3 5 paragraph essay about individual differences

Individual Differences at Workplace Essay

Introduction, why individual differences are important at workplace, what are these differences, dimensions of diversity, individual perspectives, perspective and managing diversity, reference list.

Issues of diversity at workplace usually are usually matters associated with race, age, disabilities, job title, religion, nationality, culture, training, competency, personal habits, appearance and experience among other attributes. Most of the employers understand that diversity is a norm and they actually embrace it and even encourage it.

Most organizations have develop efficient ways of encouraging working relationships that embrace diversity among the people at the workplace because every firm now realizes that diversity adds some intrinsic or special value though there are special challenges that are associated with it as well. Some firms like General Electric (GE) have embraced diversity in a unique way and they do so by outsourcing.

Diversity at workplace is an issue that businesses and other organizations are willing to accommodate as they spend money and time in trainings and education for their workers to ensure that they are strongly felt. Today’s workplace is having greater diversity than ever (Greene & Kirton, 2009, p. 47).

The workforce is making strides to enhance quality and attain equality at workplace and this way, companies have to value diversity. The main reason being that there will be greater awareness, positive treatment and education of the individual differences (Greene & Kirton, 2009, p. 47). To aggressively tap the individual differences into a workplace for competitive advantage, recruitment efforts seek to attain diversity and employ amenable people to work in teams.

Diversity is an opportunity for better performance. As a matter of fact, those companies which are doing very well on the international market or on the domestic market seem to all have integrated the culture of diversity in their operations. Diversity is an opportunity; this is because of the fact that it brings new challenges to the firm, fresh ideas, competition, and a variety of thoughts, innovation, creativity and appreciation (Linda, 2006, p. 476). All these features can be very profitable if channelled in the correct manner.

Production for instance, the way production process is carried out in one country could be very different in the next hence having a multinational corporation which employs different nationalities can encourage exchange of ideas that are beneficial to the firm (Linda, 2006, p. 476).

The advantages of diversity can summed up in the following benefits; increased innovativeness due to the broader range of ideas and decision making skills (Greene & Kirton, 2009, p. 49). There is also improved client service as diversity enhances communication and understanding. There is also competitive organization management due to the fact that they value diversity hence will attract and retain many employment.

Diversity at workplace is a very wide topic and covers several aspects or characteristics of individual workers. Therefore when talking about diversity, we mean the differences in terms of age, language, sex or gender, ethnicity (culture) religious beliefs and family obligations (Greene & Kirton, 2009, p. 49). Diversity also deals with other means in which people could be different for instance in education level, job experience, life encounters, social personality, behaviour, talents and marital statuses and so on.

Workplace diversity can hence be described as the recognition of the value of these differences among individuals. And managing them adequately at the workplace (Linda, 2006, p. 476). It should be treated as strength to the company by creating environments that value people and accommodate the contribution from these people who are from different backgrounds, perceptions and experiences.

Definition : diversity is the description of other human characteristics that are different from their own or the groups that individual belongs to. Diversity issues are related to elements like age, physical appearance, sexual orientation, nationality, competency, culture, individual habits, training and education, job position, race and gender (Linda, 2006, p. 477). The bias is therefore recognizing and valuing these differences among individuals.

Diversity dimensions include factors like ethnicity physical qualities, race, age, education, income, religion and work experience among others previously mentioned. This therefore means the workplace diversity is a concern of the people and its focuses on the similarities or differences that various people bring to the organization in question (Linda, 2006, p. 477).

It can be broadly defined to include principle of affirmative action, equal opportunity job conditions. Dimensions that influence perspectives at work like education, marital status or professional experiences are also included in description of diversity (Linda, 2006, p. 479).

As diversity concept is regarded as including everyone, in many occasions diversity initiatives work to create workplaces that accommodate the various cultures at work. Diversity values concept bigger than just race or sex (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 81). This means it respects differences and the uniqueness of each person.

The relationship between diversity and workplace can be described in concepts of affirmative action and equal change employment for everyone (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 81). However it’s critical to understand that diversity is bigger than affirmative action and equality as traverses through to the work environment other than the employment practices.

Education employers and the workers on diversity are critical as it curbs discriminatory practices at work and enhances inclusiveness. Evidence from other companies has indicated that better management of diversity can increase responsiveness to the diverse organization layout and the ability to cope with the changes coming up and also the creativity (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 81).

Perceptual Process: every individual has a different way of interpreting the environment and the people around. This is because they also act differently and react differently to the world as they seek to have their basic needs appreciated.

Their ideas of how people should behave or some process in an organization should be conducted is derived from the inner person as he/she responds to the environment (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 82). These thoughts have to be appreciated and even be included in decision making process considering that the products will be sold or at some point will interact with diverse populations.

The role of every individual in diversity concept is to embrace the different cultures among the workforce. Each person is therefore expected to accept and understand the concepts of managing diversity (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 83); recognize that diversity is an aspect of success from management; they should be self aware in terms of understanding prejudice, culture and biasness.

Individual should also be willing to challenge practices that are discriminatory or are barriers to certain groups of individuals. It’s natural to need a set of guidelines as an approach to how people should behave so that one can know exactly what should be done. Unfortunately, with so many dimensions of diversity, this kind of recipe is hard to find or follow. Different strategy and advice can succeed in one case but not in another context.

This is acknowledgement of the differences that people have and appreciating these differences is being precious. This way, good management practices are enhanced and discrimination is prevented (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 85). In management of diversity, polices, practices and mannerism of thought regarding culture are assessed as they have different impact on different groups. However, there has been a golden rule that you treat people the way you expect to be treated (Linda, 2006, p. 479).

On the other hand, it is also important to note that it is very difficult to say hallo to everyone at workplace or other such things. Individual perspective is very critical in this case (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 89). Though people could be sharing similar values like respect for others and equal appreciation, in diversity, this is shown by behaviour or various individuals.

Managing diversity hence concentrates on optimizing the ability of all employees so as to contribute to the objectives of the organization (Greene & Kirton, 2009, p. 57). In short, managing diversity is ensuring that all people are included and their differences acknowledged.

Diversity at workplace as a concept is inclusive of every employee and manager. In many ways, diversity is set to avoid discrimination of any sort. Diversity is a way of learning from others who have different characteristics and practises. This helps to build respect for everyone and dignity (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 86). Both employers and workers need to work efficiently in the diverse environments that the world present (Konrad et al, 2006, p. 78).

