Introduction
Compare and contrast essays are specific types of essays that contains any paragraphs discussing the similarities and differences between two topics, ideas or subjects. In simple words, in compare and contrast essays, two topics or subjects are compared and contrasted with each other n order to analyze the similarities and differences between these ideas. In these types of essays, compare means identifying the similarities between the topics and contrasting means analyzing the differences between the two topics (Ariyanti, 2021). In order to compare and contrast between two topics or ideas, it is important for the author of the essay to develop in depth knowledge regarding both the two topics for writing the essay properly. For this reason, the essay writers need to do enough research on these topics and for this reason; the authors also develop enough knowledge regarding these topics. Therefore, a large number of people think that compare and contrast essays can help the authors to develop in depth knowledge regarding various topics because the compare and contrast essays can be written in any topics. The main objective of the essay is to discuss various aspects of compare and contrast essay, its definition and topics with specific examples.
Discussions
Comparing and contrasting is important for developing in-depth knowledge regarding various topics and ideas. A large number of students are often asked to write compare and contrast essays in order to develop in-depth knowledge regarding various areas of the subjects they are studying. Compare and Contrast essays are those specific essays that discuss two or more topics and the discussion often remains highly focused on comparing the similarities and differences between the topics and contrasting two or more concepts ((Mustika and Adnan, 2019). Sometimes, the focus of these essays remain solely on comparing two objects, concepts, or ideas, and sometimes, the focus remains on exclusively contrasting between these two ideas or topics (Butte College, 2020). It mainly depends on the choice of topics and the main objectives of the essay. In order to write a compare and contrast essay, the author first needs to identify two topics that can be compared and contrasted with each other. These means the topic might be some similarities in relation to their theme but need to have some differences in terms of their concepts and utilities. In case, the author wants to examine two philosophical or political topics, the author needs to make sure that the topics are thematically related to each other. To know more students can take help from SourceEssay essay writing help experts online.
For example, if the author wants to compare and contrast between the McClelland’s theory of motivation and Maslow’s theory of motivation, the author can make sure that the two theories are theories of motivation and thus they are thus thematically connected to each other. However, the concepts are different because the theories are introduced by two different persons. For this reason, the author of the essay can easily compare and contrast between the two ideas and can analyze the similarities and differences between these two concepts (Tate and Hopkins, 2020). In this context, it is better for the author to list the similarities and differences between the ideas that are being compared and contrasted in the essay. Listing of similarities and differences is important for developing in-depth knowledge regarding the two topics or ideas that are being compared and contrasted in the essay. In order to write an effective compare and contrast essay, the author needs to perform enough research regarding the two ideas or topics that need to be compared and contrasted in the essay (Shen and Troia, 2021). In this context, the author can present his comparing and contrasting skills when the author has a clear idea regarding the backgrounds of the topics and the specific features or various aspects of these two ideas.
Otherwise, it might become difficult for the author to present his ideas in a coherent and organized way. In this regard, it is not enough for the author to have in-depth knowledge regarding the two topics that are being compared and contrasted in the essay, In this context, the author also needs to have the required presented skills and written communication skills so that the author can present the similarities and differences between the two topics to the audience. According essay help experts consider all these facts, it can be said that the authors of the compare and contrast essay need to have in-depth knowledge regarding the topics or ideas that are subjects of discussion in the essay and along with that, the authors of the essay also need to have required presentation skills and writing skills so that he can present the similarities and differences between the topics in an organized way to the readers of the essay (Lee and Deakin, 2016). This is the main reason for which the students are often asked to write compare and contrast essays on various areas of their studies so that the students can develop in-depth knowledge regarding theses areas of their studies.
For example, if a student is doing higher studies in Economics, the students can be asked to compare and contrast the economies of Japan and Oman a there are significant differences between various aspects of the economies of both the countries (Davidson and Berninger, 2016). The student needs to write a compare and contrast essay by comparing and contrasting various aspects of the economies of the two countries. In this context, the topic of the essay has been chosen carefully considering the fact that there are significant differences between the economies of the two countries but the two topics (The economy of Japan and the economy of Oman) are also thematically connected to each other. In order to write the compare and contrast essay perfectly, the student needs to take some preparation before writing. First of all, the student need to conduct enough research regarding various aspects of the economies, namely, the type of economies, the government policies for economic growth, trade regulations export and important practices and various factors that can influence business transactions and commercial activities in both the countries.
According to coursework help London experts the main difference between the two economies is that the economy of Oman is dependent on agriculture and the economy of Japan is mainly dependent on technical revolution and commercial activities. After doing enough research, they need to note down their findings regarding the economies of both the countries and after that they need to present their findings in a concise way in the essay (Ariyanti, 2021). Even the school students can also be asked about writing compare and contrast essays. However, the topics might be different and simple like comparison between the lifestyle of village or rural areas and the lifestyle in cities or urban areas. In order to write this type of compare and contrast essays, the students need not to do enough research but they need to observe the lifestyle of people in the rural areas and they also need to observe the lifestyle of people in the urban areas.
