The comparison and contrast essay is one of the most common types of academic write-ups you will have to write in middle school, high school or in college. Writing such academic paper is easy. Most students can do it. If you are reading this, trust me you can write this one. To make it even easier for you, we have prepared free compare and contrast essay examples that you can download and read for inspiration. But let’s start with figuring out what a compare and contrast essay is.
So, if you were assigned to write this type of paper, then what you will have to do is to compare and contrast two things, concepts, or ideas together.
When writing this type of assignment, you need to find similarities and differences between two things or ideas you are writing about. Such essays can cover almost any topic or subject, but in college, you will be probably comparing two novels, two theories, or two characters. Now, let’s take a closer look at how to begin your essay.
Knowing how to start writing your essay is the first step to writing an engaging, successful paper. Here are some basic steps you need to follow while writing your assignment.
In order to better understand how to write this type of paper, take a look at the sample of compare and contrast essay (find out where to search for it below).
When it comes to compare and contrast essay, there are two main types of essay structures. What exactly are they? Let’s find out!
You might have heard about this one, but what exactly does it mean? The reason why it is called block structure is that it is discussing the ideas in different blocks. So, if you need to compare and contrast two characters, then you will have about 6 paragraphs overall — an introduction, two paragraphs that will be discussing the first character, the other two that will be discussing the second character, and a conclusion. In terms of compare and contrast essay, looking for similarities and differences between those two characters is essential. Thus, you can use paragraphs 2 and 4 for talking about their similarities, and then with paragraphs 3 and 5 you can point out some differences. So, basically, this is how the block structure should look like.
If you decide to follow alternating structure, you will still have your 6 paragraphs with an introduction and a conclusion. However, now you need to alternate the details from one side of the contrast or comparison to another. So, paragraph 2 would be for the first object, and paragraph 3 would be for the second one; paragraph 4 would be again for the first object, and paragraph 5 — for the second one. Thus, instead of spending the first half of your paper on one text, and the second part on another, you will spend the first half on looking at similarities, and the second part looking at differences.
If you still cannot understand how to provide an excellent analysis that will show a deep understanding of each of the individual texts that you are writing about, don’t worry — just look at some comparison and contrast essay examples. By reading examples of such papers, you can learn how to write a specific type of assignment and improve your writing skills.
Our main goal is to help students better understand the writing process. Thus, you can easily find lots of different compare and contrast essay samples on our website. We have samples for different academic levels — for high school level, for college level, or for students that just want to boost their writing skills. So, go to our website, choose a type of work (you need to look for an example of compare and contrast essay!), click on the search button and download the free PDF file. Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy the reading!
