How to Write a Compare & Contrast Paper in APA Style
The American Psychological Association provides its guidelines to writers in the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association," which is currently in its sixth edition. APA style gives you general stylistic advice and dictates how you should format your paper and cite your sources. To write a compare and contrast paper in APA style, you will have to follow all APA formatting and citation guidelines.
Instructions
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Writing the Paper
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Select the two items you will be comparing and contrasting. Your items should be of the same type or category. For example, you could compare and contrast the Beatles and the Rolling Stones since, while both are famous British rock bands from the 1960s, the Beatles broke up after only ten years, while the Rolling Stones, who formed in 1962, are still together.
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2
List the attributes of each item parallel to one another.
The Beatles
. four-person group
. membership did not change during recording career
. 27 number-one hits
The Rolling Stones
. mostly a five-man group
. Brian Jones left the band and died; Mick Taylor left the band; Bill Wyman retired
. eight number-one hits
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3
Organize your paper either by "chunking" or by "piecing," as the editors of the Roane State Community College Online Writing Lab term it. "Chunking" means making implicit comparisons and contrasts. Write separate paragraphs about each item to "chunk."
I. Beatles - background
II. Beatles - career
III. Beatles - critical reception
IV. Rolling Stones - background
V. Rolling Stones - career
VI. Rolling Stones - critical reception
"Piecing" means making explicit comparisons and contrasts. Write paragraphs about various aspects of both items to "piece."
I. Beatles vs. Rolling Stones - background
II. Beatles vs. Rolling Stones- career
III. Beatles vs. Rolling Stones - critical reception
APA Style
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4
Divide your paper into four sections: title page, abstract, body and references.
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5
Put your name, the name of your paper and your institutional affiliation on your title page.
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Create a header. Put the title of your paper in all caps flush left, and, on the title page only, put "Running head" and a colon. Insert page numbers flush right.
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Use one-inch margins on all sides and size 12 Times New Roman font.
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Put the author's name separated by a comma from the year he published the work you are quoting, in parentheses, to create your in-text citations.
(Dawkins, 2008)
For the References or Works Cited page, give publication information, including the author's last name and initials, the year of publication, the work's title with only the first word and all proper nouns and adjectives in capital letters, the place of publication and the publisher's name.
Dawkins, R. (2008). The God delusion. New York, NY: Mariner.
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