Compare and Contrast Essay | Tips & Examples
One of the most common tasks for high school and college students is the compare and contrast essay. It’s not limited to English classes, either, but is found across humanities and social science curricula as well.
Although a compare and contrast essay can seem very simple, there are some pitfalls, and it is important to make sure you follow a few simple rules. If you do, then you can write a great compare and contrast essay about any topic.
When to compare and contrast
The first and most obvious answer is when the essay prompt tells you to! This is the simplest scenario. Compare and contrast essays are popular tasks, as they require a balanced reading of two or more sources and an understanding of where they differ and where they’re the same.
However, even if the prompt doesn’t tell you directly to compare and contrast, it can often be a useful entry point for an analysis of two or more texts. This is especially true if you are struggling to start your analysis.
Making your comparisons effective
It is important to remember that you need to relate the texts to each other rather than to anything else. For example, if you are comparing and contrasting Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, you have to be careful not to be diverted away from those texts.
- Despite its bleak outlook on the human condition, Waiting for Godot is more optimistic (or perhaps, more correctly, less pessimistic) than Beckett’s own Endgame and, without a doubt, less unrelenting in its claustrophobia than Play.
- Both Waiting for Godot and The Waste Land portray the despair and decay of modern society. Vladimir’s reflection that “We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener,” echoes The Waste Land’s lament: “A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, / I had not thought death had undone so many.”
The first example inappropriately compares the chosen text with others that are not part of the task. The second example explicitly links both texts.
Don’t forget there are two elements to a compare and contrast essay. If you focus too much on one (e.g., compare) to the exclusion of the other, you will produce an unbalanced essay, which very likely will fail to receive top marks.
Comparing and contrasting as a planning tool
Whenever you have to write an essay, it is worth considering using a compare and contrast approach as part of the planning process. This is because it forces you to look at both (or all) texts and consider them in terms of how they are similar and different. This means it is less likely that you will fall into describing the texts rather than analyzing them.
You can start your essay planning by outlining the similarities and differences between the texts. Even if your essay is not eventually a compare and contrast piece, the analysis you have produced by looking at it from that viewpoint will be a great starting point.
How to write a compare and contrast essay
So, you open the essay task, and the prompt tells you to compare and contrast two things. What to do? The most important thing is that you need to know your texts thoroughly. Assuming this is the case, then what is the best approach to the task?
There are two broad approaches to the compare and contrast essay. You can choose to compare or contrast one facet of the works in each paragraph. In other words, each paragraph deals with both texts. If these paragraphs become unwieldy, then you can deal with each text in adjacent paragraphs.
The alternative is to address the facets of one text in the first section of the essay, followed by the second text in the subsequent part of the essay.
Alternating
The main advantage of this approach is that both texts are addressed throughout the essay. This helps keep the essay’s focus fresh and at the front of the reader’s mind. It also helps keep a balance between the texts. This is especially true in exams, where it is easy to produce an unbalanced essay if you are dealing with one at a time.
It helps to stay flexible about paragraph structure. A simple point (let’s say, the type of narrator used) can probably be addressed in a single paragraph that covers both texts. A more complex subject (e.g., nature imagery in the text) might need a paragraph on each text to prevent them from becoming unwieldy.
The balance between comparing and contrasting will be determined by the texts and the subjects discussed. In other words, if the texts are broadly similar, then there will be more to compare than contrast. On the other hand, dissimilar texts will have more contrasts. In every case, it’s important to plan and shape each paragraph carefully, starting with a topic sentence and carefully giving evidence to back up your point.
For the essay prompt “Compare and contrast the portrayal of the human condition in Waiting for Godot and The Waste Land,” an alternating approach might include points laid out something like the example below.
- Both Waiting for Godot and The Waste Land portray a bleak picture of the human condition, but in different ways. The most obvious difference is that one is a play, the other a poem.
- In Waiting for Godot we are presented with a single, fixed viewpoint, whereas in The Waste Land there is a multitude of viewpoints and narrators.
- Waiting for Godot uses a circle of repetition and gradual decay to portray the absurdity of the human condition. The Waste Land, instead, uses a variety of apparently unconnected situations to convey the despair.
In this example, both texts are dealt with in each paragraph, addressing a single facet of the prompt.
Blocking
You might choose instead to lay out the analysis of one text across a number of paragraphs before moving on to the next text. This “blocking” technique allows you to focus in an uninterrupted way on each text, without chopping and changing between them.
The disadvantage of this approach is that details of the comparison become remote from their counterpart. This is one of the reasons why this approach should be used with caution. It will be a case of using your judgment to decide if this is the better approach.
A plan for an essay on the same prompt as in the example above, but planned around a blocking approach, might look like the example below.
- Waiting for Godot uses a single, fixed point of view to portray the action (or lack of it).
- Repetition and cycles of behavior and circumstance help reinforce the perception of despair and absence of realistic hope.
- The Waste Land uses many different narrators and poetic styles to give a multifaceted analysis of the decay of society.
- This decay is shown through moral failings, environmental degradation, and collective despair.
This approach tackles each text separately, allowing more depth of discussion about each facet.
Frequently asked questions about writing compare and contrast essays
- When do I need to compare and contrast?
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The simple answer is that you need to compare and contrast when the essay prompt or task requires it. There are also opportunities for comparing and contrasting with tasks such as “Consider the degree to which early years education impacts later educational outcomes.”
Although this does not explicitly ask for a compare and contrast essay, it implicitly opens up the need for comparison between different approaches.
Whatever the essay type, QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will make sure your paper’s grammar and spelling are spot-on!
- What is a good compare and contrast essay structure?
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There are two main approaches to a good compare and contrast essay structure:
- Alternating: Each topic is addressed as it applies to the two (or more) subjects being compared or contrasted.
- Blocking: Each subject is addressed regarding all topics in turn (e.g., all aspects of health care in Sweden, then all aspects of healthcare in the U.S.)
Whichever approach is used, it is important to maintain a balance between the subjects being discussed, so (like with every essay) planning is vital.
When you’ve finished your essay, you can use the free QuillBot Grammar Checker to make sure there are no mistakes.
- How do I choose what subject to compare and contrast?
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When you choose a subject to compare and contrast, the most important thing is to know your subject well.
It is also important that the subjects being compared and contrasted have enough similarities or differences to make the analysis worthwhile.
In summary, it is important that:
- You know the subjects thoroughly.
- There is enough substance in the subjects to make for a good analysis.
When you’re done, run your essay through the free QuillBot Grammar Checker to make sure it’s free from mistakes.
- What are some compare and contrast essay topics?
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Some compare and contrast essay topics include the following possibilities.
Literature:
- Compare and contrast the ways in which two Romantic poets use nature imagery in their verse.
- Compare and contrast the use of an unreliable narrator in at least two novels.
Geography:
- Compare and contrast the impact of freeports on the economies of at least two developed nations.
- Compare and contrast the impact of climate change policies on migration patterns in two regions of the world.
Sociology:
- Compare and contrast the impact on reoffending rates of two or more non-custodial interventions in the criminal justice system.
- Compare and contrast the benefits of universal socialized healthcare and hybrid healthcare models.
Use QuillBot’s free AI Chat to come up with even more compare and contrast essay topics.
- How should I start a compare and contrast essay?
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The best way to start a compare and contrast essay is to clearly state the works or topics being studied and your main thesis statement.
As with any essay, planning is important, and apart from timed examinations, it is best to leave writing the introduction until last.
You can make sure you have removed any errors in your essay by using the free QuillBot Grammar Checker.
