Comparing and contrasting – 213
When writing comparative statements, always check them out to
ensure that this parallelism is maintained. One of the most common
mistakes of this kind is to compare two incompatible objects:
Marx’s arguments lose nothing in comparison with his detractors.
Marx can be compared with his detractors, or his arguments with his
detractors’ arguments. Hence you might write:
Marx’s arguments lose nothing when compared with those of his
detractors.
or
Marx’s arguments lose nothing when compared with his detractors’.
Similarly, take care that you do not compare an action with an object:
Marx in his early works placed great emphasis on the concept of
alienation, like Weber.
Rather, you might write:
Marx in his early works placed great emphasis on the concept of
alienation, as did Weber.
We cannot exemplify all the unhappy combinations of people, objects,
actions, activities, situations, states and relations that are easily miscompared. Since it is very easy to confuse these things when you
first set down a comparative structure, take care to check them as
you write. You will remember from chapter 8 (p. 193) that falling
between two stools is a common cause of injuries to sentences. Since