A few days ago I was working on a brochure about a new product launch. In it I needed to explain that matcha green tea has more antioxidants in it than any other tea. To do so I wrote, “Matcha has 10 times the antioxidants, when compared to traditional green and black teas.”
Then I thought… “Is that right?”
As I have done in the past, I headed over to my “APA Style Book” and looked it up. Here’s what it has to say:
compared to, compared with
Used compared to when the intent is to assert, without the need for elaboration, that two or more items are similar: She compared her work for women’s rights to Susan B. Anthony’s campaign for women’s suffrage.
Use compared with when juxtaposing two or more items to illustrate similarities and/or differences: His time was 2:11:10, compared with 2:14 for his closest competitor.
So, according to the “APA Style Book,” no, I was not right. It would be: “Matcha has 10 times the antioxidants, when compared with traditional green and black teas.”
