To find where two voices agree, look past tone and ask which ideas, facts or values both writers accept. A shared point is something each text supports, even when one writer is cheerful and the other is cross.
This skill opens the module on reading across viewpoints. It appears whenever a question asks how two texts are similar, or what both writers believe about a shared issue.
Why is agreement harder to see than disagreement?
Disagreement is loud. A writer who says “this plan is a mistake” stands out, so students often stop reading at the first clash.
Agreement tends to sit quietly inside a sentence that seems to be about something else. A writer may accept an idea in passing while arguing about a different one. You need to read for what each writer takes for granted, not only for what they defend.
How to find common ground, step by step
- State the issue in one line. Both texts must be about the same thing before you can compare them.
- Summarise each writer’s main position in your own words, in one short sentence each.
- Underline the facts and values each text accepts, including those mentioned in passing.
- Match them. A match is an idea that appears in both texts, even if the wording differs.
- Support each match with a short quotation from each text, then explain what the two quotations share.
Worked example
Here are two original extracts about closing a market street to traffic.
Text A (a resident): “Closing Jalan Pasar to cars on Saturday nights has turned the market into somewhere people want to linger. Families walk down the middle of the road, and children are safer than they have ever been. The only real problem is where the stallholders’ vans are supposed to go.”
Text B (a stallholder): “I have run a snack stall here for eleven years, and I enjoy the crowds. But my suppliers deliver by van at five, and since the road closed they have nowhere to stop. Safer streets help everyone; I simply need a loading hour.”
Step 1, issue: closing the street to cars on market nights.
Step 2, positions: A welcomes the closure but notes a problem for vans. B accepts the closure but wants a loading arrangement.
Step 3 and 4, facts and values: A says children are “safer than they have ever been”. B says “safer streets help everyone”. Both also accept that the crowds are a good thing, and both name the vans as the difficulty.
Step 5, answer: Both writers accept that the closure has made the street safer and more welcoming. A writes that families “walk down the middle of the road”, and B says she “enjoys the crowds”. They also agree that vehicle access for stallholders is unsolved, which A calls “the only real problem” and B describes as having “nowhere to stop”.
Notice that neither writer is against the closure. The surface tone differs, but the ground beneath it is shared.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to treat a shared topic as a shared view.
Mistaken answer: “Both writers agree about vans.”
This only says that both mention vans. It does not say what they think about them, so it is not yet a point of agreement.
The correction is to write what each writer believes. “Both writers see the lack of a place for delivery vans as the main remaining problem” is an agreement, because it states a shared judgement.
Check yourself
Use these two short extracts about a school canteen.
Text C: “The new canteen menu is healthier, and I notice fewer students falling asleep after lunch. The queues, however, have become unbearable.”
Text D: “I welcome fruit on the menu, and I would never go back to the old fried options. But when half of break is spent waiting, the healthy food is wasted on people who cannot reach it.”
1. State one point on which C and D agree.
Show answer
Both accept that the healthier menu is an improvement: C says it is “healthier” and D “would never go back” to the old options.
2. Is “both writers mention queues” a point of agreement? Explain.
Show answer
Not yet. It names a shared topic only. A full point would say that both writers see the long queues as a serious problem that limits the benefit of the new menu.
3. Write one point on which the writers differ in emphasis, not in opinion.
Show answer
C emphasises the health effect on students (less sleepiness), while D emphasises the practical effect of waiting time on access to the food. Both accept the menu is better, so the difference is in what each stresses.
Where this leads next
Once you can name what two writers share, the next step is to look at how each one supports what they say. Move on to distinguishing a claim from its support. The summary and paraphrase studio gives you a place to practise putting each writer’s position in your own words.
Students sometimes read both texts well but lose marks because their comparison stays vague. Our teachers work on exactly this in online one-to-one First Language English tuition.