LENG1158-06: Great Comparison-Contrast Paragraphs from Exam 1

Part 2 of Exam 1 asked you to write (another) comparison-contrast paragraph, and some of you did an excellent job.
Here are three very good paragraphs that your classmates wrote last week.

Example 1

Just like grandparents with their grandchildren, parents are always willing to give emotional support to

their children. Nevertheless, there are two reasons why parents and grandparents are different. First, parents´

food, especially mom´s food, is healthy and boring. Moms want their children to eat and grow healthy, so they

feed them with salad, soup, and fruits. On the other hand, grandparents love to see their grandchildren happy

when they are eating something, that is why they buy them candies. For instance, parents barely let their

children to eat fast food whereas grandparents often take their grandchildren to fast food restaurants.

Second, parents bring gifts to their children just in special dates, such as their birthday and Christmas. In

contrast, grandparents usually give their grandchildren a present every time they see them. Most of the times

the present is money, so kids can save it, or spend it on whatever they want. In summary, there exist two

characteristics that make parents and grandparents different.

Example 2

There are three differences between exercising in a gym and exercising in a public park. The first and

most obvious difference is the price. Exercising in a gym is more expensive than exercising in a public park

because in a gym you must pay a monthly payment for the use of the machines. On the other hand, exercising

in a public park is free. A second but related difference is the variety of machines. In the gym, you have many

machines to exercise. For example, you can use a running machine or a rowing machine. In contrast, when you

exercise in a public park, you do not have many machines. The final difference is related to security. For

example, when you exercise in a park, you are prone to robbery because you stay in an open place. In

contrast, when you exercise in a gym, you stay in a closed place or room, and it is more secure than staying in

an open place.
Finally, there are differences between exercising in a gym and exercising in a public park related to the price,

variety of machines and the security.

Example 3

Although public parks and gyms are both excellent places to workout, there is three main differences

between them. First, while exercising in public parks is totally free, people need to pay for a membership in

gyms, making easier to workout in public parks if people don´t have money. Second, public parks do not

provide any exercise equipment, apart from some bars and the floor itself. In contrast, gyms provide a lot of

exercise equipment, so users have a lot of options, like dumbbells, barbells, machines etc. Third, it is harder to

make friends in public parks than in gyms, even though public parks are outside places. This, because gyms are

open everyday (and in some cases 24 hours) so there is a lot of people to socialize throughout the day. On the

other hand, public parks sometimes can be pretty alone, making socializing harder, specially in late night or in

days of bad weather. To sum up, public parks and gyms are both amazing options to workout, but there are

differences between them in terms of cost, equipment and socializing.