Good management in diversity can help in building an organization’s tenacity to deal with change, respond to cultural differences and meet the expectations of their clients. Workplace principles like diversity are critical to success of an organization and its assists in creating stronger relationships between organization and the communities, increase the workers contribution to the company and enhance quality of their products (Linda, 2006, p. 479).

Greene, A & Kirton, G. 2009. Diversity Management in the UK – Organizational and Stakeholder Experiences. Abingdon: Routledge

Konrad, A., Prasad, P., & Pringle, J. 2006. Handbook of workplace diversity; London, SAGE Publishers

Linda, B.B. 2006. “Understanding and Managing Diversity: Readings, Cases, and Exercises, third edition”, Equal Opportunities International , Vol. 25 Issue: 6, pp. 476 – 479

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• Affirmative Action: Advantages and Controversy
• Affirmative Actions: Reasons for Implementation
• Critique of ADA and Affirmative Action
• Affirmative Action and Racial Segregation
• Affirmative Action in America
• The Affirmative Action Policies
• The Ban on Affirmative Action: Is History Repeating Itself?
• Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination
• Arguments for and against Affirmative action
• Affirmative Action in Judicial Selection
• Human Resources: Knowledge of Relevant Legislation
• Interviews, Questionnaires and Observations
• Succession Planning and Workforce Plan Evaluation
• Team Activity and Principles of Team Management
• Recruitment and Selection Report Example

5. Perceiving Others

Individual differences in person perception, learning objectives.

• Outline some important individual differences factors that influence people’s causal attributions.
• Explain the ways that attributions can influence mental health and the ways that mental health can affect attributions.
• Explore how and why people engage in self-handicapping attributions and behaviors.

To this point, we have focused on how the appearance, behaviors, and traits of the people we encounter influence our understanding of them. It makes sense that this would be our focus because of the emphasis within social psychology on the social situation—in this case, the people we are judging. But the person is also important, so let’s consider some of the person variables that influence how we judge other people.

Perceiver Characteristics

So far, we have assumed that different perceivers will all form pretty much the same impression of the same person. For instance, if two people are both thinking about their mutual friend Janetta, or describing her to someone else, they should each think about or describe her in pretty much the same way. After all, Janetta is Janetta, and she should have a personality that they can both see. But this is not always the case; they may form different impressions of Janetta for a variety of reasons. For one, the two people’s experiences with Janetta may be somewhat different. If one sees her in different places and talks to her about different things than the other, then they will each have a different sample of behavior on which to base their impressions.

But they might even form different impressions of Janetta if they see her performing exactly the same behavior. To every experience, each of us brings our own schemas, attitudes, and expectations. In fact, the process of interpretation guarantees that we will not all form exactly the same impression of the people that we see. This, of course, reflects a basic principle that we have discussed throughout this book—our prior experiences color our current perceptions.

One factor that influences how we perceive others is the current cognitive accessibility of a given person characteristic—that is, the extent to which a person characteristic quickly and easily comes to mind for the perceiver. Differences in accessibility will lead different people to attend to different aspects of the other person. Some people first notice how attractive someone is because they care a lot about physical appearance—for them, appearance is a highly accessible characteristic. Others pay more attention to a person’s race or religion, and still others attend to a person’s height or weight. If you are interested in style and fashion, you would probably first notice a person’s clothes, whereas another person might be more likely to notice a person’s athletic skills.

You can see that these differences in accessibility will influence the kinds of impressions that we form about others because they influence what we focus on and how we think about them. In fact, when people are asked to describe others, there is often more overlap in the descriptions provided by the same perceiver about different people than there is in those provided by different perceivers about the same target person (Dornbusch, Hastorf, Richardson, Muzzy, & Vreeland, 1965; Park, 1986). If someone cares a lot about fashion, that person will describe friends on that dimension, whereas if someone else cares about athletic skills, he or she will tend to describe friends on the basis of those qualities. These differences reflect the emphasis that we as observers place on the characteristics of others rather than the real differences between those people. Our view of others may sometimes be more informative about us than it is about them.

People also differ in terms of how carefully they process information about others. Some people have a strong need to think about and understand others. I’m sure you know people like this—they want to know why something went wrong or right, or just to know more about anyone with whom they interact. Need for cognition refers to the tendency to think carefully and fully about our experiences,  including the social situations we encounter (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). People with a strong need for cognition tend to process information more thoughtfully and therefore may make more causal attributions overall. In contrast, people without a strong need for cognition tend to be more impulsive and impatient and may make attributions more quickly and spontaneously (Sargent, 2004). In terms of attributional differences, there is some evidence that people higher in need for cognition may take more situational factors into account when considering the behaviors of others. Consequently, they tend to make more tolerant rather than punitive attributions about people in stigmatized groups (Van Hiel, Pandelaere, & Duriez, 2004).

Although the need for cognition refers to a tendency to think carefully and fully about any topic, there are also individual differences in the tendency to be interested in people more specifically. For instance, Fletcher, Danilovics, Fernandez, Peterson, and Reeder (1986) found that psychology majors were more curious about people than were natural science majors. In turn, the types of attributions they tend to make about behavior may be different.

Individual differences exist not only in the depth of our attributions but also in the types of attributions we tend to make about both ourselves and others (Plaks, Levy, & Dweck, 2009). Some people are entity theorists who  tend to believe that people’s traits are fundamentally stable and incapable of change . Entity theorists tend to focus on the traits of other people and tend to make a lot of personal attributions. On the other hand, incremental theorists are those who believe that personalities change a lot over time and who therefore are more likely to make situational attributions for events . Incremental theorists are more focused on the dynamic psychological processes that arise from individuals’ changing mental states in different situations.

In one relevant study, Molden, Plaks, and Dweck (2006) found that when forced to make judgments quickly, people who had been classified as entity theorists were nevertheless still able to make personal attributions about others but were not able to easily encode the situational causes of a behavior. On the other hand, when forced to make judgments quickly, the people who were classified as incremental theorists were better able to make use of the situational aspects of the scene than the personalities of the actors.

Individual differences in attributional styles can also influence our own behavior. Entity theorists are more likely to have difficulty when they move on to new tasks because they don’t think that they will be able to adapt to the new challenges. Incremental theorists, on the other hand, are more optimistic and do better in such challenging environments because they believe that their personality can adapt to the new situation. You can see that these differences in how people make attributions can help us understand both how we think about ourselves and others and how we respond to our own social contexts (Malle, Knobe, O’Laughlin, Pearce, & Nelson, 2000).

