Comparing texts · Year 9

Comparing texts means reading two texts on the same subject and explaining how they are alike and how they are different: what the writers say, how they feel and the methods they use to get their ideas across.

Key facts

  • Start with what the texts are about and what each writer thinks: are their views the same, or opposite?
  • Compare the tone and attitude: one writer may be enthusiastic, another critical, worried or neutral. The words they choose show it.
  • Compare the purpose: is each text written to inform, to persuade, to describe, to complain or to share an experience?
  • Compare the methods: rhetorical questions, statistics, personal anecdotes, quotations, imagery and a list of three. Say what effect each one has.
  • Use comparing words: for similarities similarly, likewise, both; for differences however, whereas, in contrast, unlike. Support each point with a short quotation from each text.

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