A compare and contrast essay assignment is popular among students of all academic levels; however, it is a somewhat daunting task to find similarities or differences between two or more ideas for those individuals who are not familiar with the tips and tricks of writing such an essay. If you are one of these, this article is for you. It will not only help you produce a great comparison and contrast essay and master your writing tasks but will also provide you with suggestions and tips you may not have received previously.
Before getting onto the process of writing a compare and contrast essay outline, one must first understand its significance, as well as, its purpose.
As the name signifies, the compare and contrast essay is a style of essay that finds similarities and differences between two things, individuals, or ideas and presents them in a logical way. It is usually written on two relatively similar things or concepts that are often confused or unjustly grouped together. Thus, the essay helps the reader with a clear and deeper understanding of the relationship between two things or concepts and offers critical insight as well.
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Now that you’re aware of the concept of the compare and contrast essay, it is time for you to learn how to compose one. First thing first, the key to becoming an expert essay writer is to always produce an outline for your writing assignment, whether it is an essay, a report, or any other writing. Although most professors need shapes for writing projects as separately graded tasks, it is best to prepare one even if your professor does not explicitly ask you to.
Since factual analysis is from the basis of a compare and contrast essay, two basic outline structures can be followed to organize the facts and critical ideas. The first type of outline is block structure, while the other type is point-by-point structure, both of which are explained in a bit of detail below.
Block Structure Outline
As with most other types of outlines, a block structure outline starts with an introduction and ends with a conclusion. In this method of organizing thoughts and facts, each of the concepts of things is discussed separately in body paragraphs. In other words, one body paragraph only talks about one concept or thing from different aspects and does not move on to the other object or idea in a similar paragraph.
A block structure outline for such an essay is given below.
- Introduction – Starts with a hook and provides general background on the topic of the essay along with a thesis statement.
- Body
- Concept/ Thing 1: All facts and evidence
- Concept/Thing 2: All facts and evidence
- Point of similarities and differences among both things/concepts.
- Conclusion
This outline works when you have only two things or ideas to compare. If more than two things are to be compared and contrasted, another paragraph would be added in the body section of the essay before moving on to the next section of the outline.
It is only logical for y’all to not instantly get a grip on this outline structure as it requires both time and practice to master the art of writing. That is why the option of an essay writing service is always open for you to opt. When you’re unsure of how your outline structure looks, get help from experts that are always readily available online.
Without dwelling further on the topic of mastering the art of creating outlines for compare-and-contrast essays, let’s move on to the next outline structure.
Point-By-Point Structure
This type of outline structure for compare and contrast essays is most popular among students as it focuses on the similarities and differences between two things regarding a certain theme in a single paragraph. For each new paragraph, a new theme or point is chosen for comparing and contrasting the items under consideration. When I write my essay, I usually use this outline structure as I find it relatively easier to organize thoughts in this way. I think you’d agree with me once you see the overview of this outline structure that is given below:
Introduction - Starts with a hook and provides general background on the topic of the essay along with a thesis statement.
Body Paragraph 1
Summary of topic 1
Relation to item 1
Relation to item 2
Body Paragraph 2
Summary of topic 2
Relation to item 1
Relation to item 2
Body Paragraph 3
Summary of topic 3
Relation to item 1
Relation to item 2
Conclusion
You may easily go through this outline structure and ace it if you have topics for each paragraph planned. The key to mastering this format is first to choose the themes on which your comparison and contrast essay will be based. Besides, I would also suggest you place some of your focus on producing a good hooker for your essay, as it is usually the deciding point if your teacher would like your essay or not. If you’re able to catch your professor’s attention at the start, it is easy to keep him/ her hooked with the right choice of themes.
If you follow the advice given in the article, you will hopefully ace your next compare-and-contrast essay outline.
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