Writing a Comparison Contrast essay, please help!!

Love, hate--same
emotions, feelings, extremes, represented by the color red, words that are commonly used to describe people's feelings about inanimate objects "I love swimming." "I hate mustard.", four letters in word, ...

apples, oranges--same
Fruit, edible, grow on trees, harvested, contain vitamins, can produce juice, contain seeds, covered by skin, porous, ..

These are silly, but I don't care.

What did you make on your essay?

Love/hate - names we give to emotions which are abstract notions. Emotions are produced by hormones zipping around in our bodies, particularly our brains. Love/hate - both extreme emotions which humans can't keep up. Both love and hate have to subside and are replaced by other less fiery emotions so that we don't burn out. Love is an investment. Hate is a waste of effort.

Apples are, like oranges, a fruit. But unlike oranges they love temperate climates. Oranges are full of the sun that allows them to grow. Oranges love warm climates. Apples are woody. Oranges are full of juice and soft pulp. Eating the skin of an apple is nice, eating the skin of an orange will make your eyes squint. Apples crunch when you eat them, oranges sound of nothing. Apples have some juice when you bite, oranges spray your mouth full of droplets of juice when you bite them. Both grow on trees. Both blossoms are beautiful but orange blossoms have that wonderful scent to them.

Wow those were some good ones thanks. I have a few also. I have a lot more for Love and Hate so I think I will write an essay about that. It seems more interesting.
Love Hate
Love brings people together, love comes naturally to children,nuturing.
Hate divides people, hate has to be taught to childer.
Same- both great motivators, passionate emotions but very different. both are strong
One shows how much you need and care for someone in a good way, and the other way is showing that you detest and loathe something. One is positive and one is negative

My teacher still has it.

What do you think would be a good thesis for each topic. Love and Hate/Apples and Oranges

In common parlance we use the phrase "apples and oranges" to mean we're talking about two different things that can't be compared. But they can be compared one type with the other. They have similarities.

But an apple will never turn into an orange nor an orange change into an apple.

When we talk about "love" and "hate" we like to think that they are poles apart yet they're similar emotional extremes.

But if an apple can't become an orange, love can suddenly and tragically turn to hate.

And hate, as an orange can't change into an apple, sadly can't change into love.

Perhaps there's a thesis in there somewhere.

You'd better think about that. To suggest that hate must be taught is to imply that it doesn't exist naturally, yet, nature tends toward balance. The Taoists believe that polar opposites are dynamically linked and hence represent a unbreakable unity; one does not exist without the other. Asserting that hate must be taught imposes a daunting requirement of proof upon your essay that you may not possess.

Remember that these assignments (and essays, in general) are not simply about grammar and spelling; they are also about solid reasoning and persuasiveness. The topics were constucted around familar objects and ideas to minimize the amount of research required--thus allowing you to focus on general essay-writing skills--but as your inquiries here suggest, research is still required.

Google such things as "love and hate", "nature of love and hate", "philosophy of love and hate", "nature of opposites", etc. and you will find many interesting explorations into these topics.



The writing of respected authors (unless restricted by your instructor) can be quoted in your essay, directly or indirectly ("it has been said that...") and serve as a springboard to your own ideas or provide support for your arguments.

I love your point about love and hate being motivators, but rethink the "hate being taught" thing. The essay is likely to be more fresh if you avoid the whole "hate is bad, love is good" angle.

Love and hate are both passionate. To love someone is to need them, same with hate. Both love and hate can diminish over time if starved or ignored, or grow over time if fed. Both are all-consuming.

I've clicked on this probably 10 times without saying so, can't stand it any more -- the phrase you're going for is "compare and contrast." Not "comparison contrast."

Lots of good advice here. Good luck.

Well thats the way my teacher put it on my paper, so thats why I typed it out like that. I think the way you put it sounds much better. Why do you think my teacher writes it out like that all the time?

Thanks for the advice everyone.
I did drop them lines Val, they sounded pretty stuiped to me to.

Im having trouble.. Writers block or something. My prof. wants me to write this essay point by point. I am going to write about similarities from love and hate. I just don't know where the heck to start. He wants (ts) with thesis. Then he wants me to explain similairitys in the following paragraphs, and then explain. There has to be 5 paragraphs all together. Last night I was laying on my bed trying to do this, and I fell asleep without even knowing it. Why do I get writers block. Ahhhh!!!

Jen, writer's block is a phenomenon typically associated with those who write with ease and then experience a sudden inability to write anything. You do not write with ease, but with great pain. Therefore, you do not have writer's block.

There are many things conspiring against your ability to write effortlessly. First, is dedication; writing takes much practice and you are constantly missing invaluable opportunities to practice by posting messages that are poorly spelled and haphazardly phrased. Stop this! Writing well must begin with your response to this post and continue with every opportunity you have to write thereafter. Express yourself in complete sentences. Use punctuation correctly. Learn to spell better. Remember, you play like you practice.

Second, there is some evidence that you may not read enough with a concerted effort toward comprehension. From your posts in this forum (and others) I've noticed that your replies sometimes fail to target the critical points made by others or lack enough detail to reveal full comprehension. Read to comprehend; look up words you don't know, ask questions about concepts you don't understand, don't be defensive about your weaknesses, and learn to restate ideas in your own words as a test of whether you've really "gotten" something or not.

Third, and most important, your vocabulary needs some steroids. I can't overemphasize how important words are to clear and powerful thinking.



I've already mentioned the need to look up the unknown words you encounter in your reading, but you should also seek to use new words in your own writing. Test yourself every now and again on whether you really know the meaning of a word you've just used by looking it up in the dictionary and then try to find synonyms using a thesaurus. You might often discover that a better word exists than the one you've used.

As for your immediate needs, as is often the case, I have questions rather than answers. Could you describe the assignment, verbatim? Then I might be able to help.

Excellent post, Valpower.