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What is a Compare And Contrast Essay?

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.

What does it mean?

  • Comparing means finding similarities between the two things. The words you might be using when comparing are in addition, compared to, correspondingly, at the same time, similarly, etc.

And what does contrast mean?

  • Contrasting means finding the differences between those two things. So, the type of words you may want to use when working on this type of analysis include however, on the other hand, on the contrary, in contrast, even though, and so on.

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.

How to Begin a Compare And Contrast 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.

  • Before you start writing your paper, you need to come up with a topic (if you don’t have one yet).
  • Once you are done with it, make a list of the main similarities and differences of the thing you are discussing in your essay.
  • Organize your thoughts by turning your main points into one central argument.
  • Write an introduction.
  • Based on which essay structure you choose, write your body paragraph.
  • Wrap up your essay.
  • …and don’t forget to proofread you’re the whole paper!

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).

Organize Your Compare And Contrast Essay

When it comes to compare and contrast essay, there are two main types of essay structures. What exactly are they? Let’s find out!

  1. Block structure

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.

  1. Alternating structure

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.

Compare And Contrast Essay Examples For College Students

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!

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