Students frequently need to write essays and papers during their school, college, or university years. But if only things were that simple and there was only one type of essay! Writing essays wouldn’t be so embarrassing, don’t you think so? You know the drill and stick to the working scheme to churn out essays like nothing.
But it turns out that there are different types of essays and they all have the approved outline every student should adhere to. So, in this article, we are going to detail how to write a compare and contrast essay outline.
A perfectly written outline will help you avoid common errors and be your reliable lighthouse on your way to comparing ideas, objects, books, characters, personalities, whatever. It will enable writing faster and smoother, so you won’t be jumping between the ideas and making your essay a complete mess.
What Is a Compare and Contrast Essay?
Just like the name implies, this type of essay compares and examines two contrasting ideas, objects, personalities, book or movie characters, etc. It means the goal of the essay is to explain the similarities and dissimilarities between the opposite things.
Mind that when you compare two things, you dwell on the common features. Contrasting means defining the ways in which two subjects of the essay are different.
This essay type can be applied in a great variety of areas, that is why it’s commonly used by teachers to check the understanding of the subject matter on a massive scale. It is meant to train analysis, observation, and critical thinking in students.
Before You Start Writing an Outline
As you see, compare and contrast format can be challenging because of the great amount of work you’ve got to do. If you fail to organize yourself and your thoughts, you will end up having a poorly written essay that doesn’t meet the main objective of this writing piece - to compare and contrast things.
To ensure you do everything right, you’ve got to be equipped with the instruments that would save your time and effort when writing an outline for a compare and contrast essay. Here are some tips for you.
- When picking the subjects by yourself, make sure they can be compared and contrasted. It means that the subjects should fall within the same category, but have some dissimilarities.
- Analyze what unites these two things. Write the points down in the middle of the paper.
- Find out what differentiates two subjects. Write these ideas in two separate columns on the same page.
- Pick two or three brightest points from the similarity section and the same quantity of dissimilarities that could be contrasted.
- If it turns out that you lack some information about the subjects, do your research to be equipped with all the facts.
Circles Will Help You Find the Core of the Essay
One more technique would help you define what aspects of the things you have to compare and contrast are alike and different. Draw two big overlapping circles. The section where the circles overlap is the place to write down all the similarities you’ve found between the subjects. Then, write the distinguished features of one subject in the left circle, and do the same for another subject on the right side. In this way, you’ll have a well-structured picture of what to compare and contrast.
To sum it up, don’t try to compare and contrast Abraham Lincoln to SpaceX. Of course, the American president and the aerospace manufacturer are noted by some groundbreaking ideas and missions, but they fall within two different domains and even do not belong to the same category. How can you compare a living being to an entire enterprise? So, pick the subject type wisely and define the most prominent characteristics that might be compared and contrasted.
Now, when you’ve done the preparation work and made up your mind about the key points of the subject matter, you can finally set to writing a compare and contrast essay outline.
How to Structure a Compare and Contrast Essay - Two Approaches
When it comes to structuring the essay, there are two basic options for you to choose from: the point-by-point and block methods. Even though the sequence of the facts you use in the essay differs, don’t forget that the compare and contrast essay has to address specific goals:
- show that one thing is superior or inferior to another;
- clarify the hardly seen difference or common misunderstandings;
- consider two points of view and see them in a completely different perspective;
- figure out a new approach towards doing or comprehending something.
Also, keep in mind that every essay has the structure proved by centuries regardless of its type. No matter how inventive you are, this is a classic outline commonly used even by the most famous writers:
- introduction;
- body;
- conclusion.
The introduction of the essay should actualize the topic and explain why the two subjects are compared under the same theme. Don’t make a too-long introduction. Keep it short and catchy.
The body of the essay can contain any number of paragraphs you think are relevant to your topic. But mind that the paragraphs should be grouped by the ideas they deliver. just take it as a rule - one paragraph = one idea.
When you reach the conclusion section, summarize everything you’ve been writing in your essay. Do not introduce any new ideas at this point. A conclusion is a place for synthesizing the thesis from the body and making your evaluations.
The introduction and conclusion sections are always the same, no matter what comparing and contrasting method you choose. So, the 1 and 5 paragraphs of compare and contrast essay outline always introduces the topic and draws conclusions about the subjects. But you’ll see some changes in the way the body of the essay is arranged. Below, you’ll find how to structure your essay according to the point-by-point and block approaches.
Point by Point Essay Outline
When resorting to point-by-point structure, you dwell on similarities and differences of the subjects simultaneously. It means that when you are done with the list of common features of these language variations, you start explaining their dissimilarities by a common characteristic. For example:
INTRODUCTION
- present a topic;
- introduce the subjects you are going to compare;
- make a thesis by what characteristics you’ll be contrasting the subjects;
BODY
- paragraph - Point 1;
- thesis 1;
- subject 1 - Argument;
- subject 2 - Argument;
- paragraph - Point 2;
- thesis 2;
- subject 1 - Argument;
- subject 2 - Argument;
- paragraph - Point 3;
- thesis 3;
- subject 1 - Argument;
- subject 2 - Argument;
CONCLUSION
- sum it up;
- give your own evaluation.
This method is mainly used when there is a need to compare subjects that are nearly the same. Also, choose this approach when you’ve got to dwell only on several characteristics without an in-depth analysis.
Block Essay Outline
The block essay structure implies presenting the information about subjects by blocks. It means that you dwell on all the features and characteristics of one subject first, and then switch to another one. Let’s see an example:
INTRODUCTION
- present a topic;
- introduce the subjects you are going to compare;
- make a thesis by what characteristics you’ll be contrasting the subjects;
BODY
- paragraph - Subject 1;
- thesis 1;
- point 1;
- point 2;
- point 3;
- paragraph - Subject 2;
- thesis 1;
- point 1;
- point 2;
- point 3
CONCLUSION
- sum it up;
- give your evaluation.
It’s better to use the block method of the essay structuring when comparing two different subjects or contrasting them by different criteria. So, when there are too many dissimilarities between the subjects and you’ve got to use different characteristics for making the comparison, the block approach is a great solution to outline your essay.
Which Compare and Contrast Essay Format to Choose?
Both formats of outlining the essay have their pros and cons. It’s clear that the block essay is much easier to use as you lay down the arguments and facts about one subject at a time. Literally, it is the reader who should match up what’s common and different in the specified subjects and in what way they correlate.
The point-by-point format is harder to write but is easier for the reader to understand. You contrast two subjects simultaneously, taking a specific feature into account. In this way, you make differences more clear, but it will require more analytical efforts from your side.
When deciding on which format to use for your essay, also mind that the block method is more suitable for subjects compared by different criteria or the ones that are too unattached to be compared. While using a point-by-point outline will work great for subjects that have distinct common features which can be compared side-by-side.
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