All essays are tough, but when you don’t have a lot of experience doing one sort, it can be difficult to know where to start. Take, for example, compare and contrast essays, which are relatively common, but which teachers don’t necessarily prepare you for. Where do you even start planning? Below are some helpful tips and recommendations on how to write one.
With compare and contrast writing, you need plenty of things to be able to compare and contrast! Make sure that, even before you start writing, you gather lots of interesting facts and information about the subject you are writing on so that you will have plenty of examples and arguments to use throughout. This will make your essay seem even more professional and will get the best marks. It will also make the topic more interesting and the essay easier, since the more you know about a subject, the simpler it is to write about!
At every point in your writing, you need to make sure that what you are writing is relevant to the topic of the essay and the question. Ask yourself whether you are actually contrasting something or whether you are, in fact, just waffling about nothing. Make sure that everything you are writing is relevant and interesting to read, and that is going to make a point that will help answer the question. This can sometimes be difficult to do, so, if necessary, ask someone else to read through your work and let you know if you aren’t doing the right sort of things in your writing.
Make sure that your essay is balanced. An easy way to do this is to highlight each of the examples you have given and contrasted and to count whether they are a similar number of words long. This way, you know that you have given equal weight to each side of the comparison, and the essay will sound more balanced and will flow better. Also remember to read your work through at the very end when it is finished and ask yourself whether it sounds balanced and fair or whether, perhaps, it is lopsided and you need to add more to one side or take some away from another side. Balance in compare and contrast writing is extremely important!
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