Feminist criticism is concerned with "the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson 83) Usually, an essay has the format of an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Critical analysis is essential to essay writing. One way you can demonstrate this is by summarising and paraphrasing other writers, by comparing, contrasting and evaluating their ideas. You can use this analysis to construct your own opinions, questions or Feb 06, · Compare and contrast essays are academic papers in which a student analyses two or more subjects with each other. To compare means to explore similarities between subjects, while to contrast means to look at their differences. Both subjects of the comparison are usually in the same category, although they have their differences
Essay writing | Students
By assigning such essays, your instructors are encouraging you to make connections between texts or ideas, engage in critical thinking, and go beyond mere description or summary to generate interesting analysis: when you reflect on similarities and differences, you gain a deeper understanding of the items you are comparing, their relationship to each other, and what is most important about them.
Here are a few hypothetical examples:. You may want to check out our handout on understanding assignments for additional tips. Making a Venn diagram or a chart can help you quickly and efficiently compare and contrast two or more things or ideas. In the central area where comparing and contrasting essay overlap, list the traits the two items have in common.
To make a chart, figure out what criteria you want to focus on in comparing the items. Along the left side of the page, list each of the criteria. Across the top, list the names of the items. As you generate points of comparison, consider the purpose and content of the assignment and the focus of the class. How does it fit with what you have been studying so far and with the other assignments in the course? Are there any clues about what to focus on in the assignment itself? Here are some general questions about different types of things you might have to compare, comparing and contrasting essay.
You may want to begin by using the questions reporters traditionally ask: Who? By now you have probably generated a huge list of similarities and differences—congratulations! Next you must decide which of them are interesting, important, and relevant enough to be included in your paper. Ask yourself these questions:. Suppose that you are writing a paper comparing two novels. However, if you were writing a paper for a class on typesetting or on how illustrations are used to enhance novels, the typeface and presence or absence of illustrations might be absolutely critical to include in your final paper.
Sometimes a particular point of comparison or contrast might be relevant but not terribly revealing or interesting. Talking about the different ways nature is depicted or the different aspects of nature that are emphasized might be more interesting and show a more sophisticated understanding of the poems. Be careful, though—although this thesis is fairly specific and does propose a simple argument that atmosphere and delivery make the two pizza places differentcomparing and contrasting essay, your instructor will often be looking for a bit more analysis.
Again, thinking about the context the class provides may help you answer such questions and make a comparing and contrasting essay argument. You may find our handout on constructing thesis statements useful at this stage. The danger of this subject-by-subject organization is that your paper will simply be a list of points: a certain number of points in my example, three about one subject, then a certain number of points about another. This is usually not what college instructors are looking for in a paper—generally they want you to compare or contrast comparing and contrasting essay or more things very directly, rather than just listing the traits the things have and leaving it up to the reader to reflect on how those traits are similar or different and why those similarities or differences matter, comparing and contrasting essay.
Thus, if you use the subject-by-subject form, you will probably want to comparing and contrasting essay a very strong, analytical thesis and at least one body paragraph that ties all of your different points together.
Rather than addressing things one subject at a time, you may wish to talk about one point of comparison at a time. There are two main ways this might play out, depending on how much you have to say about each of the things you are comparing, comparing and contrasting essay.
Be aware, too, of the placement of your different points. Our handout on organization can help you write good topic sentences and transitions and make sure that you have a good overall structure in place for your paper. The following words may be helpful to you in signaling your intentions:. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4. You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Make a Gift. Skip to main content.
How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay
, time: 4:22Comparing and Contrasting – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Feminist criticism is concerned with "the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson 83) Usually, an essay has the format of an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Critical analysis is essential to essay writing. One way you can demonstrate this is by summarising and paraphrasing other writers, by comparing, contrasting and evaluating their ideas. You can use this analysis to construct your own opinions, questions or Feb 06, · Compare and contrast essays are academic papers in which a student analyses two or more subjects with each other. To compare means to explore similarities between subjects, while to contrast means to look at their differences. Both subjects of the comparison are usually in the same category, although they have their differences
No comments:
Post a Comment