Comparison Sentence Writing

The comparison is an important element of academic and scientific writing. Proper usage of such sentences can make your paper more vivid and provoke the interest of the readers. On the other hand, if you fail to use comparison sentences in a correct manner, you can confuse the audience. The following article will provide you with some tips on comparison sentences writing.

In the process of writing some scientific articles, the comparison becomes an integral part of it. This method is extremely important for providing new information, as well as for presenting some results in a clear and understandable manner. In order not to confuse the readers by a complex comparison, the following information should be taken into consideration.

Parallel Structure

It is one of the most important aspects of comparison. It presupposes that two objects that are being compared are of the same type.

If you want to compare the distance between some objects in the Universe, you should clearly indicate what you are talking about and what exactly you are comparing.

If you say:

The Sun is closer to the asteroid belt than Moon and the Earth.

It may seem that you compare the distance of Sun to other objects.

The right way to write this comparison will be:

The Sun is closer to the asteroid belt than Moon to the Earth.

In this case, it becomes clear that the distance from the Sun to the asteroid belt is compared to the one between the other two celestial bodies.

One more example shows how improper comparison can influence the quality of information provided:

Using of Element A helped generate more energy than Element B.

In this case, the mistake is made forthe purpose of the sentence. Here, Element A is compared to Element B, while the aim of the sentence is to focus on the process and effect of using two components. The correct version of the sentence would sound like this:

Using Element A helped generate more energy than using of Element B.

 Very often, such mistake is made considering that the writers try to save space and avoid using extra words. However, in most cases, such reductions of sentences results in distorted meaning.

To avoid such problems, demonstrative pronounsas “those”, “that”, etc. can be used.

For example:

The growth rate of plants is higher than human.

If we present the sentence like this, we will receive a comparison of plants growth rate and height of humans, which does not make any sense.

The correct version of the sentence using proper demonstrative pronoun will sound like this:

The growth rate of plants is higher than that of a human.

Such interpretation of the sentence makes it more logical because the growth rate of plants and humans is compared.

As it can be seen from the examples above, comparison of objects and things in a sentence can be a tricky thing to do. In order to avoid mistakes, one should be attentive and clearly understand what is being compared.