What a good question, and a good place to start. A compare and contrast essay is any essay you are assigned (or choose to write for fun) which asks you to discuss two pieces of literature at once. Typically you will see the terms compare and contrast in your prompt. As you may have guessed by now the goal of this type of essay is to discuss how the given works are similar, and how they are different.
That sounds easy enough, but writing a good compare and contrast paper that isn’t just meaningless drivel is more complicated than it sounds. Your essay, like all the essays you write, should present a challengeable argument. An argument is a statement which people can disagree about. The goal of your essay is to persuade the reader to support your argument. The best essays will be those which take a strong stance on a topic, and use evidence to support that stance, and a compare and contrast essay is no different. Remember, if all you have accomplished in you essay is telling the reader why two works are different, you have wasted both your time, and theirs. Sometimes though, coming up with a cohesive argument in a compare and contrast essay is difficult – it’s important that your argument addresses both texts, and all parts of the prompt.
To create an argument about two or more works, the first thing you have to do is read the texts. This seems rather obvious, but you would be surprised how many students try to skip that step. In particular, make sure you read the texts together. Sometimes you read two texts over the course of a semester and at least one of them becomes hazy in your memory. If you read them together it becomes easier to remember both, and pick out common trends, so before you do anything else grab both texts and read them. WAIT, STOP!
How to Read
Before you read your texts, let’s talk about how you read. I know, you’re a big shot, you’re reading right now, so why do you need a lesson in reading. Because, academic reading is different than normal reading. From now on, never read without a pen in your hand. As you read you should be marking relevant passages, making notes in margins and looking for themes and trends. If you haven’t broken the spine of your book, I can guarantee you haven’t gotten everything out of it. So now, go back through the texts you are writing about and annotate them. Circle the author’s argument – every author has one – if you can’t find one line that best sums up the argument write what you think it is in the margin. Go through and mark important passages – the sections that stand out to you as especially meaningful – and explain why. Mark recurring themes – in a longer text this is especially important as it helps you pull out arguments later. Note important literary techniques like similes, metaphors, allusions, etc.
By the time you’re done, your text should look something like this:
PICTURE
Now that you know how to read, let’s get back to writing your essay.
So, you’ve reread and annotated your texts but now we still have to create an argument for your essay. To do so, look at your texts side by side. Are they by the same author? Do they discuss the same topic? Do they seem to be in agreement or disagreement?
Your argument about these texts should incorporate both, and take a strong stance on an issue. You should be able to condense your strong stance into one or two concrete sentences called your thesis statement. The thesis of your essay should clearly lay out what you will be arguing for in your essay. Again, a good thesis statement will present your challengeable argument – the thing you are trying to prove.
Let’s suppose your prompt looks something like this:
Consider the poems Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Compare and contrast how the two poets discuss nature and modern society.
Given that prompt, how would we form an argument?
One potential way to approach this prompt is to look at the subject of the poem, the imagery in the poem and the tone of the poem. The Wordsworth poem (reproduced below) takes as its subject the city of London, whereas the Frost poem discusses the beauty of the mysterious woods. The imagery of the each poem is also very different, partly because of the different subjects, but also because the poets are trying to elicit different emotions. Wordsworth’s imagery brings to mind majesty and power, whereas Frost’s brings a quiet almost lonely air. Finally, though, the tone of both pieces is remarkably similar. Though each is describing something very different, they each seem to be describing their scene with the same sense of awe and wonder. The idealized subject is different in each poem, but the idealization is the same. Frost is longing for the calm mysterious woods and lamenting his need to return to the world, whereas Wordsworth is celebrating the beauty of the city, naming it the most beautiful sight he has seen.
It can therefore be argued that Wordsworth and Frost have contrasting opinions on modern society – Frost laments that modernity seems to have taken all the mystery and freedom out of life, whereas Wordsworth celebrates the modern world as a beautiful entity full of promise.
Given all this, we might form a thesis statement which looked something like this:
Thesis: In the poems Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and Composed Upon Westminster Bridge both Frost and Wordsworth describe a beautiful sight, but for each that beautiful sight is different – Wordsworth sees the city of London, whereas Frost observes a snowy wood. The imagery and tone used by each poet reveals their contrasting views on modern society.
