Hello everybody, this is going to be a presentation on
a compare and contrast essay. First, let's take a look at the
title, which is"A Comparison of Two Web Sites
on Attention Deficit Disorder." Right away
we will know that this is going to be a comparison
or contrast essay because of the words used in title.
Also, we know what are they going to compare? Two web sites.
And what is the topic of those web sites?
Attention deficit disorder> Therefore, this title is very very good.
Let's take a look at the introduction. The author
has given us general information about the two websites,
and then goes specifically into the thesis statement.
I would consider this the funnel type of introductory paragraph, starting with the
general and then
narrowing to the more specific. If we take a look at the thesis statement itself,
it states: As a comparison of the
NIMH and AdultADD.com website shows
one side is definitely a more reliable sources information than the
other. Immediately, I started to change this to a question.
Well how is the one side better than the other?
What reasons is the author going to give me?
If you take a look here, I have written comments.
I wanted to say that this thesis statement is an open
thesis statement because it doesn't list the specific
reasons. It leaves it open to interpretation.
Again, you know that I like to write with a closed
thesis statement where I give each reason
in the thesis statement. I like to do this because I think it helps readers know
what's going to come. Next, let's take a look at first body paragraph.
A topic sentence- the first difference between the two websites is the design
of their homepages. The author
goes on to explain, but what's good is the author also includes a visual, which
is a very strong
piece of evidence if it fits well in your paper.
see figure 1. Let's go there. The author uses
a snapshot of the attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder from the National Institute of Mental Health
to show us how their website looks. It's great
visual because then they're going to compare the ADD
com website so we have a visual comparison of the two.
After looking at that figure, We'll continue reading this paragraph and then
the
author starts next paragraph by
giving the examples of how the
AdultADD.com website looks.
Notice that the author did not include
both websites
in one paragraph. The author may have done this because
the information may be may be too much for one paragraph; you don't want a paragraph
that is very long.
Or the author may have done this to get more specific information to
each to dedicate, so we have a better understanding of each.
Again, I'm jumping around here. The
author also gave another figure for us to look at, so let's go look at the figure
of AdultADD.com- a picture of
their website or its website- excuse me. Here
is a picture or a snapshot of the second website
that the authors comparing. To me, it doesn't look as
good as detailed, so this would make me start to question,
well...which website is more reliable.
Again this is really good support because
I haven't read the whole essay, yet I'm starting to lean
toward the one website more than this website-
The AdultADD.com website. Next the author talks about the second point of
comparing. They look look at the end of
the web sites such as .gov, and then if
we scroll down here, the other website ends in a .com,
and then the author goes on to explain why he prefers
.gov over the .com
ending of the web addresses. The third point is how much are they
updated? He compares which one's more current?
The NIMH website- they
stay very current, and then the AdultADD.com
website they're not clear about it.
They don't know how much their updated and I wanted to also point out that
these two paragraphs- this one and this one
they're talking about the same thing. However, the author chose to split them
into two. I may, however,
have put them together as one paragraph, but again
it's the author's style- maybe the author wanted to separate
them to focus more on one website
versus the other. But, here I think both could
be possible, combine it into one paragraph or separated into two.
It's is your style choice. And then the conclusion.
The first sentence of the conclusion says: clear differences between.
They're restating the title and they're restating the thesis, but in different words.
We know that this was a contrasting essay.
Let's keep going.... and then
the author lists- for these reasons.
He's given us a summary above here of the main points
that the author has talked about and then they go on
summarize it. They did a good job here. They
summarized the whole paragraph,
using different words than which were
in the introduction.
The last thing I wanted to point out here was at the comment- This
essay was written with the point by point emphasis. This means that the
author chose to compare each point
and talk about each point by comparing
both web sites the author did not talk about
one one website in the beginning of this
beginning of the essay, and then talk about this second website
the and the essay. The author decided to
intermingle them and talk about them each point
by point. Again, I will have the
copy of this PDF file on the website.
If you go ahead and look at it on the website, you can toggle
over my comments and read those to help you.
Remember- use Firefox or Internet Explorer because
Chrome does not work well when reading
comments. Okay everyone, I hope this helps if you have any questions, please email
me.
Talk to you later- bye.