Research Focus

How Our Attributions Can Influence Our School Performance

Carol Dweck and her colleagues (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007) tested whether the type of attributions students make about their own characteristics might influence their school performance. They assessed the attributional tendencies and the math performance of 373 junior high school students at a public school in New York City. When they first entered seventh grade, the students all completed a measure of attributional styles. Those who tended to agree with statements such as “You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you really can’t do much to change it” were classified as entity theorists , whereas those who agreed more with statements such as “You can always greatly change how intelligent you are” were classified as incremental theorists . Then the researchers measured the students’ math grades at the end of the fall and spring terms in seventh and eighth grades.

As you can see in the following figure, the researchers found that the students who were classified as incremental theorists improved their math scores significantly more than did the entity students. It seems that the incremental theorists really believed that they could improve their skills and were then actually able to do it. These findings confirm that how we think about traits can have a substantial impact on our own behavior.

Figure 5.10 Students who believed that their intelligence was more malleable (incremental styles) were more likely to improve their math skills than were students who believed that intelligence was difficult to change (entity styles). Data are from Blackwell et al. (2007). Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), 246–263.

Attributional Styles and Mental Health

As we have seen in this chapter, how we make attributions about other people has a big influence on our reactions to them. But we also make attributions for our own behaviors. Social psychologists have discovered that there are important individual differences in the attributions that people make to the negative events that they experience and that these attributions can have a big influence on how they feel about and respond to them. The same negative event can create anxiety and depression in one individual but have virtually no effect on someone else. And still another person may see the negative event as a challenge and try even harder to overcome the difficulty (Blascovich & Mendes, 2000).

A major determinant of how we react to perceived threats is the type of attribution that we make to them. Attributional style refers to the type of attributions that we tend to make for the events that occur to us . These attributions can be to our own characteristics ( internal ) or to the situation ( external ), but attributions can also be made on other dimensions, including stable versus unstable , and global versus specific . Stable attributions are those that we think will be relatively permanent , whereas unstable attributions are expected to change over time . Global attributions are those that we feel apply broadly , whereas specific attributions are those causes that we see as more unique to particular events .

You may know some people who tend to make negative or pessimistic attributions to negative events that they experience. We say that these people have a negative attributional style . This is the tendency to explain negative events by referring to their own internal, stable, and global qualities . People with a negative attributional style say things such as the following:

• “I failed because I am no good” ( an internal attribution ).
• “I always fail” ( a stable attribution ).
• “I fail in everything” ( a global attribution ).

You might well imagine that the result of these negative attributional styles is a sense of hopelessness and despair (Metalsky, Joiner, Hardin, & Abramson, 1993). Indeed, Alloy, Abramson, and Francis (1999) found that college students who indicated that they had negative attributional styles when they first came to college were more likely than those who had a more positive style to experience an episode of depression within the next few months.

People who have   an extremely negative attributional style, in which they continually make external, stable, and global attributions for their behavior , are said to be experiencing learned helplessness  (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; Seligman, 1975). Learned helplessness was first demonstrated in research that found that some dogs that were strapped into a harness and exposed to painful electric shocks became passive and gave up trying to escape from the shock, even in new situations in which the harness had been removed and escape was therefore possible. Similarly, some people who were exposed to bursts of noise later failed to stop the noise when they were actually able to do so. Those who experience learned helplessness do not feel that they have any control over their own outcomes and are more likely to have a variety of negative health outcomes, including anxiety and depression (Henry, 2005; Peterson & Seligman, 1984).

Most people tend to have a more positive attributional style  — ways of explaining events that are related to high self-esteem and a tendency to explain the negative events they experience by referring to external, unstable, and specific qualities . Thus people with a positive attributional style are likely to say things such as the following:

• “I failed because the task is very difficult” ( an external attribution ).
• “I will do better next time” ( an unstable attribution ).
• “I failed in this domain, but I’m good in other things” ( a specific attribution ).

In sum, we can say that people who make more positive attributions toward the negative events that they experience will persist longer at tasks and that this persistence can help them. These attributions can also contribute to everything from academic success (Boyer, 2006) to better mental health (Vines & Nixon, 2009). There are limits to the effectiveness of these strategies, however. We cannot control everything, and trying to do so can be stressful. We can change some things but not others; thus sometimes the important thing is to know when it’s better to give up, stop worrying, and just let things happen. Having a positive, mildly optimistic outlook is healthy, as we explored in Chapter 2, but we cannot be unrealistic about what we can and cannot do.  Unrealistic optimism  is the  tendency to be overly positive about the likelihood that negative things will occur to us and that we will be able to effectively cope with them if they do . When we are too optimistic, we may set ourselves up for failure and depression when things do not work out as we had hoped (Weinstein & Klein, 1996). We may think that we are immune to the potential negative outcomes of driving while intoxicated or practicing unsafe sex, but these optimistic beliefs can be risky.

The findings here linking attributional style to mental health lead to the interesting prediction that people’s well-being could be improved by moving from a negative to a (mildly) positive or optimistic attributional style. Attributional retraining interventions have been developed based on this idea. These types of psychotherapy have indeed been shown to assist people in developing a more positive attributional style and have met with some success in alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorders (Wang, Zhang, Y., Zhang, N., & Zhang, J., 2011). Dysfunctional attributions can also be at the heart of relationship difficulties, including abuse, where partners consistently make negative attributions about each other’s behaviors. Again, retraining couples to make more balanced attributions about each other can be useful, helping to promote more positive communication patterns and to increase relationship satisfaction (Hrapczynski, Epstein, Werlinich, LaTaillade, 2012).

Attributions also play an important part in the quality of the working relationships between clients and therapists in mental health settings. If a client and therapist both make similar attributions about the causes of the client’s challenges, this can help to promote mutual understanding, empathy, and respect (Duncan & Moynihan, 1994). Also, clients generally rate their therapists as more credible when their attributions are more similar to their own (Atkinson, Worthington, Dana, & Good, 1991). In turn, therapists tend to report being able to work more positively with clients who make similar attributions to them (O’Brien & Murdock, 1993).

As well as developing a more positive attributional style, another technique that people sometimes use here to help them feel better about themselves is known as self-handicapping . Self-handicapping occurs when we make statements or engage in behaviors that help us create a convenient external attribution for potential failure . There are two main ways that we can self-handicap. One is to engage in a form of preemptive self-serving attributional bias, where we claim an external factor that may reduce our performance, ahead of time, which we can use if things go badly. For example, in a job interview or before giving a presentation at work, Veronica might say she is not feeling well and ask the audience not to expect too much from her because of this.

