A Quick Guide To Compare And Contrast Essay Writing

A compare and contrast essay informs the reader of the differences and similarities between two things. Examples include Basketball & Football, Horses & Cats, and Writing & Singing. Here's how to accomplish a compare and contrast paper.

1. Gather facts: Sometimes you are assigned to write on items well known to readers. Other times the items are completely new. Making a list of characteristics of each item is very helpful. Listing all characteristics helps to make perfect descriptions for each item. By going through the lists and comparing them, it is easy to connect similarities and differences.
2. Provide new ideas: A dull essay is one that talks about basic characteristics well known to everyone. It is imperative to make the work interesting by researching for new facts and characteristics unknown to readers.
3. Provide vivid descriptions: Vivid descriptions tell details about each of the item with an intention of engaging the reader in the imagination world. The reader will form a virtual figure or situation as you tell the story.
4. Avoid repetitions: Repeating facts and ideas makes the work monotonous. Make sure to list all the points before writing to avoid this undesirable practice.
5. Connect the points: For a write up to stand out, it is necessary for points and ideas to follow each other systematically and logically. Make sure to avoid throwing related ideas at different places in the paper.
6. Organize points well: You can use piecing, where each characteristic/description is outlined in a separate paragraph. For instance, you can have a sub topic on "Differences and Similarities in Jane and Alice’s backgrounds" and a separate one on "Differences and Similarities in Jane and Alice’s appearances." Another alternative is using Chunking where information about one thing appears at one place (chunk) and then similarities are used as transitions. An example is Jane is similar to Alice because... In this case, all information about Jane is grouped in one place.
7. Revise the work: Many students submit dull work because they do not mind to go through it after writing. It is hard to generate a perfect piece of work without revising. Whether it is eliminating typos or merely dealing with statements that make no sense, revising the work is very critical to perfecting it. You can also use revising to group statement that are similar and separate those that do not relate.