Glossary
compare and contrast
A compare-and-contrast structure sets two things side by side, showing how they are alike and how they differ, usually along the same points.
Compare and contrast is a text structure that takes two subjects — two treatments, two systems, two periods — and works through the same points for each, saying where they agree and where they part. Two layouts are common. A point-by-point passage alternates: one paragraph on how each handles a first question, another on a second. A block passage finishes the whole of one subject before starting the other, which makes it easy to miss that the second block answers the same questions as the first. Signal words are the map — both, similarly, like, unlike, whereas, on the other hand, in contrast. Questions usually ask for a shared feature or a difference, and the distractor is a statement that is true of one subject only. Build a two-column list as you read and the answer is already written down.
Taught in
Related terms
- text structure — Text structure is the outline a passage is built on — sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or problem and solution — and naming it tells you where the claim sits.
- signal word — A signal word is a transition that tells the reader what the next sentence is doing — adding, contrasting, concluding or giving a cause.
- sequence — A sequence structure presents information in time order, using words like first, then, after and finally as its skeleton.
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)