Need to know how to write a compare and contrast essay? Read an answer to this question. But before that, we should clarify on compare and contrast writing. A good compare and contrast essay means just what it says – an essay which task is a comparison of a pair of subjects, telling how they differ from each other. It may be literally everything – books, characters from films, books or video games, political and historical events, celebrities, food – you name it.
No matter what — begin your essay by giving a thesis statement, your main idea. Advice: Try to make it succinct, but also ensure to tell what the article is about. It must be simple so that everybody knew what the discussion is about.
Let’s have one example of this.
- Example:People have always been curious about whether there is God or God does not exist. On the one hand, if God is kind and merciful than why did he make our life so hard, with wars, hunger, pain, suffering and everything else that does not correspond with Bible. That’s what atheists may say.
Yet, religious say, that God has given people the free will and that when it is evil on the earth – it’s because of human weakness and people’s choice. And only we are to blame for the devoured Creation.
Pretty straightforward, simple and philosophical. Now the one who reads knows what the article is about – a discussion of whether God exists or not. Then the main part begins.
How to Write a Good Thesis for a Compare and Contrast Essay: Your Main Idea
An eye-catching one, which makes the reader literally stick his face reading an article is not an easy task. It requires time, finding out about what you write. More importantly – you need time and effort in composing it all.
How to Start a Compare and Contrast Essay
Presenting the subjects of an article – two compared objects or thesis for a compare and contrast essay — perfect beginning. Make it nice, short. The reader must at once know about the essay’s topic.
Compared things do not have to be necessarily opposite – they may be very similar, as long as we compare them and find their differences. Even one difference is enough, and there will be more than one since there are no two identical things under the sun.
- Example:Sauron and Saruman from Lord of the Rings may appear similar. Both are villains, who have turned against the forces of Good and both are hindering all the efforts of the good heroes. Yet they have their crucial differences.
As you see, we’ve immediately told who the compared subjects are, from which spheres both of them are, what they do, and even gave a hint, that leads us to the contrasting and comparing part.
In order to compare, we need to find out what both subjects were doing in a similar situation. And what the result was.
- Example:Sauron’s cruelty had no limits – we devoured all the good in the world, and forced it to serve his evil ways. His giant fortress of Barad Dur located in Mordor, where darkness rules – that was the source of all the evil. Saruman’s Isengard was just a mere demo of what Sauron was.
Here we compared the cruelty of both of them, and what each of them was capable of. Now let’s make some contrast a bit.
- Example:Yet Sauron was a much more powerful being that Saruman, and thus his powers were much more impressive. He was capable of much more worse, and his cruelty had no limits. While Saruman was often a craven, and he feared to admit even the fact, that he was wrong, when all that he tried failed and he was confronted by the forces of good.
Now we have shown, that no matter how similar both of them are, they have their very strong differences that influenced their fate.
How to End a Compare and Contrast Essay
Perfect ending of writing a compare/contrast essay or any other paper is, to sum up, everything written in it. Also, we should tell our final verdict on the comparison and contrast of the subjects.
- Example:So, to sum everything up, we see, that Saruman and Sauron have lots of common – they’re both on the side of evil, both of them are traitors who deflected to the wrong side. Yet, there is the biggest difference: Sauron is much more sly and smart bad guy. And it is much tougher to defeat him than Saruman. The biggest reason is a strength, influence, power of Sauron — much more colossal than one of Saruman.
The fine summary is the one that mentions everything which is the utmost important from the article. It gives us one last glance at everything, and we have our final say.
Compare and Contrast Essay Outline: The Roadmap
A perfect outline for a strong compare and contrast essay should have a following look:
- Firstly, you create the beginning and give a brief backstory.
- Secondly, talk about everything that matters. That is the biggest part of an article. You must compare everything and show how it influences both subjects.
- Then, sum up everything in your essay conclusion.
With our instructions, you can be sure that all the prof's expectations and requirements will be met perfectly. Good Luck!