In some cases, if the students do not get enough chances of closely observing the lifestyle of people in both the urban areas and the rural areas, the students might need help from the teachers or they can also do online search or can read some books that depicts the lifestyle of people in the rural areas and in the urban areas (Redman and Maples, 2017). After gathering enough information regarding the lifestyle of people in the rural areas and in the urban areas, the students need to organize the information into their mind and they need to understand the basic differences between the works that people perform throughout the day in both the rural areas and in the urban areas. In this process, the students can easily understand the similarities and differences between the lifestyles of people in the rural areas and the urban areas. In this context, the students might come to know that there are some similarities between the lifestyles of the people who are school goers and office goers in both the urban areas and the rural areas.
The children studying in the school also go to the school in urban areas and the children in the rural areas also go to the school in the rural areas. However, there might be a basic difference like the children in the urban areas might go to the school by using the school bus and the children in the rural areas might go to their school by walking. Similarly, a large number of people in the rural areas might take agriculture as their profession and they need to go to the corps field everyday in order to take care of the corps. However, in the urban areas, the majority of the people are associated with manufacturing products, doing some technical works or they are associated with any type of service industry and in the urban areas, there are very few people who are associated with the agriculture profession. Thus, the students can find that there are significant similarities and differences between the lifestyle of people in rural areas and in urban areas. After analyzing the similarities and differences between the lifestyles of people in the rural areas and the urban areas, the students need to list the similarities and the differences separately in a notebook. To know more students can take help from online assignment help experts online.
After that, they might take attempt to express their findings by writing a compare and contrast essay and in the essay, they need to express their ideas in an organized and coherent way so that the readers of the essay can also analyze the similarities and differences between the lifestyles of people in the urban areas and in the rural areas (Bouwer et al. 2018). In this particular case, while doing the research regarding the lifestyle of people in both the rural and the urban areas, the students can gain in-depth knowledge regarding the lifestyles in both areas and they can also understand the challenges that the rural people and the urban people face in their daily lives. In this process, they develop in-depth knowledge regarding the lifestyles of people in rural areas and in urban areas (Mustika and Adnan, 2019). Along with that, their research skills and observation skills also improve while doing research regarding the lifestyles of people in different areas. Besides this, when the students will try to present their findings in writing, their writing skills or their skills of performing written communication will also improve. According to the essay typer, considering all these facts, it can be said that practicing compare and contrast essays is very important for enhancing knowledge regarding various topics, for improving research skills, and also for improving writing skills (Arnold et al. 2017). For this reason, the teachers in schools and universities need to provide the students enough opportunities to write compare and contrast essays on various topics.
Conclusion
The study discusses about different aspects of compare and contrast essays. In this context, the overall process of topic selection, research and writing the essay with correct information has been discussed in the essay and the main benefits of writing compare and contrast essays have also been revealed in this study. From the above discussions, it can be concluded that compare and contrast essay is a specific type of essay that mainly focuses on analyzing the similarities and differences between two ideas or topics. For this reason, the topics of these essays need to be chosen carefully considering the fact that the two topics that are being compared and contrasted are thematically related to each other but they have significant differences between each other. It has also been revealed in the study that during the process of writing the compare and contrast essays, the author of the essay develops in-depth knowledge regarding various factors. Along with that, the research skills and writing skills of the author of the essay also improves. For this reason, the teachers need to encourage the students to write compare and contrast essays on various topics.
References
Ariyanti, A., 2021. EFL Students’ Use of Transition Signals in Essay Writing. Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, 6(1), pp.285-294.
Arnold, K.M., Umanath, S., Thio, K., Reilly, W.B., McDaniel, M.A. and Marsh, E.J., 2017. Understanding the cognitive processes involved in writing to learn.
Bouwer, R., Lesterhuis, M., Bonne, P. and De Maeyer, S., 2018, October. Applying criteria to examples or learning by comparison: Effects on students’ evaluative judgment and performance in writing.
Davidson, M. and Berninger, V., 2016. Informative, compare and contrast, and persuasive essay composing of fifth and seventh graders: Not all essay writing is the same.
Lee, J.J. and Deakin, L., 2016. Interactions in L1 and L2 undergraduate student writing: Interactional metadiscourse in successful and less-successful argumentative essays.
Mustika, S. and Adnan, A., 2019. Teaching writing comparison contrast essay by using Venn diagram to second year sudents of English department.
Redman, P. and Maples, W., 2017. Good essay writing: a social sciences guide. Sage.
Shen, M. and Troia, G.A.,2021. Teaching Struggling Writers to Be Strategic: How to Write Good Compare-Contrast Essays.