Another method of self-handicapping is to behave in ways that make success less likely, which can be an effective way of coping with failure, particularly in circumstances where we feel the task may ordinarily be too difficult. For instance, in research by Berglas and Jones (1978), participants first performed an intelligence test on which they did very well. It was then explained to them that the researchers were testing the effects of different drugs on performance and that they would be asked to take a similar but potentially more difficult intelligence test while they were under the influence of one of two different drugs.

The participants were then given a choice—they could take a pill that was supposed to facilitate performance on the intelligence task (making it easier for them to perform) or a pill that was supposed to inhibit performance on the intelligence task, thereby making the task harder to perform (no drugs were actually administered). Berglas found that men—but not women—engaged in self-handicapping: they preferred to take the performance-inhibiting rather than the performance-enhancing drug, choosing the drug that provided a convenient external attribution for potential failure. Although women may also self-handicap, particularly by indicating that they are unable to perform well due to stress or time constraints (Hirt, Deppe, & Gordon, 1991), men seem to do it more frequently. This finding is consistent with the general gender differences we have talked about in many places in this book: on average, men are more concerned than women about using this type of self-enhancement to boost their self-esteem and social status in the eyes of themselves and others.

You can see that there are some benefits (but also, of course, some costs) of self-handicapping. If we fail after we self-handicap, we simply blame the failure on the external factor. But if we succeed despite the handicap that we have created for ourselves, we can make clear internal attributions for our success. “Look at how well I did in my presentation at work, even though I wasn’t feeling well!”

Engaging in behaviors that create self-handicapping can be costly because doing so makes it harder for us to succeed. In fact, research has found that people who report that they self-handicap regularly show lower life satisfaction, less competence, poorer moods, less interest in their jobs, and greater substance abuse (Zuckerman & Tsai, 2005). Meta-analytic evidence shows that increased self-handicapping also relates to more negative academic outcomes (Schwinger, Wirthwein, Lemmer, & Steinmayr, 2014). Although self-handicapping would seem to be useful for insulating our feelings from failure, it is not a good tack to take in the long run.

Fortunately, most people have a reasonable balance between optimism and realism in the attributions that they make (Taylor & Armor, 1996) and do not often rely on self-handicapping. They also tend to set goals that they believe they can attain, and to regularly make some progress toward reaching them. Research has found that setting reasonable goals and feeling that we are moving toward them makes us happy, even if we may not in fact attain the goals themselves (Lawrence, Carver, & Scheier, 2002). As the saying goes, being on the journey is often more important than reaching the destination.

Key Takeaways

• Because we each use our own expectations in judgment, people may form different impressions of the same person performing the same behavior.
• Individual differences in the cognitive accessibility of a given personal characteristic may lead to more overlap in the descriptions provided by the same perceiver about different people than there is in those provided by different perceivers about the same target person.
• People with a strong need for cognition make more causal attributions overall. Entity theorists tend to focus on the traits of other people and tend to make a lot of personal attributions, whereas incremental theorists tend to believe that personalities change a lot over time and therefore are more likely to make situational attributions for events.
• Individual differences in attributional styles can influence how we respond to the negative events that we experience.
• People who have extremely negative attributional styles, in which they continually make external, stable, and global attributions for their behavior, are said to be experiencing learned helplessness.
• Self-handicapping is an attributional technique that prevents us from making ability attributions for our own failures.
• Having a positive outlook is healthy, but it must be tempered. We cannot be unrealistic about what we can and cannot do.

Exercises and Critical Thinking

• Think of a time when your own expectations influenced your attributions about another person. What type of expectations did you have and what type of attributions did you end up making? In hindsight, how accurate do you think that these attributions were?
• Which constructs are more cognitively accessible for you? How do these constructs influence the types of attributions that you make about other people?
• Consider a time when you or someone you knew engaged in self-handicapping. Why do you think that they did this? What was the outcome of doing so?
• Do you think that you have a more positive or a more negative attributional style? How do you think this style influences your judgments about your own successes and failures? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages for you of your attributional style?

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Park, B. (1986). A method for studying the development of impressions of real people.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51 (5), 907–917.

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1984). Causal explanations as a risk factor for depression: Theory and evidence.  Psychological Review, 91,  347–374.

Plaks, J. E., Levy, S. R., & Dweck, C. S. (2009). Lay theories of personality: Cornerstones of meaning in social cognition.  Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3 (6), 1069–1081. doi: 10.1111/j.1751–9004.2009.00222.x

Sargent, M. (2004). Less thought, more punishment: Need for cognition predicts support for punitive responses to crime.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30 (11), 1485–1493. doi: 10.1177/0146167204264481

Schwinger, M., Wirthwein, L., Lemmer, G., & Steinmayr, R. (2014). Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Journal Of Educational Psychology , doi:10.1037/a0035832

Seligman, M. E. (1975).  Helplessness: On depression, development, and death . San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman.

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4.1: Introduction to Comparison and Contrast Essay

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The key to a good compare-and-contrast essay is to choose two or more subjects that connect in a meaningful way. Comparison and contrast is simply telling how two things are alike or different. The compare-and-contrast essay starts with a thesis that clearly states the two subjects that are to be compared, contrasted, or both. The thesis should focus on comparing, contrasting, or both.

Key Elements of the Compare and Contrast:

• A compare-and-contrast essay analyzes two subjects by either comparing them, contrasting them, or both.
• The purpose of writing a comparison or contrast essay is not to state the obvious but rather to illuminate subtle differences or unexpected similarities between two subjects.
• The thesis should clearly state the subjects that are to be compared, contrasted, or both, and it should state what is to be learned from doing so.
• Organize by the subjects themselves, one then the other.
• Organize by individual points, in which you discuss each subject in relation to each point.
• Use phrases of comparison or phrases of contrast to signal to readers how exactly the two subjects are being analyzed.

Objectives: By the end of this unit, you will be able to

• Identify compare & contrast relationships in model essays
• Construct clearly formulated thesis statements that show compare & contrast relationships
• Use pre-writing techniques to brainstorm and organize ideas showing a comparison and/or contrast
• Construct an outline for a five-paragraph compare & contrast essay
• Write a five-paragraph compare & contrast essay
• Use a variety of vocabulary and language structures that express compare & contrast essay relationships

Example Thesis: Organic vegetables may cost more than those that are conventionally grown, but when put to the test, they are definitely worth every extra penny.

