Use comparison and contrast to develop a topic by examining its similarities or dissimilarities to another thing, process, or state. Comparison emphasizes the similarities, contrast the differences. A paragraph may use both comparison and contrast. In the following example, two kinds of electrical cable are compared. The aim here is to convey the superiority of A over B for two categories of performance.
Coaxial vs. Fiber-Optic Cable: Comparative Cable-Length Performances
For a number of critical performance characteristics, fiber-optic cable offers considerable
advantages over standard coaxial cables. The most obvious distinction between the two is the
great bandwidth-distance capacity of fibers. The high-frequency capacity of coaxial cables
decreases rapidly with increased length, but the bandwidth of a commercial fiber-optic system will
remain constant with length. A commercial fiber-optic system like that of Artel, as shown in
Figure 3, remains constant for a bandwidth over a distance of 4,000 ft, while three different sizes
of coaxial cable rapidly drop in less than half the distance.
For RG-179 coax, a 1,024 × 1,024 signal is limited to 50 ft; RG-59 rolls off 3 dB at 170 ft.
Larger, bulkier cables such as RG-11 can reach up to 250 ft, but are impractical to install, since
three such cables are required for RGB color. Fiber-optic cable, on the other hand, allows
transmission of more than 60 MHz video clock over a mile, and 20 MHz over 2½ miles,
with no repeaters or equalizers.
Noise interference is another important area in which performance differs greatly. Coaxial cables
are susceptible to induced interference (EMI/RFI) from such noise generators as fluorescent
lights, computers, power cables, industrial equipment, and even other communications cables.
Cable frequency equalization further aggravates this noise problem. Fiber-optic cable is, in
contrast, immune to all forms of EMI, RFI, and crosstalk.
--Artel Communications Corporation, "Fiber Optics in RGB Color Computer Graphics Communications," Application Note CG-1
