College Essays

Compare and Contrast Essays

Compare and contrast. These words are paired together so often that in academic terms they are often shortened to C and C. It is not uncommon to see something like this on an exam: C&C the female characters in Othello and King Lear.

Compare: You have to find the similarities between two or more things. Similarities can include character traits, history, properties, actions… basically anything. Contrast: You must find the differences about two or more things.

Be comparing and contrasting you learn more about both sides through the other. By examining what is similar between two characters, for example, you learn more truth about both characters individually. By contrasting two places, for example, you learn how they are different, and those differences strengthen the identities of the individual places.

You cannot compare and contrast just anything. There have to be enough similarities and enough differences to allow for new revelations about each. You have to do more than say “A and B are similar because they are both women. They are different because A is married and B is not.” These are obvious similarities and differences. It would be far more interesting to say something like “A and B are both women who must deal with husbands who are emotionally distant.” “Unlike A, whose marriage was one of political necessity, B was able to marry entirely out of love and desire.” These points, while quite simple, can make for much more interesting points that will strengthen the identities and illuminate the characters of A and B.

Compare and contrast essays can be challenging. Careful planning will do a lot to help you formulate the argument, but you can’t really tell how effective your points will be until you start writing. It can be easy to gloss over certain aspects or to create a compare and contrast essay that is not evenly weighted.

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