Sample Paragraph:

Organic grown tomatoes purchased at the farmers’ market are very different from tomatoes that are grown conventionally. To begin with, although tomatoes from both sources will mostly be red, the tomatoes at the farmers’ market are a brighter red than those at a grocery store. That doesn’t mean they are shinier—in fact, grocery store tomatoes are often shinier since they have been waxed. You are likely to see great size variation in tomatoes at the farmers’ market, with tomatoes ranging from only a couple of inches across to eight inches across. By contrast, the tomatoes in a grocery store will be fairly uniform in size. All the visual differences are interesting, but the most important difference is the taste. The farmers’ market tomatoes will be bursting with flavor from ripening on the vine in their own time. However, the grocery store tomatoes are often close to being flavorless. In conclusion, the differences in organic and conventionally grown tomatoes are obvious in color, size and taste.

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• Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks

Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .

As you read, hover over the highlighted parts to learn what they do and why they work.

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Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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Posted on 13th October 2017

Writing a Three-Paragraph Essay

By Elise Barbeau

Sally Baggett holds a master’s in literature. She enjoys inspiring students, cooking with her family, and helping others achieve their dreams.

Just like there is more than one way to skin a cat (or so they say), there is more than one way to write an essay. One is not required to produce a perfectly formatted five-paragraph essay every time one composes a piece of writing. There is another type of essay you can write that may just be simpler than the traditional style: the three-paragraph essay. This type of essay might be beneficial for beginning writers as it offers the organizational structure of a longer essay without requiring the length. It also offers a challenge to more advanced writers to condense their points.

The Parts of the Essay and Its Benefits

As with most essays, the three-paragraph essay has three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Yet with this type of essay–unlike its five-paragraph counterpart–each one of these sections has only one paragraph. The three-paragraph essay, therefore, might be ideal for young writers or those who are currently mastering the English language.

Another benefit to the three-paragraph essay could be that it requires you to condense your supporting points into just one, which can be a good exercise. If you had to choose only one point to convince a reader to agree with you, what would it be?

After performing some light prewriting, such as brainstorming or writing an outline, students can move right into composing the essay. While this process is similar across the board for writing academic papers, the three-paragraph essay is unique in that the body will take up less space in the finished product.

An outline for this essay might look like this :

• Background Points
• Thesis Statement
• Supporting fact 1
• Supporting fact 2
• Transition Sentence
• Re-statement of Thesis
• Summary of Main Point
• Challenge to the Reader

Paragraph One: Introduction

As with most formal essays, the three-paragraph essay begins with an introduction paragraph. Such paragraphs must, obviously, introduce the reader to your idea and, in most cases, convince the reader that this essay is worth reading. To craft a strong introduction, be sure to open with a solid hook. You want to draw in readers so they are compelled to engage with your writing.

A hook can be something compelling such as a question, a powerful quote, or an interesting fact. Introduction paragraphs also usually contain background information that assists the reader in understanding your topic, perhaps defining it or explaining an important part. Finally, you want to include a thesis statement. Even though your essay only has three paragraphs, there still needs to be a purpose to the writing.

You could structure your introduction paragraph according to this outline :

• Hook: Is there no solution for dumping waste in the ocean?
• Explain why trash is dumped in the ocean
• Statistics about dumping trash in the ocean
• Thesis Statement: Dumping waste in the ocean is a problem because it spells disaster for the ecosystem, leading to problems on land.

This structure is not mandatory, though it might be useful in the long run for organizing your thoughts.

Paragraph Two: Body

The second paragraph, as we have discussed, is the one and only body paragraph. This paragraph bears the burden of communicating support for the thesis statement all on its own. As such, it may take more than one rough draft to get this paragraph to communicate everything you want it to.

Your body paragraph needs to underscore the thesis statement. Create a topic sentence for this body paragraph that communicates this and also transitions from the introduction into the body. For example, your body paragraph topic sentence based on the outline above could be:

One of those problems might play itself out as food scarcity where humans live.

This topic sentence reiterates the thesis and moves the reader into a body paragraph that contains a supporting point: that damage to the ocean’s ecosystem could lead to food scarcity. Within the body paragraph, you can quote different sources that support this point.

Again, this paragraph does not have room to contain everything that a full five-paragraph essay might. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fit in some strong evidence to convince your reader to see your perspective, such as is accomplished through quotes and analysis. Don’t forget to end with a strong transition sentence to move the reader seamlessly into the conclusion.

Paragraph Three: Conclusion

The final paragraph in an essay is usually the conclusion. The three-paragraph essay is no exception. In this essay, the conclusion can be just as long as the other two paragraphs, and it can drive home the point made in the thesis statement and body paragraph. As with most conclusion paragraphs, this paragraph ought to restate the thesis in different words. It should then summarize what was stated in the body paragraph before challenging the reader in some way, whether in thought or action.

Editing Before Turning It In

One thing to be sure of in this type of essay (as in any other) is to polish it. Make it flow well. In other words, revise it!

Before beginning the revision process, take a break from your writing so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. Once you start revising, hunt not only for grammar and punctuation errors but for ways to make the writing flow better. Take a look at the sentences at the beginning and end of each paragraph. Do these sentences contain transition words? Do these paragraphs link to each other? Transition words or phrases like “Likewise,” “In spite of,” or “In addition to” can ensure that your paragraphs are coherent. There are also other services that will automatically proofread you paper.

If you used any sources (i.e. websites, books, videos, etc.) to help support your points and write your paper, you need to cite them! Most teachers will ask you to create a bibliography in MLA format . Others may have you one in APA format , or create references in Chicago style. Ask your teacher for guidance on what citation style they prefer.

Final Thoughts

Don’t forget that you aren’t limited to using this type of essay for just persuasion. You can also use it to relate a narrative tale, using the three parts as the beginning, middle, and end of a story. You can use this to craft an informative essay. See if other types of essays–such as a process analysis or an evaluation–will fit inside the three-paragraph essay format.

In many ways, the three-paragraph essay is similar to the five-paragraph essay. They both make a solid point using an introduction, body, and conclusion. This simpler essay only requires that you condense your points into one body paragraph, perhaps only one supporting point, before reaching a conclusion. Again, this can make a good exercise for beginning English writers, but can also make a challenge for a more advanced writer to select their strongest supporting points.

Individual Differences

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Learner characteristics ; Personal attributes ; Student traits

Individual differences can be defined as personal characteristics that distinguish learners from each other in the teaching and learning processes. Learners are unique individuals who bring a critical set of variables to each learning situation, including delicate traits as indicators of their potential and the history of achievement as signs of previous accomplishments and predictors of future performance.

