C OMPARE AND C ONTRAST E SSAY Coffee Versus Green Tea Part 1

W HAT D O Y OU H AVE S O F AR ? You have built a 5-paragraph Compare and Contrast Essay. Not all essays are created equally! Here are some areas where students have struggled. Let’s work through some examples together.

T HE A TTENTION G ETTER Assignment: You are writing a compare / contrast essay about coffee and green tea. The thesis statement is: Coffee and green tea are both great choices at the café, but they differ in health benefits, cost, and eco-friendliness. Make a good attention getter for this essay. Write something now! You have 3 minutes!

T HE A TTENTION G ETTER Do you know coffee and green tea? This is possibly the worst attention getter EVER! It is not even a logical question! Plus, it makes the reader wonder if the writer thinks he is stupid asking such a dumb question! Do NOT ask “Do you know….?” Which do you prefer; coffee or green tea? This is slightly better. It does ask the reader a logical question but still a BORING one! How do you wake up in the morning? This is better. It is a more thought-provoking question for the reader. It is the kind of question that lends itself well for more explanation.

T HE A TTENTION G ETTER Remember! Exciting facts, cool quotes or interesting personal stories also make excellent attention getters! Fact: The Irish drink more tea per capita than any other group in the world. Quote: The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., "Over the Teacups," 1891 Story: When I was a student in university, I survived with an IV of Maxwell House. Coffee pulled me through the depths of genetics, psychology, and an essay on Descartes…

B ODY P ARAGRAPH You need a topic sentence for each body paragraph. This sentence introduces the category that you are going to discuss. Assignment: You are writing a compare / contrast essay about coffee and green tea. The thesis statement is: Coffee and green tea are both great choices at the café, but they differ in health benefits, cost, and eco- friendliness. Make 3 topic sentences. One for each body paragraph. *Use transition signals, so you can tell which sentence is for which paragraph. You have 4 minutes!

B ODY P ARAGRAPH First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. Second, in addition to the many health benefits, coffee and green tea also differ in their cost. Finally, besides the health benefits and cost, coffee and green tea are also different in terms of their eco-friendliness. Each topic sentence begins with a transition to show you are moving from one paragraph to the next. The new category is introduced and you are ready to start comparing and contrasting.

B ODY P ARAGRAPH Last week, you worked on the first body paragraph. First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. You needed to: 1. read the research 2. build the outline in point form 3. change the point form outline into a paragraph with sentences which are paraphrased, not copied, from the researched information How did you do? Let’s compare paragraphs for a few minutes.

B ODY P ARAGRAPH First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. 1. Cancer prevention Coffee help prevent skin cancer. Men who drank 3 cups daily- 9% less skin cancer Coffee absorbs harmful sun and promotes cell repair Tea contains catechins- prevent prostate cancer Polyphenols-antioxidant in tea protect against skin damage 2. Weight loss EGCG(antioxidant) and caffeine in tea can shrink fat cells and activate muscle cells No evidence with coffee 3. Diabetes prevention Coffee drinking linked to decreased chance of type 2 diabetes people who drank 4 cups daily –30-56% less chance of diabetes No evidence with tea

B ODY P ARAGRAPH First of all, coffee and green tea have different health benefits. Both beverages are known to help prevent cancers. For example, studies have shown that men who drink 3 cups of coffee daily are 9% less likely to develop skin cancer than those men who don’t drink coffee. It is believed that coffee actually absorbs harmful sun rays while promoting cell repair. Similarly, antioxidants found in green tea, also repair cell damage and can prevent skin cancer. However, green tea also contains catechins, a special type of antioxidant, proven to help prevent prostate cancer. In addition to preventing cancer, green tea has been shown to promote weight loss. Caffeine and the antioxidant EGCG found in green tea can shrink fat cells and activate muscle cells. On the other hand, another health benefit associated with coffee is its ability to decrease your chances of developing type 2 Diabetes. Different studies have shown that people who drink 4 cups of coffee daily are 30-56% less likely to get the disease than non-drinkers. Drank in moderation, both coffee and green tea can improve your health. This is only one example of what could have been written. *Note the use of transition signals and compare / contrast signal words throughout the paragraph.

Your body paragraphs must be organized! Your outline and paragraph need: Topic sentence specifying category First point of compare or contrast Explain and example Next point Explain and example Next…. If comparing, explain the similarity. Example: Both beverages are known to help prevent cancers. Both contain antioxidants that repair cell damage. If contrasting, explain both sides and how they are different. Example: Green tea leaves are more expensive than coffee beans. Green tea leaves costs $13.95/250g, while coffee beans only costs $11.95/454g.

B ODY P ARAGRAPH Assignment: You are writing a compare / contrast essay about coffee and green tea. The second category to be compared and contrasted is “Cost.” Organize the sentences for body paragraph#2. The sentences are scrambled but you can determine the order if you pay attention to the transition signals used. Go ahead. Try the worksheet putting the sentences into a logical order. You have 10 minutes!

B ODY P ARAGRAPH Second, in addition to the many health benefits, coffee and green tea also differ in their cost. When purchased by the cup at your favorite café, both tea and coffee are about the same price. For instance, it doesn’t matter if you choose coffee or green tea at McDonalds because both cost $1.49 per cup. However, while your brew is approximately the same price per cup in the restaurant, the market prices for the raw materials of both are very different. To illustrate, the popular café, Starbucks, sells both coffee beans and tea leaves for customers to brew a home. The House Blend which is a typical coffee bean is $11.95 per 454g while the Tazo Green Tea which is a typical loose leaf tea is $13.95 per 250g. In general, green tea leaves are more expensive than coffee beans. This is true for ordinary store brands as well as exotic specialty types. For example, Kopi Luwak, considered the most expensive coffee in the world, is only $350 per kilogram, but Panda Tea, the most expensive green tea in the world, is a whopping $64,000 per kilogram. In addition to varying significantly in the price per kilogram, another factor effecting cost is the amount needed to brew a single cup. Tea and Coffee expert, Blue Raven says one kilogram of tea leaves will produce approximately 180 cups of tea while the same amount of coffee beans will only make about 60 cups of coffee. Each kilo of tea leaves will produce nearly three times as many cups of beverage as the equivalent amount of coffee beans. Furthermore, while it is common to steep multiple pots of tea from the same leaves, coffee beans are normally used only once. Thus, the cost per cup changes even greater when this fact is taken into consideration.

RECAP Introductions: Is it interesting? “Do you know it is interesting?” Body Paragraphs: Is there a topic sentence introducing the category to be discussed? Have you explain and given examples? Have you researched and paraphrased the information? Have you used transition signals to move between paragraphs and more importantly between points within the paragraph?

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