Comparatio

Comparatio is a rhetorical strategy that uses comparison to persuade people. Comparatio relies upon people's knowledge or beliefs about a phenomenon, and then discursively "links" that phenomenon to a different phenomenon about which the speaker/writer wishes to make a claim.

For example, if someone wanted to persuade an audience of the merit of putting in a new freeway system, they could use comparatio as a rhetorical strategy. They might compare the new freeway system to a "river of life flowing through our community" or they could call it a "path to commercial vibrance."

Comparisons can also be made to phenomena about which an audience could be expected to have negative feelings. For example, if you were opposed to the new freeway because of the environmental damage it would do to waterfowl nesting areas, you might compare the new freeway to "a corridor of death for our bird species."

The rhetorical success of comparatio hinges upon comparing your claim to a phenomenon that is:

• familiar to the audience
• likely to evoke emotional feelings
• adequately similar to your claim to seem logical

It would not, for example, work well to call the freeway a "ham sandwich lodged in the throat of the community." The freeway seems more logically related to the throat (a passageway or throughway) than an obstacle in that passageway.

Alternative meaning: Compa-ratio, sometimes spelled compa ratio or comparatio is a term used in the human resources specialty area of wage and compensation management. In its simplest form it is the ratio of an employee’s current wage to the organization’s benchmark rate, usually the salary grade midpoint. Compa-ratios are normally expressed as a percent of the benchmark. For example: An employee earns $45,000 per year in a job with a salary grade midpoint of $50,000. The equation is $45,000/$50,000 = 0.9. The employee is said to have a compa-ratio of 90%. Variations include: market compa-ratio or market ratio, target compa-ratio, group compa-ratios, wage index, competitive wage ratio. Compa-ratios are frequently used as one factor in wage increase matrixes used to determine annual salary adjustment.