Theoretical Background

There are a number of individual differences that affect performance and attitudes of learners during teaching and learning. The most common differences of learners are gender, age, intelligence, ability, interest, prior knowledge, learning style, motivation, locus of control, self-efficacy, and epistemological beliefs (Kuzgun and Deryakulu 2004 ).

Gender is not only about biological sex of learners. It is more of social perceptions, attributions, sensitivities, and treatments of one’s sex in a certain cultural context. In educational practice, it is about differences between male and female learners that affect their achievement, interaction, motivation, and attitudes in the teaching and learning process. It also includes how educators treat learners differently during instruction due to their genders.

Age creates certain psychological needs in a particular age-group. Children have different developmental characteristics than youngsters and adults. Instruction should meet desires, expectations, and wishes of learners in whatever the age-group they represent. When this is done properly and adequately, learners will be satisfied; if not, however, they will not enjoy their learning experiences and experience boredom.

Intelligence is usually considered the mental power of learning that reflects the sharpness of sensing, reasoning, and comprehending. Intelligence may affect both pace and amount of learning in a particular domain. In the past, intelligence used to be discussed as a general aptitude. In recent years, the concept of multiple intelligences has been popular among educators. The difference between these two orientations is that the understanding of general intelligence assumes that each learner has a different level of intelligence and this has an impact on his/her learning of a domain. The concept of multiple intelligences, on the other hand, assumes that the learner may be intelligent in more than one domain so that instruction should support him/her in as many domains as possible. Multiple intelligences are listed as linguistic (words), mathematical (numbers), spatial (pictures), kinesthetic (body), musical (rhythm), interpersonal (people), intrapersonal (self), and naturalist (nature).

Ability is the capability that is necessary for success on a similar group of tasks. It is often confused with the concept of intelligence. Ability is usually considered the functional part of intelligence developed through education. Two types of theoretical orientations in terms of ability have been offered as counter views. The orientation of general ability claims that there is a single type of ability which permits or limits one’s learning in all domains. The orientation of specific abilities, in contrast, posits that each learner is able to learn faster and better in certain domains (e.g., verbal learning), whereas another learner may be more capable in other domains (e.g., spatial learning). Thus, each learner should be provided with more appropriate opportunities in the areas where he/she has better aptitude.

Interest can be defined as continued attention and natural tendency toward an object, situation, task, or activity. In other words, it is internal and spontaneous orientation toward something that the individual observes, pays attention, thinks about, and enjoys without any external stimuli. Interest is usually accompanied with pleasure, perseverance, and even dedication. Learners may have a variety of interests such as interests of science, engineering, communication, social service, literature, music, arts, history, foreign languages, sports, etc. It is better to accommodate these interests in order to support effective and appealing learning. For example, a learner who has difficulty in acquiring new vocabulary, may demonstrate great progress if he/she is given an opportunity to learn the names of animals or plants that he/she likes.

Prior knowledge : What do learners know about a particular topic before instruction begins. Learning usually occurs when links are established between prior knowledge and the new material. Therefore, the type and amount of prior knowledge of each learner should be assessed and taken into consideration before beginning to present new material. It is important to note that prior knowledge covers not only information but also perceptions, attitudes, and experiences about a new topic. Furthermore, prior knowledge may be incomplete, mistaken, obsolete, or irrelevant so that they should be corrected or updated before the actual instruction.

Learning style is a natural way of perceiving, interpreting, and evaluating the external stimuli. It is not a preferred way of learning because learning style is, to a great extent, an inherent characteristic. Of course, the environment may affect the formation of learning styles in the process of socialization, education, and enculturation. However, the learner cannot decide, select or control his/her learning style because it is almost automatic. There are different classifications of learning styles. The most common of them are: field dependent/field independent, accommodator/diverger/converger/assimilator, sharpener/leveler, and impulsive/reflector. Each instructional situation has learners with different styles so that instruction should be provided in such a way that everyone benefits from it.

Personality can be defined as organization of one’s cognitive, affective, and physical characteristics that help him/her adjust to the environment in a unique way. Types of personality describe behavioral models and/or patterns of individuals. Introverted learners are usually busy with themselves and not very open to other people. In contrast, extraverted learners are open toward others and enjoy being with them. Similarly, introverted learners prefer to read from books and work alone, whereas extraverted learners would like to watch films and collaborate with other learners.

Motivation is affective power and effort toward accomplishing a task. The source of motivation can either be internal or external. Internal motivation exists when the learner tries to learn something for its own good. External motivation is often generated with external motives and incentives. Some learners find intrinsic value in learning new information so they demonstrate natural efforts without any expectation, while others expect encouragement and reinforcement to learn, thus the most common tools of external motivation are rewards.

Locus of control is about where the learner attributes his/her success and failures. Learners with internal locus of control attribute both success and failure to the self-related factors, while learners with external locus of control attribute success to themselves but failure to outside variables. In other words, those who have internal locus of control take personal responsibility about what they do or what happens to them, whereas learners with external locus of control usually complain about or blame other people, bad luck, unfairness, or inappropriate conditions as causes of events surrounding them.

Self-efficacy is the term that describes perceived beliefs about one’s own capability of achieving a task or being successful in a particular area. Individual perceptions of a learner in terms of his/her chance for success differ from domain to domain. For example, a learner may believe that he/she is incompetent in mathematics but highly proficient in a foreign language. The implication is that he/she will try to do his/her best in the foreign language course but give up in mathematics. The reality may not prove his/her perception to be true so that, through education, each learner should be supported to develop an accurate self-efficacy.

Epistemological beliefs indicate personal thoughts of a learner about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowledge acquisition. Some learners may think that knowledge is simple and stable, while other learners may think that knowledge is complicated and variable. The learner who believes that knowledge is relatively stable in nature thinks that the truth is explained in available resources so that you go and get it. On the other hand, the learner who believes that knowledge constantly changes thinks that one should reach alternative sources of information in order to develop multiple perspectives on reality. Of course, these beliefs also affect the learner’s amount of mental investment in learning.

Important Scientific Research and Open Questions

Although individual differences have long been an important issue in education, the current body of research is not strong enough to reach generalizations. There is no single study addressing all individual differences in education. Each study usually focuses on certain aspects of individual differences so that the results can only be interpreted within their own contexts. Generally speaking, however, the existing research implies that educational practices should be designed and conducted in such a way that individual differences should be accommodated in order to support the self-actualization process of learners (Buss and Greiling 1999 ).

