In simple terms, a compare and contrast essay examines, evaluates and analyzes the similarities and dissimilarities between the chosen topics. The topics could be anything from two or more books to pet animals. However, to be a valid compare and contrast topic, the A compare-and-contrast essay, then, analyzes two subjects by comparing them, contrasting them, or both. The key to a good compare-and-contrast essay is to choose two or more subjects that connect in a meaningful way. The purpose of conducting the comparison or contrast is not to state the obvious but rather to illuminate subtle differences or unexpected similarities A compare and contrast essay has been designed to visualize the links between two separate ideas or theories. For the comparative essay, you will be looking at what all are similar, while you will look for what is different in the comparison essay part
How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay (with Pictures)
By assigning such essays, your instructors are encouraging you to make connections between texts or ideas, engage in critical thinking, and go 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, their relationship to each other, and what is most important about comparison and contrast. 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 central area where they overlap, list the traits the two items have in common.
To make a chart, figure comparison and contrast 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, comparison and contrast, 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, comparison and contrast.
Sometimes a particular point of comparison or contrast might be relevant but not terribly revealing or interesting, comparison and contrast.
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 comparison and contrast 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, comparison and contrast, 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, rather 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, if you use the subject-by-subject form, you will probably want to have a very strong, comparison and contrast, analytical thesis and at comparison and contrast one body paragraph that ties all of your different points together, comparison and contrast. Rather than addressing things one subject at a time, you may wish to talk about one point of comparison at a time.
There are two main ways this might play out, depending on how much you have to say about each of the things comparison and contrast are comparing. Be aware, comparison and contrast, 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 following 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 comparison and contrast if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, comparison and contrast, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Make a Gift. Skip to main content.
Compare and contrast essay structure
, time: 5:25Comparing and Contrasting – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Apr 16, · Compare and contrast essays are taught in school for many reasons. For one thing, they are relatively easy to teach, understand, and format. Students can typically understand the structure with just a short amount of instruction. In addition, these essays allow students develop critical thinking skills to approach a variety of topics In simple terms, a compare and contrast essay examines, evaluates and analyzes the similarities and dissimilarities between the chosen topics. The topics could be anything from two or more books to pet animals. However, to be a valid compare and contrast topic, the Like every essay, compare and contrast essay templates include an introduction, body, and conclusion. However, the body needs to be focused in a specific way since you are comparing and contrasting two different topics. Set this up in two ways, topic by topic or one subject then the other
No comments:
Post a Comment