Compare and Contrast Essay Topic (driving/flying or my sisters)

Hi,
I am supposed to write a compare and contrast essay on any topic that i choose.
I was going to either do driving vs. flying for family vacations, or comparing my two sisters, but i am having trouble getting started. Is there any advice you can give me?
Thanks,
Heather

I like the idea of Driving vs Flying Vacations. You travel with family, right? I would assume that driving is more lively vs flying is more getting-to-the-point. Which do you enjoy more? Why do you enjoy it more?

hi!
Yes I travel with my family, and we have done both, driving and flying. I personally enjoy driving more! My family is hilarious when you put four girls and a dad in a car for 16 hours there tends to be a lot of drama! haha and of course the occasional farting contests to make mom mad, or burping. haha! Although I do think flying is more convenient. I have never written a compare contrast before, and with this topic of flying vs. driving, I don't know if I can find enough information to write a whole paper on it.
Heather

How long does your paper have to be? It's on your own personal insight right? I think it has potential. What you just told me is already a good start for a funny anecdotal introduction. If you do this topic, you can pull a lot of information from your experiences. You can talk about how personal each are, talk about what you said, convenience.

What you just told CarrieC is perfect. I could see your sudden emotion about it, your joy in remembering.

That's perfect for an essay. All you really have to do is choose two or three of the best moments, tell them in all of their details, like little stories where you build them up and maybe spring a surprise on the reader, or build the tension until the reader just has to know what comes next.

You're really on the right track here. Try that and see if it works out.

My paper has no limit in words. I tried starting it earlier and this is what I have so far.


Laying in the backseat I start to smell something funny. "Really Dad did you just fart?" Laughing, all four of us girls roll down our window and breathe the "fresh" air in. In the back of our minds we all knew that this would never happen if we would have just taken a plane this year. Planes are faster, quieter, and more peaceful. They don't involve stopping to get food or go to the bathroom every two hours. You just get a drink, lay back and relax. But then again, in a car you get the family time. It's filled with laughter, screaming, crying, and even sometimes burping contests.

(this would be my introduction ^)

(and then i have to have like two paragraphs after that explaining the differences of the two and these are what i choose the first sentence to be, but i can't think of anything to go after them.)

When it comes to family time, driving long to our vacation getaway was the best way to go.




But then again, the plane ride on the way home was very peaceful.

I think you better not talk about planes in this paragrah. You can tell the whole story about this driving vacation in 2 paragraphs and tell another story about a plane vacation in the rest. It now seems like you already compared those 2 different type of vacations in only few sentences. I think you should do that in the conclusion.

Do not take my comment very serious coz I am not very good at writing essays. : )

Orlando, your advice is really good. This last comment isn't necessary at all. Please try to confine your remarks to just the paper and have some confidence in what you say.

my finall!! hope you like it
feel free to give me feedback!!


Lying in the backseat, I start to smell something funny. "Really Dad, did you just fart?" Laughing, all four of us girls rolled down our window and breathe the fresh air in. In the back of our minds we all knew that this wouldn't have happened if we would have just taken a plane this year. Planes are faster, quieter, and more peaceful. They don't involve stopping to get food or going to the bathroom every two hours. You just get a drink, lie back and relax. But then again, the car provides family time. It's filled with laughter, screaming, crying, and even sometimes burping contests.
When it comes to family time, driving a long distance to our vacation getaway was the best way to go. We rented a mini-van, and started our trip to Hilton Head Island. The beginning of the trip is where most of the fighting is done. My sisters will of course fight over watching High School Musical, or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and fight over listening to Britney Spears or Boys like Girls. My parents will be fighting in the front complaining that "you're driving too fast," or "drive faster!"
The fun experience of driving is that we never knew which towns we would stop in to stay at a hotel. We get the occasional "this town looks bad, we have to go to a nicer area" from my sister Amber. After arriving at that "nicer area" we would have to take the entire luggage off the top of the car. This is a tedious process. Dad would use all his strength to get four girl's worth of luggage down, even if we were just sleeping at the hotel for four hours. Why he didn't just leave it up there was beyond me. He just insisted on taking it down because he thought someone might steal it.
Another thing with driving is renting the hotel room. It costs so much money to get a room in which you will sleep and leave. My sisters always insisted on getting the biggest room possible. This for me didn't matter at all because somehow I was the one who was always shafted to the couch bed. My sisters say that I am the "most loved" but then why am I on the couch bed every night? But after everything that happens during the road trip, everyone in my family can admit that it was a blast. After the sixteen hour drive we arrived at the bridge which took us over to the island. Our faces lit up and the car was finally silent as we took in all the beauty around us.
As our trip came to an end, we decided to take a plane on the way back. Although we had such a blast driving, we decided to see how a plane ride would go. The plane ride on the way home was very peaceful, and had a beautiful view of the sky. We also arrived home faster without having to pay for extra food and hotel charges.
Riding in a plane offered us the convenience of modern day transportation. In this fast paced world planes allow us to reach our destinations less stressed, faster, and with more money in our pockets.
Planes are said to be more peaceful, but with our family there was still drama. There was the occasional complaining on the plane, like "I want to sit by the window," or "this food is disgusting." But who can complain really when you get waited on hand and foot by the flight attendant.
The main inconvenience with planes though is the waiting in between connecting flights. Not knowing if your flight number on the screen will have a big red DELAYED next to it. The other thing is getting through security. Like if you even have a nail filer nowadays they think you're a terrorist. There, is where most of the airport trip is spent. My dad is the one that would always get checked. He has a metal plate in his knee and he would always get beeped going through the detector. We would laugh as they have to strip him down because he might be the "terrorist" ... my dad couldn't hurt a fly.
Maybe when I grow older a car ride full of screaming kids wouldn't seem like the best idea, but right now I believe cars are the best way to travel on long trips. Even though we wanted to pull each other's hairs out, in the end we became a closer family, and driving was the best way to go.

Okay, the good news is that this is some excellent writing. However, some changes are necessary. This is like a narrative essay. You need to study this: rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/Com_Con.html

When you read all about how to set up a compare/contrast thesis statement, use one in that first paragraph.

Use a lot of this material, just not as a story. It is supposed to be a discussion of the 2 subjects! Sorry! More work is necessary, but be grateful you write well!