On the surface level, Comparative Text Response might seem like two ‘mini’ text response essays merged together. And while this is somewhat true, a key difference is that you are required to make comparisons between the two texts.
In text response, we covered the importance of asking ‘WHY’ , which refer to:
a) WHY does the author phrase something in a particular way (e.g. does this quote or symbol allude to another meaning?). This is dependent on the text.
b) WHY does this example (that you have chosen) link to the overall essay prompt? This is dependent on the essay topic.
And for comparative, in addition to doing this, we also need to draw similarities and differences between key features of both texts. Hence, we also need to ask…
c) WHY/HOW is this idea in Text A similar / different to this idea in Text B