A compare and contrast essay is a piece of writing that evaluates the similarities or differences between 2 objects. You can confront anything starting from people, animals, or two writings. The subjects should be in the same category but have some differences to compare. When writing this essay, you would see the links between ideas or concepts highlighted in the essay.
Each type of essay has its own structure and writing format. This type is not an exception. If you’re about to create this writing by yourself study the structure and try to create your own compare and contrast essay. Do not confuse this essay with the similar ones (expository essay, dialectic essay, descriptive essay).
As a rule, the structure of a compare and contrast essay is the following:
Like any other writing, a compare and contrast essay requires preparation. The first thing to do is to carefully choose your subject. But this time, there are two of them. Choose something that will be easy to compare and contrast. Your essay can be about historical figures from the same time period or two musicians. There’s no logical point in comparing an actor to a politician. Examples to compare: extroverts and introverts, capitalism and orthodox, Z and Y generations.
Make yourself a brainstorming exercise. It will be helpful to make two columns. The one that shows the similarities of the other differences. It is a helpful thing to do if you’re a person with rich visualization. When categorizing the characteristics of your objects, try to keep them parallel. It will be easier for you to structure a nice argument.
The next preparation step is to decide on the structure of your organization. When there are two things to write about, it gets two times more complicated. Compare and contrast essay is not a simple thing to write, because you have to highlight those objects equally and do not miss the details. That is why a proper organizational structure is crucial. You should decide if you want to describe one object in details and then switch to the other, or goal point by point throughout the essay. It will affect your outline.
Create an outline that will be chosen accordingly to your organizational structure. As a rule, the essay contains an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. When writing a compare and contrast essay, you can create 4 body paragraphs instead of 3 to describe each object equally.
Support your evidence. Back up your words with evidence that you took from the research. You can highlight your personal experience as well. It will be great to include some personal anecdotes about the objects of discussion. If you’re writing about poetry feel free to include some relatable quotes.
Just like any other good professionally written essay compare and contrast essay should contain transitional words. Likewise, both similarly on the other hand nonetheless will smooth out your writing and make it easy to read and understand.
After finishing with reading take a rest then come back to proofread and revise the writing. Make sure that you make no lexical or grammar mistakes didn’t miss the punctuation and bowling. You can use different tools and your computer to proofread your writing. It is funny how even silly mistakes can be missed by a human eye.
There is no need to wonder: “How will I write my essay for me?” From now on, you’re ready to complete a compare and contrast essay by yourself.