Comparison Essay

A comparison essay is one that a pupil writes in order to compare two or more works of literature, ideas, events, or topics.  Comparison essays are very popular academic works because they not only require learners to become familiar with a broad variety of subjects, but because they can also show a professor how well a student understands important concepts.

When a student creates a comparative assignment, the student needs to learn about a particular topic or work in depth.  Different academic subjects may require that learners write comparison essays on different topics.  For example, a comparison essay for a chemistry class may require that learners write about the process by which two different chemical compounds bond.  A comparison essay for an English class might require that students analyze character development in two works of literature by the same author.  Therefore, one comparison essay may not be written in the same way as another comparison article.

In order to create an effective comparative assignment, the student needs to first understand what he or she will compare.  In many cases, a professor will define what he or she would like his or her students to write about.  In other cases, learners will need to come up with their own topics for comparison.  Students should understand the specific requirements of an assignment prior to beginning their comparison essays.  

The general format for a comparison essay will be similar, no matter what the student is comparing or for what subject.  Comparison reports should begin with an introduction that includes information about the topics, a brief background of the topics, information about why the student is comparing two topics or works, and a thesis.  The comparison report should be in third person.

The thesis should state the purpose.  For example, if a student is writing about two literary works, a thesis might be something like, "Character development in Book A was more effective because the author included more background information about the characters than in Book B."  The body of the document would then discuss why the student believes that Book A was more effective than Book B.  Each paragraph should include new information that supports the thesis.

A comparison report is different than a traditional article because the thesis and the format are both different.  In a traditional article, the format of the report resembles an inverted triangle, with important information introduced in the beginning and specific conclusions introduced at the end.  Each paragraph of a traditional assignment follows the same format as well.  Also, in a traditional article, the thesis generally follows an "if, then" statement, wherein the author states that if something occurs, then a certain thing happens.  

In a comparative assignment, students may not use "if, then" statements to compare two topics or works.  Instead, they may just provide a play-by-play comparison.  An "if, then" statement may not always be an effective way to compare two topics or works.  Because the student may wish to provide a play-by-play comparison, rather than drawing a specific conclusion, the student may not follow an inverted pyramid structure when writing comparison essays.  Therefore, traditional articles and comparison essays may have a very different structure, purpose, and format.

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