In any position you occupy in society, you need to understand how to write comparative essay either as a requirement in your company, or to gain an excellent grade in your class. HomeWork Kingdom can help you write an excellent essay by taking the burden off your shoulder and writing it for you. Alternatively, if you prefer writing the essay yourself, this blog covers the tricks of writing a good comparative essay.

What is a Comparative Essay?

A comparative essay is a type of essay in the academic environment that aims to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of two concepts, ideas or objects. In a scholarly context, comparative essays are written to compare and contrast the similarities of two or more theories in order to settle with the most feasible and practical approach. They are often referred as compare and contrast essays. An excellent example of a compare and contrast essay is “Write an Essay Comparing the Afterlife Beliefs of Christians and Muslims.” For this essay, you will require to research on the afterlife beliefs of both Christians and Muslims, record the similarities and then record the differences. The following points will help you learn how to write an excellent compare and contrast essay. 

Invest Your Time on Research

Comparative essays require the author to have done due diligence in researching on the topic on interest. In most cases, the topic is always given. Research requires the writer to first select the most reliable sources of information on the topic. Part 1 of the “How to Write Professionally in APA Style” series offers very instrumental insights on research and note taking. The most reliable sources are academic/scholarly peer reviewed articles. These are the type of articles you should base your research on when writing a comparative essay.

The Introduction Paragraph

The introduction paragraph of a comparative essay is similar to the introduction paragraphs of other essays as described HERE. The paragraph has all the components of an introduction paragraph. However, the thesis statement is the most important to consider in writing this essay. It must contain the similarities and the differences of the topic being discussed. For example, “The similarity between volleyball and football is that both sports are played with a circular ball while the difference is that football is played using feet while volleyball is played using hands” The thesis statement must have a conjunction such as while or whereas to separate the similarities and the differences. 

Body Paragraphs

The similarities body paragraphs are separate from the differences body paragraphs. The writer begins with the similarities, each similarity in its own paragraph. The first line of the paragraph is the topic sentence, which highlights the similarity to be discussed. For example: “The first similarity between lions and leopards is that both species belong to the cat family.” The differences paragraphs are also structured similarly, only that in this case the topic sentence highlights the differences. The rest of the paragraph follows the normal structure of a body paragraph as described HERE.

Conclusion Paragraph

The conclusion paragraph begins with the restatement of the thesis statement. The author then summarizes the similarities followed by the differences. In this case, the author is not expected to pick a stand. They are only expected to demonstrate that they can objectify the similarities and differences of a given topic. The length of the essay depends on the similarities or differences available, or the word count restriction given.