top part of the skate is like a boot. The boots of ice skates are narrow and flexible like leather, and you tie them with laces. However, the boots of in-line skates are wide, and they often have plastic parts that make them stiff. Some have laces, but many have buckles.

[This paragraph tells both similarities and differences about another feature—places for skating.] For both kinds of skating, there are lots of choices about where you can skate. To skate indoors, you can do both in-line skating and ice skating all year round at indoor rinks. To skate outdoors, you need freezing weather for ice skating, but you can do in-line skating outdoors in almost any weather. Outdoor ice-skating is usually done on ponds, rivers, and lakes, while outdoor in-line skating is usually done on sidewalks and in playgrounds.

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