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
by William Wordsworth
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
The introduction is the first part of your essay anyone will read and so it is the most important. People make up their minds about the quality of a paper within the first few lines, so it’s important that you start strong. The introduction of your paper must layout the basic premise behind the paper. It should include any background knowledge essential to understanding your argument that is not directly addressed in your paper. In addition, your introduction should telegraph to a reader what your argument will be, and what topics you will discuss. In order write a good intro, there are a few essential elements which you must have.
First, every good introduction has to have a snappy opening or hook. Your first few lines must be engaging to the reader the same way it’s important to make a good impression with a new classmate. Resist the urge to open your paper with a famous quote. Readers never respond favorably to irrelevant epigraphs. Worse still, is the tired tradition of opening your essay with a definition. If your essay opens with “Webster’s dictionary defines blank as…” then you have some serious editing to do. You should always write your papers as though they are being read by an equally educated individual who is not a member of your class. As such, you should assume they already know the definitions of the key terms you are using, or able to look them up on their own time. Instead, you should try to introduce the topic of your paper in some informal way using a relevant anecdote, rhetorical question, interesting fact or metaphor. Your introduction should start out broadly and so your hook can begin introducing your topic informally. At the same time however, your hook must be relevant enough to lead into the meat of your paper.
Once you have a hook and have begun to introduce your topic, it is important to provide a roadmap for your essay. The roadmap is the portion of your introduction in which you briefly explain to your reader where your essay is going. The clearer your roadmap is the more engaged the reader will be. Generally speaking, you should devote one or two sentences to introducing the main ideas in each of your body paragraphs. By doing this you allow the reader to better understand the direction your essay will take. They will know what each body paragraph will be about and understand right way what your argument is and how plan to prove it.
Finally every introduction must include your thesis statement. As discussed above, our thesis statement should be the specific statement of what you are arguing. Make sure it is as clear as possible. The thesis statement should be at the end of your introduction. When you first begin writing essays, it is usually a good idea to make the thesis statement the final sentence of your introduction, but you can play around with the placement of the components of the introduction as you master the art of essay writing.
Remember, a good introduction should be shaped like a funnel. In the beginning your introduction starts broadly, but as it gets more specific as it goes, eventually culminating in the very specific thesis statement.
The body paragraphs of your essay are the meat of the work. It is in this section that you must do the most writing. All of your sub-arguments and evidence which prove your thesis are contained within the body of your essay. Writing this section can be a daunting task – especially if you are faced with what seems like an enormous expanse of blank pages to fill. Have no fear. Though the essay may seem intimidating to completely finish, practice will make essay writing seem easier, and by following these tips you can ensure the body of your essay impresses your reader.
It helps to consider each individual paragraph as an essay within itself. At the beginning of each new paragraph you should have a topic sentence. The topic sentence explains what the paragraph is about and how it relates to your thesis statement. In this way the topic sentence acts like the introduction to the paragraph. Next you must write the body of the paragraph itself – the facts and evidence which support the topic sentence. Finally, you need a conclusion to the paragraph which explains how what you just wrote about related to the main thesis.
Approaching each body paragraph as its own mini essay makes writing the whole paper seem much less intimidating. By breaking the essay up into smaller portions, it’s much easier to tackle the project as a whole.
Another great way to make essay writing easier is to create an outline. We’ll demonstrate how to do that next. Making a through outline will ensure that you always know where you are going. It makes it much easier to write the whole essay quickly, and you’ll never run into the problem of writers block, because you will always have someplace to go next.
The final part of your essay is the conclusion. The conclusion is the last part of your essay that anyone will read, so it is important that it is also as strong as the introduction. The conclusion should synthesize you argument into one succinct paragraph. You should reiterate your thesis statement – though in slightly different words – and explain how the thesis was proved. Be sure that your conclusion does not simply summarize your paper, but rather ensure that it enhances it. The best way to do this is by explaining how your whole argument fits together. Show in your conclusion that the examples you picked were not just random, but fit together to tell a compelling story.
The best conclusions will also attempt to answer the question of ‘so what?’ Why did you write this paper? What meaning can be taken from it? Can it teach us something about the world today or does it enhance our knowledge of the past? By relating your paper back to the bigger picture you are able to enhance your work by placing it within the larger discussion. If the reader knows what they have gained from reading your paper, then it will have greater meaning to them.