The research has also demonstrated that learners differ to a great degree on each individual difference. There are various subcategories, known as types, within each individual difference. In other words, learners do not differ only in terms of individual differences such as aptitude, learning style, self-efficacy, etc., but also within each individual difference.

No subcategory of an individual difference is better than others. The learners are simply different rather than better or worse compared to each other. Assessment of some individual differences scores the performance of learners on a predetermined scale; however, this doesn’t mean that the position of learners receiving high scores is more acceptable than the position of others. It is simply used for determining to which subcategory each learner belongs to. Then, characteristics of relevant subcategory are attributed to or assumed to exist in all learners who fall in the same category (Maltby et al. 2007 ).

Individual differences are qualitative in nature. It means that it doesn’t make much sense to talk about the amount or level of a particular individual difference. Learners are either in one subcategory or in another, rather than being in one subcategory to a certain degree and in another to a different degree. Each learner is assigned to a different subcategory based on the results of assessment. For example, as far as learning style is concerned, an individual is categorized either as field dependent or field independent. We don’t say that this individual is 25% field dependent and 75% field independent.

The assessment of individual differences employs one of the two approaches. An individual difference is measured either based on self-report or actual performance. Some measurement techniques ask learners how they perceive, feel, think, learn, or act. Then, they report their own situations to their best knowledge. The second group of measurement techniques, however, tries to assess individual performance of each learner on a test-like situation. Either group of techniques has its strengths and weaknesses so that appropriate ways of determining individual differences depend on purposes of assessment and possible uses of results.

Some of the individual differences are still treated as psychological constructs, not much of an educational variable. Theories and studies in psychology describe characteristics of individual differences. However, the evidence presented in terms of how these differences should be taken into account in teaching and learning processes is not addressed sufficiently. Thus, instructional theories should clarify implications of individual differences for teaching and learning so that more practical approaches should be developed.

Cross-References

Abilities to Learn: Cognitive Abilities

Abnormal Avoidance Learning

Interests and Learning

Learning Style(s)

Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

Religiosity and Personality

Self-Efficacy and Learning

Buss, D. M., & Greiling, H. (1999). Adaptive individual differences. Journal of Personality, 67 , 209–243.

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Kuzgun, Y., & Deryakulu, D. (Eds.). (2004). Egitimde bireysel farkliliklar [Individual differences in education] . Ankara: Nobel.

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Maltby, J., Day, L., & Macaskill, A. (2007). Personality, individual differences and intelligence . London: Pearson Education.

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Institute of Communication Sciences, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

Prof. Ali Simsek

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Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Education, University of Freiburg, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

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Simsek, A. (2012). Individual Differences. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_370

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Comparing and Contrasting

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The professor says to compare and contrast A and B ...

Determining the Structure of your Essay:

Determining the structure of your essay is the most important step towards conducting and presenting to the reader a well-developed comparison. Students are often asked to compare things in twos. For example, compare these two articles, or two characters in a novel, or a film and a novel or an article and a poem... The possibilities are endless.

When you are faced with the task of having to compare and contrast, it can be overwhelming. You're thinking about two pieces of writing that you know are different, and perhaps there are some similarities, too, but how can you suddenly start talking about them both?  Which one should I talk about first? Which one should I talk about last?

Sometimes, comparisons are done in the following manner:

You pick one article to describe:  Article A.  Then you talk about  Article B.  Perhaps at the end, you talk about the similarities in both articles.

This format will consist of three main parts: A, B, and, finally, their similarities.

Although this format is an acceptable way of making comparisons, and it is sometimes used to present well-developed "compare and contrast" essays, the format has its weaknesses that can jeopardize an effective comparison.

What could happen when you use this format and you completely isolate  Article A  from  Article B  is that you make it more difficult to compare. Your final essay might end up divided in two parts: half of the paper talks about only  Article A  and the second half talks about only  Article B . You do not want to split your essay into a description of  Article A  and a description of  Article B  because then it will be harder to compare them since you invested most of your energy into describing them and not comparing them.

How to avoid the "Split Essay": A Second Option for Comparison

The best way to avoid the Split Essay is to unify both split ends. Do not discuss  Article B  at the end. Talk about  both A and B  from the beginning. The question now is:

What do I do to eliminate the Split?

Break it down:

You do not get rid of the gap between the two halves of the essay that are split. You simply  break it down . This is done by finding common themes, or points of comparison in  Article A and Article B.  Once you find those points of comparison, you can discuss each individual theme and how each shows up in  Article A and B . Consider the following questions:

• What major themes are discussed in each of the essays?
• What doe the writer of  Article A  say about the first theme, and how is this similar to or different than what the writer of  Article B  says about the same topic?
• What conclusions can you make about these differences or similarities?

After developing a thorough explanation of the first theme, you can mow move on to discuss the second theme that appears in both essays and write about it. Ideally, each theme will be discussed thoroughly in its own paragraph, explaining how each is similar or different in  Article A  and  Article B

During the seventies, Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote his most famous novel,  One Hundred Years of Solitude , in which he discussed themes regarding the solitude of Latin America.

In 1982, Marquez received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel and wrote a speech for this occasion. In his speech, he called attention to Latin American economic struggles and their historical context.

In 1990, Enrique Krauze, a Mexican economist, published an article in which he discussed the same topic: problems in Latin American economics.

The prompt says:

Compare and contrast Enrique Krauze's essay to the speech written by Marquez.

Possible approaches:

Option #1: Text by text comparison

First paragraph:

A: An explanation of Marquez's entire speech

Second paragraph:

B: An explanation of Krauze's entire essay

Third paragraph:

Similarities or differences

(this might lead to the "Split Essay" comparison)

Option #2: Point by point comparison

The breakdown: Finding common themes or points of comparison:

• Neoliberalism (free trade)

• US involvement

• Proposed solutions to the problems (macro or micro economy?)

A: Krauze's opinion on neoliberalism

B: Marquez's opinion on neoliberalism

A: US involvement good or bad? According to Marquez

B: US involvement good or bad? According to Krauze

Whatever other theme that stands out as significant for explaining the differences of opinions.

