Comparison Paragraph: Higher Education
Read the following paragraph carefully. Answer the questions that follow the paragraph by typing your responses in the text boxes. After you complete this exercise, click on Email to email your work to your instructor, or click on Print to print a copy of your work.

Higher Education
A high-school senior's decision about whether to attend a community college or a four-year university can be difficult since similarities exist between both forms of higher education. At a university, students work the first two years to complete their basic education requirements. Emphasis is often on survey classes plus writing, math, social science, and science sequences. After students fulfill these mandatory requirements, they begin to work on courses related to their major or primary field of study. At a community college, many two-year degrees require survey courses and sequences of classes in the areas of writing, math, social science, and science. After students complete these basic education requirements, they earn an Associates Degree and can then transfer to the university to begin courses related to their major or primary field of study. At a university during the registration process, students usually have a choice of classes, professors, and class times. If several different sections of a course are available, students can select early morning, daytime, or evening classes. They can often group their classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday and Thursday. The same is true during the registration process at a community college. Students can select their classes, instructors, and class times as long as sections of the courses are available. One additional similarity between the two forms of higher education involves expectations. At the university, professors expect students to be responsible, to study without being reminded or reprimanded, and to learn to balance the different demands and aspects of their personal and academic lives. These expectations stun many students during the first term as a freshman. They quickly have to learn to behave and think more maturely and responsibly. The same is true for students attending community colleges. At the community college, instructors expect students to be responsible for their work as well as with decisions in their personal lives. They expect students to study without being frequently reminded, lectured, or reprimanded. The responsibility for learning shifts to the students. The students need to learn to balance the different demands and activities of their personal and academic lives. Because both universities and community colleges are similar in so many ways, the decision to attend one or the other may best be made by looking at the differences rather than the similarities of the two forms of higher education.

1. How does the topic sentence signal that a comparison paragraph follows?




2. What is subject A? What is subject B?




3. How does the paragraph achieve unity and coherence?




4. Is the concluding sentence effective? Explain your answer.