Compare passages with the same question
Published
Two texts are easier to compare when you examine the same feature in each. Choose the feature before listing differences.
Set a shared question
Ask What causes the delay? rather than Which passage is better? A focused question gives both passages the same job. You might compare their explanation, evidence, sequence, or choice of narrator. Select one feature first. Otherwise a comment about style in one text can drift into a comment about facts in the other.
Keep observation beside interpretation
Write a short observation from each passage, then your interpretation underneath it. If one text leaves a cause unstated, record that absence. Do not invent a matching explanation merely to fill the second column of a comparison.
State a bounded difference
A useful comparison says what differs and where the difference appears. Passage A names a cause; passage B reports only the result is more precise than A has more detail. Limit the conclusion to the passages you actually read.
Two accounts of a late bus
Passage A says The bus arrived late because a fallen branch blocked the road. Passage B says We waited twenty minutes before the bus arrived. A supplies a cause. B supplies a waiting duration. Neither sentence supplies both details.
Try it
Which passage answers Why was the bus late? Can the twenty-minute wait in B be treated as proof of the same cause?
Compare your answer
A answers the cause question. B does not identify a cause, so its waiting time cannot establish that a branch blocked the road.