Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [73]
A corollary of the preceding principle is that you should focus on unexpected similarity rather than obvious difference. The fact that in the Bush presidency Republicans differed from Democrats on environmental policy was probably a less promising focal point than their surprising agreement on violating the so-called lockbox policy against tapping Social Security funds to finance government programs. Most readers would expect the political parties to differ on the environment, and a comparison of their positions could lead you to do little more than summarizing. But a surprising similarity, like an unexpected difference, necessarily raises questions for you to pursue: do the parties’ shared positions against the lockbox policy, for example, share the same motives?
Looking for Difference Within Similarity: An Example
Notice how in the following example, taken from an essay on George Orwell’s book on the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia:, Lauren Artiles notes differences among political parties that shared an essential position.
The forces that united against Franco in favor of the government were ragtag and unlikely; the resistance was made up of a slew of different factions of the political left, anarchists and socialists and communists all fighting together against the threat of a Fascist Spain. As Orwell said of the groups and their various acronyms, “It looked at first sight as though Spain was suffering from a plague of initials. I knew that I was serving in something called the P.O.U.M. but I did not realize that there were serious differences between the political parties. […] I thought it idiotic that people fighting for their lives should have separate political parties; my attitude always was, ‘Why can’t we drop all this political nonsense and get on with the war?’” (47). […]
The conflict between the P.O.U.M. and the rest of the Communist parties was that the P.O.U.M. was staunchly dissident; they were anti-Stalinist and criticized his Purge Trials of the late ‘30s, a huge issue considering that the Soviet Union’s support of the Spanish Communists’ efforts was deemed so crucial. In addition, unlike their counterparts in the P.S.U.C. or Socialist Party of Catalonia, they were very much supporters of the revolution and believed it was a necessary end to the war already underway. The Communists’ aim was to win the war and suppress the coming revolution, believing military efficiency to be superior to revolutionary chaos. These ideological differences, which seem so small to an outsider unfamiliar with party politics, led to the eventual persecution of the P.O.U.M. when the Communists seized power.
[…] The question of revolution or no revolution became the biggest issue within the resistance movement and the failure to reach a consensus combined with the vicious power struggle this resulted in weakened the left critically; the war was no longer about defeating the evil of Fascism, but about petty ideological differences between those who were united by that noble, all-consuming cause.
* * *
Try This 4.7: Looking for Significant Difference or Unexpected Similarity
Choose any item from the list. After you’ve done the research necessary to locate material to read and analyze, list as many similarities and differences as you can: go for coverage. Then, review your list, and select the two or three most revealing similarities and the two or three most revealing differences. At this point, you are ready to write a few paragraphs in which you argue for the significance of a key difference or similarity. In so doing, try to focus on an unexpected similarity or difference—one that others might not initially notice.
1. accounts of the same event from two different newspapers or magazines or textbooks
2. two CDs (or even songs) by the same artist or group
3. two