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We compare many things every day without giving much thought to our actions. This particular skill helps us place emphasis on things that are more important to us at a certain moment. As a student of a particular college or university, you receive many written assignments that aim at developing different skills and improving already existing ones. For this particular reason, you may be asked to write a compare and contrast essay.
It is always difficult to compare different things, especially when you know almost nothing about subjects, topics, questions or things that you were asked to compare. However, with our writing guide and tips, as well as, of course, a research on the topic you were given, you will be able to create a perfect essay in no time!
It is important to understand the primary goal of the paper as well as compare and contrast essay definition before you start. In such a paper, the person should contrast seemingly similar or, on the contrary, different traits or characteristics of two or more subjects, things, or questions and provide reasoning and importance of his/her observations to prove his or her point or confirm its relevance.
The main goal of writing such an essay is to tell others about things that seem similar but yet different in various ways. However, very often, this assignment serves a specific purpose, and it may be given for such reasons:
Reasons may vary depending on task requirements; consequently, a student should check them out before getting to the writing part of the assignment.
If you consider yourself a writing guru and are thinking about skipping this part of the article, there is one thing you should understand. Even having outstanding writing skills does not guarantee that your work will be graded highly. They are surely important and will be handy, however, without adequate preparation for the writing process, there is a pretty high chance that you are going to be lost in your own paper 5 minutes after starting it. Thus, having a clear understanding of how to write a good essay and how to prepare to write it is crucial.
Here are some useful tips for writing your compare and contrast essay:
Note that it is impossible to learn how to write a college essay well if you do not focus on structuring the work correctly from the very beginning. So, your paper has to be based on the outline that you should create once you do some research on the chosen topic.
There are many ways to structure the paper, and everything depends on you. Just keep in mind that your ideas should be logical, clear, and understandable for any reader, so it is important to provide detailed explanations, although not too lengthy.
When it comes to the structure of a compare and contrast essay, a sample paper will allow you to see the ways your outline may look like:
It is completely up to you to decide what would be the best option for your paper.
Read the essay question carefully!
Look for these words:
Structure an essay
Beginners use the five-paragraph structure with references. Advanced writers use a variation of this method.
Writing
Write the first ugly draft – using first/third person depending on the requirements. Know how to paraphrase and summarize. Don’t plagiarize – everyone checks if the essay is unique.
Editing & Formatting
I use the chainsaw and surgical methods. Chainsaw cuts material that isn’t relevant. Surgical involves fine-tuning spelling and grammar.
What is the formatting style? APA, MLA, or CMS? What is the word/page count? Follow the rubric.
How to start compare and contrast essay? Write something interesting! It can be some curious fact that sparks the interest of your audience. Also, do not forget about the hook phrase because this is what actually engages your readers. A perfect introduction identifies the topic, provides some context of the issues under consideration, and of course, intrigues the readers.
A thesis statement should follow right after the specific topic introduction to put potential readers into the picture of the college compare and contrast essay. In fact, a thesis can take various directions, but the most important thing is that it should explain the point of comparing the chosen subjects. So your main task is to create specific and clear thesis statement, which will be possible to prove further in the text.
Body paragraphs go on developing a discussion opened in the introduction. As a rule, it is more interesting for readers to learn about differences and similarities that aren’t apparent at first glance or are unknown at all. Readers will certainly appreciate your attempt to lift the veil of mystery of the compared things.
Start each paragraph by introducing the point you are going to review. Later, support it with credible information and discuss it in 2-3 sentences. Add one more sentence to wrap up the discussion and transition into the next paragraph as smoothly as possible.
As a proverb goes, ‘All is well that ends well.’ Therefore, your conclusion should synthesize all your points in the best way possible.
If you have hard time visualizing how the paper should look like, check out the compare and contrast essay templates in our Samples section. It might give you an idea on how to start writing or finish working on any part of your essay. Good luck!
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