Throughout your student life, you will come across various writing assignments, each of which has a requirement of its own. A common type of writing assignment is comparison essays. In these essays, you have focus on how certain ideas or things are similar or different to each other. Comparison essay topics usually provide a huge scope for writing about your ideas or your perspective.
Usually, with these essays, you have to compare and contrast two ideas or entities. Comparison essays are meant to encourage critical thinking, making connection between ideas and going beyond descriptive summaries for performing analysis. When you analyse the difference and similarities between two items, you gain a deeper understanding about their relationship.
You get ample space for creativity in comparison essays. You are free to express your thoughts on some of the contradictive issues as well. Having said that, despite all the creative freedom, comparison essays are not that easy to complete for students.
Defining comparison essays
As mentioned before, comparison essays mainly analyse two ideas or subjects. Mostly, these assignments require comparing and contrasting the said idea. However, it isn’t simply about listing all the differences and similarities between the subjects. Instead, comparison essay topics allow you to draw lines between the subjects to describe a general overall idea. These essays mostly look into the relationship between the subjects.
An outline for comparison essays
With most essays, the hardest part is always getting started. Comparison essays are not any exception in this regard. Most students don’t know how to start writing their essays and end up procrastinating for hours
Before you start writing your essay, you should familiarize yourself with the general outline you should follow. By keeping the outline in mind, you are always on the right track. Not only that, since you know what needs to be used where, you have more chances of generating ideas. In brief, your comparison essay should follow an outline consisting of:
- Introduction:
You need to introduce your readers to the comparison essay topics in an engaging to catch their attention. You can use a fun fact, a quote, statistic or just general information to get your users hooked at the very beginning. Thereon, you can transition to the specific idea or subject you are going to talk about. There should be a thesis statement at the end of the introduction, specifying the main ideas you wish to compare.
- Body:
The main portion of your essay should be well organized, with all your points of comparison clearly explained. You can both enlist the ideas one by one and compare both sides at the same time. You can even write down the points of similarities and differences one by one. No matter which way you decide to write your essay, you should make sure there are proper explanations for providing a deeper insight.
- Conclusion:
Conclusions are mainly mean for summarizing the main points of discussion. Depending on the comparison essay topics, you can also write a short analysis, demonstrating the importance of the concerned subject.
Helpful tips
The very idea of writing essays can be overwhelming, particularly if you have other pending projects to work on. Not to mention, you might even have an upcoming exam to study for. If you are nervous about writing your comparison essay, simply stick to the following basic tips:
- Stay to the point:
The entirety of your writing should be consistent; you should never diverge from your comparison essay topics. Identify the main idea of your essay and stick to it. If you are asked to compare, try writing about both similarities and differences.
- Identify the points for comparison:
You can make a list of points on which you can compare given subjects. Once you have a list, try identifying the points which are meaningful and make for an interesting read. Try ignoring the trivial or superficial points for comparison.
- Inform the reader:
It is necessary to write your essay assuming that your reader doesn’t know anything. Sometimes, you may not mention a relevant information because you suppose the reader or your teacher already knows about it. Never do that! Remember, through your essay, your job is to inform your readers, so you should include all the relevant information.
- Back your writing:
Just like any other essays, backing up your information with evidence always helps. When you choose comparison essay topics, you should go for the one you think you can back up with facts. The points you make throughout the essay seem stronger if they are mentioned with the right facts and evidence.
Some interesting topics to write on
Choosing the right topic can always seem to be a confusing decision. You must always select a topic that you can relate to and have enough knowledge about. Of course, the topic should be interesting enough for the readers as well. Here are a few comparison essay topics you can consider:
- Diet vs Healthy Eating-
Comparison for weight loss effectiveness: Both these methods are concerned about changing eating habits for inducing loss of weight. Dieting is mainly about strictly limiting intake of certain food. On the other hand, healthy eating is more having healthier food items in your daily meals. You can compare the different approach of these two methods and their effectiveness in the short term and long term.
- Traditional Education vs Online Education:
While traditional education is still massively prevalent, online education has come as an interesting approach to studying. You can compare the flaws and benefits of each of these studying methods. Try to analyse the more efficient mode of education in modern times, taking all necessary factors into consideration.
- Karma vs Fate:
A lot of the times, Karma and fate are considered to be the same things. You can write a comparison essay on karma vs fate to point out the difference between the two beliefs. You can also discuss how inherently similar they are.
Apart from these, there are many more comparison essay topics to choose from. No matter which topic you choose, try to come up with an interesting write-up.