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Sentence 1 : The comparison of Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî’s "Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud" and "Umdet'ül- Kârî" books

Sentence 2 : Comparison of the "Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud" and "Umdet'ül- Kârî" books of Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî

Sentence 1 comes to me as more appealing and looking better. However, I am not sure which one is better for academic writing

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  • Sentence 1 should likely start with "A", as opposed to "The". I think you can drop "books", and just use that. "A comparison of author's /title1/ and /title2/."
    – jimm101
    Jun 26, 2019 at 11:39
  • @jimm101 thanks for the answer. If we drop the books, how can the reader know what are they?
    – Furkan Gözükara
    Jun 26, 2019 at 12:21
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    The formatting will let people know they are titles. That could mean movies, etc., but it seems unlikely someone would be tempted to read a comparison of two works when they're totally unaware of the context to begin with. If you feel it's necessary, you may wish to use "novels" (or whatever is appropriate), since books will sound a bit off to native speakers.
    – jimm101
    Jun 26, 2019 at 13:12
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    When you're already using apostrophes to represent non-English phonetics or spelling, using an apostrophized possessive in addition is a risk. My suggestion: Comparison of Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud and Umdet'ül- Kârî by Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî. The italics are important, to distinguish the works from the author's name, all of which will be unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience, who don't know Turkish from Arabic.
    – John Lawler
    Jun 26, 2019 at 15:06
  • It is important to note that the genitive s does not show possession - it shows some sort of association.
    – Greybeard
    May 14, 2020 at 9:13

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In a comment, John Lawler wrote:

When you're already using apostrophes to represent non-English phonetics or spelling, using an apostrophized possessive in addition is a risk.

My suggestion: Comparison of Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud and Umdet'ül- Kârî by Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî. The italics are important, to distinguish the works from the author's name, all of which will be unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience, who don't know Turkish from Arabic.

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Well, sentence 1 is far more common than sentence 2 since when it comes to a person or an animal, natives prefer 's or ' (if it is a name ending with s or a plural noun ending with s). Therefore, I suggest you use the first. It is not because the second is wrong, but because the first is much more common, and being more common means being better in terms of a language since there will only be very few people, if any, disagreeing to your choice.

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If we simplify the original:

Sentence 1: "The comparison of Charles Dickens’ "Hard Times" and "Oliver Twist"."

Sentence 2: Comparison of [no ‘the’] "Hard Times" and "Oliver Twist" of Charles Dickens,

we can see that “of Charles Dickens” is wrong, and should be “by Charles Dickens.”

The word “books” is not required – anyone who is familiar with "Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud" and "Umdet'ül- Kârî" will know they are books, and those who do not will not be reading the article.

NB I cannot understand why you have written "The comparison of ..." in the first and "Comparison of" in the second.

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