Again, thinking about the context the class provides may help you answer such questions and make a stronger argument. After that, you identify their differences. This approach works best when you want to emphasize the connection between your subjects, or lack thereof. Lost your password? Be careful, though—although this thesis is fairly specific and does propose a simple argument that atmosphere and delivery make the two pizza places differentyour instructor will often be looking for comparing contrasting essay bit more analysis, comparing contrasting essay.
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By assigning such essays, comparing contrasting essay, your instructors are encouraging you to make connections between texts or ideas, engage in critical thinking, and comparing contrasting essay beyond mere description or summary to generate interesting analysis: when you reflect on similarities and differences, you gain a deeper understanding of the items you are comparing, comparing contrasting essay, their relationship to each other, and what is most important about them. Here are a few hypothetical examples:. You may want to check out our handout on understanding assignments for additional tips. Making a Venn diagram or a chart can help you quickly and efficiently compare and contrast two or more things or ideas.
In the comparing contrasting essay area where they overlap, list the traits the two items have in common. To make a chart, figure out what criteria you want to focus on in comparing the items. Along the left side of the page, list each of the criteria, comparing contrasting essay. Across the top, list the names of the items, comparing contrasting essay. As you generate points of comparison, comparing contrasting essay, consider the purpose and content of the assignment and the focus of the class. How does it fit with what you have been studying so far and with the other assignments in the course? Are there any clues about what to focus on in the assignment itself? Here are some general questions about different types of things you might have to compare.
You may want to begin by using the questions reporters traditionally ask: Who? By now you have probably generated a huge list of similarities and differences—congratulations! Next you must decide which of them are interesting, comparing contrasting essay, important, and relevant comparing contrasting essay to be included in your paper. Ask yourself these questions:. Suppose that you are writing a paper comparing two novels. However, if you were writing a paper for a class on typesetting or on how illustrations are used to enhance novels, the typeface and presence or absence of illustrations might be absolutely critical to include in your final paper. Sometimes a particular point of comparison or contrast might be relevant but not terribly revealing or interesting.
Talking about the different ways nature is depicted or the different aspects of nature that are emphasized might be more interesting and show a more sophisticated understanding of the poems. Be careful, though—although this thesis is fairly specific and does propose a simple argument that atmosphere and delivery make the two pizza places differentyour instructor will often be looking for a bit more analysis. Again, thinking about the context the class provides may help you answer such questions and make a stronger argument.
You may find our handout on constructing thesis statements useful at this stage. The danger of this subject-by-subject organization is that your paper will simply be a list of points: a certain number of points in my example, three about one subject, then a certain number of points about another. This is usually not what college instructors are looking for in a paper—generally they want you to compare or contrast two or more things very directly, comparing contrasting essay than just listing the traits the things have and leaving it up to the reader to reflect on how those traits are similar or different and why those similarities or differences matter.
Thus, comparing contrasting essay, if you use the subject-by-subject form, you will probably want to have a very strong, analytical thesis and at least one body paragraph that ties all of your different points together. Rather than addressing things one subject comparing contrasting essay a time, you may wish to talk about one point of comparison at a time, comparing contrasting essay. There are two main ways this might play out, comparing contrasting essay, depending on how much you have to say about each of the things you are comparing.
Be aware, too, of the placement of your different points. Our handout on organization can help you write good topic sentences and transitions and make sure that you have a good overall structure in place for your paper. The comparing contrasting essay words may be helpful to you in signaling your intentions:. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4. You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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You may want to check out our handout on understanding assignments for additional tips. Making a Venn diagram or a chart can help you quickly and efficiently compare and contrast two or more things or ideas. In the central area where they overlap, list the traits the two items have in common. To make a chart, figure out what criteria you want to focus on in comparing the items. Along the left side of the page, list each of the criteria. Across the top, list the names of the items. As you generate points of comparison, consider the purpose and content of the assignment and the focus of the class.
How does it fit with what you have been studying so far and with the other assignments in the course? Are there any clues about what to focus on in the assignment itself? Here are some general questions about different types of things you might have to compare. You may want to begin by using the questions reporters traditionally ask: Who? By now you have probably generated a huge list of similarities and differences—congratulations! Next you must decide which of them are interesting, important, and relevant enough to be included in your paper. Ask yourself these questions:. Suppose that you are writing a paper comparing two novels. However, if you were writing a paper for a class on typesetting or on how illustrations are used to enhance novels, the typeface and presence or absence of illustrations might be absolutely critical to include in your final paper.
Sometimes a particular point of comparison or contrast might be relevant but not terribly revealing or interesting. No matter which option you choose, you have to pay particular attention to topic sentences. The block method is usually divided into paragraphs: a paragraph about one subject and then a new paragraph about another subject. Take the compare-and-contrast essay example When Nothing Lies Beyond the Mask: Comparing Moby Dick and The Raven. In the first paragraph after the introduction, the author talks only about Ahab from Moby Dick , but in the next paragraph talks only about the narrator from The Raven. Each subject gets its own paragraph. Using the block method, you can go back and forth like this for pages, covering as many topics as you need.
This approach is best for giving each subject its own attention but tends to slightly weaken the connection between the two. As another option, you can break paragraphs up by a specific topic and issue, and in each paragraph discuss both or all subjects. Here, both subjects are discussed in the same paragraph, one right after another. This approach works best when you want to emphasize the connection between your subjects, or lack thereof. In our example above, the author wishes to highlight just how different the aliens of Arthur Clarke are from those of other authors, particularly H. To emphasize this, the essay author juxtaposes the two points right next to each other in the same paragraph. The third option is quite similar to the alternating approach, with each subject being discussed side by side in the same paragraph.
The first paragraph after the introduction discusses what the governments in the two books have in common, but the next paragraph explains how they differ. This method works best if you want to focus on a particular similarity or difference between your subjects, or if you want to build up to a powerful conclusion or reveal at the end. Want to know how to write a compare-and-contrast essay step by step? The writing process is the same as all essay writing, although adapted specifically for drawing comparisons:. With the first draft finished, you can more easily identify any areas that need to be fixed, revised, or rewritten from scratch.
With a writing assistant like Grammarly, this phase is a breeze. If you want to learn more about this process, read our comprehensive guide on essay writing , which better explains the details. Beyond knowing the full process for crafting a compare-and-contrast essay, it helps to learn a few tips to ensure it shines. In other words, choose topics that have plenty in common, otherwise, your essay will be all contrasting and no comparing. Typically, subjects in compare-and-contrast essays share a strong connection, such as two people in the same profession or two products in the same category.
Solve these problems before they start by smartly choosing your subjects at the beginning. Essays with only one subject can be confusing enough—imagine how complicated it gets with two or more subjects. One of the biggest obstacles with compare-and-contrast essays is communicating clearly so your reader knows which points relate to which subject, and what conclusion the entire essay is building toward. Luckily, Grammarly offers suggestions to rewrite entire sentences in order to improve the clarity of your writing.
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