Sample paragraph:

          Enrique Krauze and Gabriel Garcia Marquez take different positions in regards to the implementation of more neoliberalist policies in Latin American countries. While Krauze argues the need to expand open trade in Latin America to improve its economy, Marquez opposes this idea and argues that an open trade economy would only aid foreign investors in further exploiting the natural resources in Latin America. Krauze's support of neoliberalism is based on the idea that through a macro economy, the "undeveloped" countries will soon see the light at the end of the tunnel. On the other hand, Marquez rebuts this argument, claiming that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which forced neoliberalist policies onto Latin American countries, only served to increase their foreign debt.

Notice how the beginning of this paragraph discusses only one theme: neoliberalism. Also notice how the writer was able to incorporate both articles and not just one. Pay attention, too, to the use of words and phrases that juxtapose or suggest comparison. These words establish links between  A  and  B .

Handout created by Rubén Garibaldo, Student Learning Center, University of California, Berkeley

©2006 UC Regents

Handout revised by Carolyn Swalina, Student Learning Center, University of California, Berkeley

©2011 UC Regents

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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10.7 Comparison and Contrast

Learning objectives.

• Determine the purpose and structure of comparison and contrast in writing.
• Explain organizational methods used when comparing and contrasting.
• Understand how to write a compare-and-contrast essay.

The Purpose of Comparison and Contrast in Writing

Comparison in writing discusses elements that are similar, while contrast in writing discusses elements that are different. A compare-and-contrast essay , then, analyzes two subjects by comparing them, contrasting them, or both.

The key to a good compare-and-contrast essay is to choose two or more subjects that connect in a meaningful way. The purpose of conducting the comparison or contrast is not to state the obvious but rather to illuminate subtle differences or unexpected similarities. For example, if you wanted to focus on contrasting two subjects you would not pick apples and oranges; rather, you might choose to compare and contrast two types of oranges or two types of apples to highlight subtle differences. For example, Red Delicious apples are sweet, while Granny Smiths are tart and acidic. Drawing distinctions between elements in a similar category will increase the audience’s understanding of that category, which is the purpose of the compare-and-contrast essay.

Similarly, to focus on comparison, choose two subjects that seem at first to be unrelated. For a comparison essay, you likely would not choose two apples or two oranges because they share so many of the same properties already. Rather, you might try to compare how apples and oranges are quite similar. The more divergent the two subjects initially seem, the more interesting a comparison essay will be.

Writing at Work

Comparing and contrasting is also an evaluative tool. In order to make accurate evaluations about a given topic, you must first know the critical points of similarity and difference. Comparing and contrasting is a primary tool for many workplace assessments. You have likely compared and contrasted yourself to other colleagues. Employee advancements, pay raises, hiring, and firing are typically conducted using comparison and contrast. Comparison and contrast could be used to evaluate companies, departments, or individuals.

Brainstorm an essay that leans toward contrast. Choose one of the following three categories. Pick two examples from each. Then come up with one similarity and three differences between the examples.

• Romantic comedies
• Internet search engines
• Cell phones

Brainstorm an essay that leans toward comparison. Choose one of the following three items. Then come up with one difference and three similarities.

• Department stores and discount retail stores
• Fast food chains and fine dining restaurants
• Dogs and cats

The Structure of a Comparison and Contrast Essay

The compare-and-contrast essay starts with a thesis that clearly states the two subjects that are to be compared, contrasted, or both and the reason for doing so. The thesis could lean more toward comparing, contrasting, or both. Remember, the point of comparing and contrasting is to provide useful knowledge to the reader. Take the following thesis as an example that leans more toward contrasting.

Thesis statement: Organic vegetables may cost more than those that are conventionally grown, but when put to the test, they are definitely worth every extra penny.

Here the thesis sets up the two subjects to be compared and contrasted (organic versus conventional vegetables), and it makes a claim about the results that might prove useful to the reader.

You may organize compare-and-contrast essays in one of the following two ways:

• According to the subjects themselves, discussing one then the other
• According to individual points, discussing each subject in relation to each point

See Figure 10.1 “Comparison and Contrast Diagram” , which diagrams the ways to organize our organic versus conventional vegetables thesis.

Figure 10.1 Comparison and Contrast Diagram

The organizational structure you choose depends on the nature of the topic, your purpose, and your audience.

Given that compare-and-contrast essays analyze the relationship between two subjects, it is helpful to have some phrases on hand that will cue the reader to such analysis. See Table 10.3 “Phrases of Comparison and Contrast” for examples.

Table 10.3 Phrases of Comparison and Contrast

Create an outline for each of the items you chose in Note 10.72 “Exercise 1” and Note 10.73 “Exercise 2” . Use the point-by-point organizing strategy for one of them, and use the subject organizing strategy for the other.

Writing a Comparison and Contrast Essay

First choose whether you want to compare seemingly disparate subjects, contrast seemingly similar subjects, or compare and contrast subjects. Once you have decided on a topic, introduce it with an engaging opening paragraph. Your thesis should come at the end of the introduction, and it should establish the subjects you will compare, contrast, or both as well as state what can be learned from doing so.

The body of the essay can be organized in one of two ways: by subject or by individual points. The organizing strategy that you choose will depend on, as always, your audience and your purpose. You may also consider your particular approach to the subjects as well as the nature of the subjects themselves; some subjects might better lend themselves to one structure or the other. Make sure to use comparison and contrast phrases to cue the reader to the ways in which you are analyzing the relationship between the subjects.

After you finish analyzing the subjects, write a conclusion that summarizes the main points of the essay and reinforces your thesis. See Chapter 15 “Readings: Examples of Essays” to read a sample compare-and-contrast essay.

Many business presentations are conducted using comparison and contrast. The organizing strategies—by subject or individual points—could also be used for organizing a presentation. Keep this in mind as a way of organizing your content the next time you or a colleague have to present something at work.

Choose one of the outlines you created in Note 10.75 “Exercise 3” , and write a full compare-and-contrast essay. Be sure to include an engaging introduction, a clear thesis, well-defined and detailed paragraphs, and a fitting conclusion that ties everything together.

Key Takeaways

• A compare-and-contrast essay analyzes two subjects by either comparing them, contrasting them, or both.
• The purpose of writing a comparison or contrast essay is not to state the obvious but rather to illuminate subtle differences or unexpected similarities between two subjects.
• The thesis should clearly state the subjects that are to be compared, contrasted, or both, and it should state what is to be learned from doing so.

There are two main organizing strategies for compare-and-contrast essays.

• Organize by the subjects themselves, one then the other.
• Organize by individual points, in which you discuss each subject in relation to each point.
• Use phrases of comparison or phrases of contrast to signal to readers how exactly the two subjects are being analyzed.

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