자신의 주장을 펴기 위하여 두 가지 사실을 비교하거나 대조하는 방식으로 설명하는 경우가 있다.

이런 유형의 글에서는 두 가지 사실의 유사점과 차이점을 하나씩 비교하거나 대조해 가면서 글을 전개한다.

이번 글은 미국인들의 쇼핑 행태의 변화(Shopping in America)에 관한 것으로 변화 전후의 쇼핑 형태의 장점과 단점을 비교하며 논지를 펴고 있다.

볼드체로 표시한 신호어(signal words)에 유의하면서 지시 사항에 따라 분석해 보자.


<지시 사항>

1. 단락 [1]을 읽고, 비교의 대상과 필자가 주장하는 바를 찾아라.

2. 단락 [2]~[4]와 단락 [1]의 관계를 생각해 보라.

3. 단락 [5]와 단락 [1]의 관계를 생각해 보라.

4. 단락 [6]과 단락 [5]의 관계를 생각해 보라.

5. 단락 [7]의 결론을 써라.

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[1] Since the 1950s, American shoppers have been spending their money in suburban malls instead of in downtown business districts. This is even true of shoppers who have to go out of their way to shop in the malls; they will bypass downtown stores (which they might have gotten to by convenient bus) to drive to the brightly bedecked and weather-free meccas of shopper-heaven. The result, some people claim, is the demise of the central urban commercial district, Downtown, a process leading inevitably toward more widespread urban blight. But why are Americans are so easily lured to shop in malls in the first place?

[2] First, Americans don't like weather. They like to be indoors whenever possible, even on nice days, and they're willing to pay a premium to be protected from the elements. If they can find someone who can afford it, they will even put their sports stadiums under a gigantic bowl, and they love to stay indoors for a day of shopping. Second, Americans love convenience and, except during the crush of major holidays, malls offer plenty of convenient parking.

[3] Third, the mall offers an extraordinary variety of products under its one gigantic roof. Specialty stores and boutiques offer items that people don't realize they need until they're put under the spell of brightly lighted, beautifully furnished window after window of beguiling wares. Malls are built to respond to Americans' insatiable desire for stuff; either that, or a generation of Americans has been genetically engineered to respond to the sellers of stuff. Either way, it works.

[4] And finally, the mall feels safe: it is lighted, warm, dry, busy. Senior citizens are invited to do their walking exercises there in the early hours; physically challenged people easily meander the smooth floors of curbless, stairless businesses in motorized carts; children are amused by clowns and fed at convenient cafeterias in Food Court.

[5] America's Downtown, on the other hand, is often in sad repair. Parking is difficult, if not dangerous, and until you get through the door, it's all outdoors. To get from store to store, you must expose yourself to heat, cold, rain, snow. There are sometimes solicitors to fleece you of change before you even get into a store. If there is a plan here, it is not evident to most shoppers. Where is the information kiosk with a cordial, well-informed attendant to direct you to the nearest clothier, jeweler, fast-food outlet, or bathroom? Is there a bathroom?

[6] What is left in the American Downtown to recommend it to shoppers? Practically nothing. Nothing, that is, unless you regard as important the notion that the businesses you give your money to should be owned by people, families, in your own community. When you walk into the Downtown hardware store, you often feel wood, not vinyl linoleum, beneath your feet. And some old guy will sell you nails in a paper bag, weighing them out by the handful until you get the exact number you need, not the arbitrary number that comes in a hermetically sealed plastic box.

[7] The truth is that the American mall grows where it does because someone with enormously deep pockets decides to plunk it down where there used to be woods or a golf course. He surrounds it with hundreds of acres of parking and waits for people to come spend their money, as he knows they will because people will do what mass advertising tells them to do. Downtown, on the other hand, grew where it did because there was an organic need for it. It was a community's response to a community's needs-neighbors responding to neighbors- and it flourished as the community flourished. If the mall can replace this sense of community, then so be it; it deserves our affection as well as our dollars. If it can't, then we have gained convenient parking and freedom from the weather at an awful price.

- http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/comparison.htm

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이제 <지시 사항> 대로 글을 분석해 보자．

1.시내 중심가에서의 쇼핑과 쇼핑몰에서의 쇼핑을 비교하며,쇼핑 행태가 변화하고 있다는 말을 하고 있다.

2.단락 [1] 마지막에 제시된 물음,즉 쇼핑몰에서의 쇼핑을 선호하는 이유를 신호어(First, Second, Third, And finally) 를 통해 열거하고 있다.

3.단락 [1]에서 나온 두 가지 쇼핑 형태 중 시내 중심가에서의 쇼핑이 어려움에 처한 이유를 설명하고 있다.

4.단락 [5]에서 제시된 이유(단점)와 대비되는 장점에 대해 언급하고 있다.

5.쇼핑몰에서의 쇼핑이 시내 중심가에서의 쇼핑이 가진 장점(sense of community)을 가질 수 없다면 편의성 때문에 이용은 하겠지만 사랑받지는 못할 것이다.

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