Compare and Contrast Essay

Is it another time that you are required to write a compare and contrast essay?

Are you worried about having the requisite skills?

Note that a compare and contrast essay is among the most common types of essays in academic writing.

Usually, you will be assigned this category of essay to help develop your writing skills, particularly critical thinking, in preparation for more advanced types of writing.

One the key that you should be keen to hone includes developing an outline for a compare and contrast essay.

Accordingly, before you begin the actual writing, it is important to understand what a compare and contrast essay is.

What is a Compare and Contrast Essay?

So the key question is, “what is a compare and contrast essay?”

In simple terms, it can be defined as:

“A type of an essay that stipulates the differences and/ or similarities between two subjects”.

Deriving from the above definition, a compare and contrast essay focuses on how two texts or items are alike, different, or alike in some ways and different in others.

The number of items being compared and contrasted could be more than two and may include objects, people, places, events, ideas/ perspectives, theories, etc.

Note that it is critically important to come up with a central point to focus on while expounding of relevancy and implications of the compare and contrast analysis.

Outline for a Compare and Contrast Essay

Developing an outline is one of the key steps to writing an essay when it comes to a compare and contrast essay.

Generally, an outline of a compare and contrast essay could assume two approaches:

1. Point-by-point method and

2. Block method

Although both approaches are acceptable, it is important to stick to one throughout the essay.

Point-by-Point Method

This is considered the clearest methods to use when writing a compare and contrast essay.

The method adopts alternating arguments between the two items that are being compared and/or contrasted.

Outline of a compare and contrast essay observing this method should be as follows:

Point 1- discuss A

Point 1- discuss B

Discuss the overall links between A and B

Point 2- discuss A

Point 2- discuss B

Discuss the overall links between A and B

Point 3- discuss A

Point 3- discuss B

Example of a Point-by-Point Method Outline

Thesis: Both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke viewed state as a Social Contract, between the people and those in power; nonetheless, their perspectives about the state differed significantly and in numerous ways.

Point 1:     Paragraph 1: Hobbes saw the State of Nature as a state of war, defined by anarchy.

Paragraph 2: Locke believed that the State of Nature was a state of freedom where people could conduct themselves in the manner they wanted without restriction, which was clearly different from Hobbes’ assertions.

Point 2:     Paragraph 3:  Hobbes argues that the formation of the state was occasioned by the need to end the cycle of violence experienced in the State of Nature.

Paragraph 4: Different from Hobbes, Locke saw the formation of the state as the need by people to have a third party that could mediate cases between opposing sides in an effort to avoid violent conflicts.

Point 3:     Paragraph 5: Hobbes posits that formation of the state was a collective approach where people willingly and rationally surrendered their freedoms to a higher authority in exchange for protection from anarchy.

Paragraph 6: For Locke, formation of the state was occasioned by people agreeing to a mediator that could secure the preservation of their natural right while balancing liberty and justice.

Block Method

On the other hand, the block method advances all the arguments related to A and the goes ahead to compare and/or contrast them to all the arguments related to B.

This approach is considered more appropriate for shorter assignments since there is much space between points related A and points related to B.

Block Method Outline

Outline of a compare and contrast essay using the block method should be as follows:

Point 1 about A

Point 2 about A

Point 3 about A

Point 4 about A

Point 1 about B (include discussion on how it is connected to A)

Point 2 about B (include discussion on how it is connected to A)

Point 3 about B (include discussion on how it is connected to A)

Point 4 about B (include discussion on how it is connected to A)

NB: It is essential to ensure that points are presented in the same order for A and B.

Importantly, when using the block method as an outline of a compare and contrast essay, you must be cautious about various mistakes, including:

• You should avoid listing all points on A and then all points on B without developing connection between the two.
• You should avoid including connections in just the last paragraph of the essay. Instead, connections should be made throughout the essay.

Avoiding these problems requires including a lot of transitional statements when discussing B to create connections between A and B. Examples of such transitions may include “in contrast to”, “similar to”, etc.

Example of a Block Method Outline

Thesis: Both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke viewed state as a Social Contract between the people and those in power; however, their perspectives about the state differed significantly and in numerous ways.

Part 1   Point 1: Hobbes saw the State of Nature as a state of war, defined by anarchy.

Point 2: Hobbes argues that the formation of the state was occasioned by the need to end the cycle of violence experienced in the State of Nature.

Point 3: Hobbes further posits that formation of the state was a collective approach where people willingly and rationally surrendered their freedoms to a higher authority in exchange for protection from anarchy.

Part 2:   Point 1: In contrast to Hobbes, Locke believed that the State of Nature was a state of freedom where people could conduct themselves in the manner they wanted without restriction, which was very different from Hobbes’ ideas on the State of Nature.

Point 2: Further, different from Hobbes, Locke saw the formation of the state as need by to have a third party to mediate cases between opposing sides in an effort to avoid violent conflicts.

Point 3: For the formation of the state, Locke argued that it was occasioned by people agreeing to a mediator that could secure the preservation of their natural right while balancing liberty and justice.

How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay

Now that you understand the outline of a compare and contrast essay, you can go ahead and write the essay.

Key steps involved in writing the essay include:

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is critical in helping bring out high levels of analysis that are required in compare and contrast essays.

You should brainstorm using tools like Venn diagram before you begin the actual writing process to help identify ideas to present in the essay.

Through the diagram, you can come up with features for each of two different items, while identifying their common characteristics.

You can then go ahead and determine which points to present, and in which order.

Developing a Thesis Statement

This step comes right before you develop the outline of a compare and contrast essay.

Coming up with the thesis statement should follow the identification of differences and similarities between the items to be analyzed. Such identification helps bring out the relationships.

From these relationships, you can develop a thesis statement that the essay should be based on.

Creating an Outline

This is a very important prewriting step. It acts as a guide throughout the writing process.

As illustrated above, the outline could assume either the point-by-point approach or the block approach.

You should choose one approach and stick with it to the end.

Generally, the outline should incorporate: 1) introduction, 2) body, and 3) conclusion.

Writing the Introduction

This is the step where the actual writing begins.

Introduction is the primary part in the outline of a compare and contrast essay.

It should set the tone of the essay.

To capture the attention of the reader, it should start with a hook, then followed by an introduction of the subjects or items to be examined in the essay.

It should end with the thesis statement.

Writing the Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs are considered the gist of the essay.

Body paragraphs should contain the relevant similarities and differences between the subjects/ items.

The paragraphs should start with a topic sentence stipulating the area of comparison or contrast to be explored.

You should then go ahead and expound on your points in an organization consistent with either the point-by-point or the block outline of a compare and contrast essay.

Writing the Conclusion

Writing the conclusion is the last part of the compare and contrast essay writing process.

You could conclude by providing a summary of the points presented in the essay and then recapping the thesis statement.

The conclusion should remind the reader what the essay was about and what was arrived at in the essay.

Proofreading the Essay

Proofreading is an important post essay writing step that focuses on ensuring that the compare and contrast essay is aligned to its purpose.

In determining this alignment, you should closely examine the outline of a compare and contrast essay adopted throughout the writing process.

Proofreading should also seek to correct grammatical and other errors found in the essay.