how to write a compare and contrast essay
a compare and contrast essay is an effective way to your instructor
to evaluate your ability to analyze a concept as it relates to another concept or concepts
so the idea here is that you fully understand what each concept given
to you is about and then identify areas where they are similar in areas where they are different
and usually while the two concepts are clearly different they generally belong
under some sort of umbrella which could account for the similarities
for instance you might be asked to compare and contrast "what it is like to live with a dog
and what it is like to live with a cat" or to compare "modernism versus postmodernism" you'll
realize that in both cases the two concepts are different but belong in the same category
that said if you are wondering whether writing a compare and contrast essay would be
more work than say writing an essay on just one topic you're probably right
however i can guarantee that this video will make the writing process a lot easier
so now let's look at how to write a compare in contrast essay
first things first compare and contrast essays are
not always easy to spot especially if you are in college
while some topics will contain the words compare and contrast some of them would
not in those cases the way you could know that you are to write a compare and contrast essay
is by looking out for the number of concepts you are told to look into or study or explain
if you are given more than one concept you most probably have a compare and contrast
essay on your hands when you are done sorting out the intricacies of your topic and you
figured out what concepts you are to compare and contrast it is time to do some research
and by some research i mean in-depth research
remember that this isn't argumentative essay where you have to know just enough about the
other side in order to argue against it in a compare and contrast essay you
have to have as much information on one concept as you have on the other
so you really want to do as much research as you possibly can
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now as you do your research remember that you are looking for three things
an independent general idea of what each concept is about
similarities between them and then the differences pay attention to all three as you research so that
you don't end up focusing too much on just one or two aspects of the essay and as you
get your points make sure to separate these three so that they are easily accessible when you write
for separating the similarities and differences
some people suggest using a venn diagram which is basically two
interconnected circles because it provides an easily accessible visual of your different points
however bullet points or lists could also work if using a venn diagram is not your thing
with that done you should be able to go through the points and discard those
that you believe won't add much to your essay
next it is time to pick a structure and then
create an outline for your essay based on your chosen structure
with this kind of essay there are two structures that you can run with
one of them is to explain each concept separately pay attention to how they each differ from
and are similar to the other concept for example if you are told to compare and contrast modernism
and postmodernism you can decide to go the route of explaining modernism the aspects it shares with
post-modernism and the aspects that it doesn't then explaining post-modernism in the same way
the other structure you could work with is to show the similarities and differences between
the concepts by explaining their aspects for instance if you are comparing and contrasting
men and women instead of talking about men and then talking about women
you could mention psychological development and talk about how this occurs similarly and
differently in men and women mention physical development and talk about how this occurs
similarly and differently in men and women and so on
once you've chosen the structure that you think would work best for you
you then want to create your outline
now typically every essay should have an introduction a body and a conclusion
the introduction is where you expose your audience to what your essay is about
and if you want people to actually read the body of your essay your introduction needs to be tight
so consider starting with something eye-catching like
a thought-provoking question an illustration or controversial quote if you can find one
life was like a box of chocolates
you never know what you're going to get
and then you should end your introduction with your thesis statement i've done a video on how
to write a thesis statement that you can check out but basically a thesis statement
is a one sentence statement that mentions what your topic is about and summarizes the points
that you'll be discussing in the body of the essay next is the body of the assay which is
where you'll be doing your analyzing comparing and contrasting if you want to take your essay
from just good to awesome you want to do more than just mention your points and explain them
you want to go further by using examples analogies and hypothetical situations
to paint a picture of what you're talking about also you want to structure the body of
your essay in a way that the beginning the middle and the end of the body have really strong points
don't leave off the strong points to the end of your essay because you will lose people
and don't only have the strong points at the beginning because you will also lose
people the strong points should be strategically positioned in such a way that you start strong
pull people back in if you lose them along the way and end strong
that said you need to make sure that whatever you write in your essay
is fact and not just something made up
the idea here is not to delude or misguide your audience but to provide them the facts or both
contexts and help them see how they are related so while using examples analogies and hypothetical
situations would definitely help your essay but do not want to use those at the expense of evidence
i say all these to say that you have to show evidence of whatever stance you're talking
on how the concepts differ and how they are similar this could be by quoting a reputable
researcher quoting a reputable authority on the subject whatever grants your essay some credence
something else you want to pay attention to when you write a compare and contrast essay
especially our transitional words transitional words are always important when you write an
essay but they are probably doubly important when you write a compare and contrast essay
because you are basically juggling two or more different concepts so for the comparisons you
want to use a variety of words including similarly likewise in the same way both etc
and for the contrast words like however on the other hand but and whereas would come in handy
with the body of your essay done you can go ahead and wrap the whole thing up with the conclusion
to conclude you basically just quickly summarize the main points of the body and then end with
something that would make your essay memorable it could be a call to action or a question just
something that would keep people thinking and with that you're done with writing your essay
well done
all that's left is for you to proofread what you've written and revise the work if necessary
when you proofread you want to pay attention to the grammar and sentence structure
and make corrections when necessary of course however that's not all you also
want to check to see that the points in the body of your essay follow a logical sequence
that reading the piece would not require a jump from one train
of thought to another in addition to that you want to take out any point that doesn't add
anything to the entire essay and flesh out any idea that you think wasn't properly explained
that said it is recommended that you take a break after writing
before going into proofreading just to give your brain some time to rest this would
make it easier for you to spot mistakes and provide solutions where necessary
also try not to fresh over your essay to the point of completely overhauling it
if you follow the tips given to you in this video you should have a great
essay that would only need minimal corrections so once again don't fret
and that's it for this video if you found this video useful please leave a like and
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