Comparative Analysis Essay Writing Guide

May 02, 2018

A comparative analysis essay is just one the many types of analysis essays which are aimed to teach students how to work with different materials, break them up into smaller parts and do an in-depth analysis of each element in order to arrive at a certain conclusion. Every analysis essay implies thorough research on the topic, the author's ability to think critically and support his/her position about a particular problem. Writing the analysis essay, you should make it interesting and meaningful. Comparative analysis essay may seem to be a complicated task, but if you follow all the steps mentioned in our guideline, the writing process will become a lot easier!

What is a comparative analysis paper?

In order to know what you can expect from the task, it is crucial to understand the comparative analysis definition fully. A comparative analysis is one of the most popular types of assignments which are often given in colleges or universities. In a comparative analysis essay, you are asked to compare and contrast two things. Those can be two texts, historical figures, scientific processes, theories etc. These essays are very popular as college assignments because they are quite universal: no matter what subject you study or what field you are working in - there are always things which can be compared. A "classic" version of a comparative essay is when you select two very similar things which have a few critical differences. Or, it can be vice versa: two entirely different things have some similarities which at first may not even be noticed. Comparative analysis essays help students gain useful expertise, develop analytical thinking, improve their writing skills, an ability to highlight essential information and, in the very end, compare things and support your opinion with relevant facts and examples.

Comparative analysis as a writing technique is not the easiest task to accomplish. It's challenging and requires a lot of additional elaboration of the materials, but the result you get in the end is worth it. With the help of comparative analysis technique, you can see how different some similar things might be and vice versa. It takes time and a lot of efforts to write a good comparative analysis essay, but following the guide below will help you achieve the best results!

Doing a comparative analysis

As already mentioned, the comparative analysis is a bit tricky when it comes to its primary concept. In order to convince the reader, you need to find real commonalities or differences, depending on what type of comparison you choose. Here comes the challenge - you have to do the in-depth study of both principles you compare. In order to highlight those main similarities and differences, you need to understand the subject. That's why our advice for everyone who faces comparative analysis is the following - study, research and read a lot. Try to get a full understanding of the topic. It will help you write the essay without any difficulties because everything you have to do after the research is to follow the basic structure guideline and sum up everything you've found on your topic. Those who do everything haphazardly, without any preparation whatsoever, might face problems during the actual writing. Let's take a closer look at some structural aspects of comparative analysis essays.

The Structure Outlines

Apart from general standard parts like an introduction, main part, results, discussion and conclusions, which you should include in your paper, there are some other, specific for comparative analysis essay, structural characteristics.

There are two methods used to build the structure of such an essay:

  1. Point-by-point method. In this method, you compare two main subjects A and B following the ABABAB structure. It means that, after you choose the criteria which you are using to compare these two things, you first discuss this criterion regarding the subject A and then do the same with the subject B. If you take the comparison of World War I and World War II, the body structure of your essay might look like this:
    • A Paragraph 1 - military strategies used in World War I
    • B Paragraph 2 - military strategies used in World War II
    • A Paragraph 3 - weapons and new technologies in World War I
    • B Paragraph 4 - weapons and new technologies in World War II
    • A Paragraph 5 - scale and duration of World War I
    • B Paragraph 6 - scale and duration of World War II
  2. Block method: Subject-by-subject patter. Here, you should first discuss all aspects of the subject A and then move to the subject B. This method has a following structure of the body part:
    • A Paragraphs 1-3 - The discussion of particular aspects of World War I
    • B Paragraphs 4-6 - Discussing the same categories but in terms of World War II

In addition to those methods, we recommend creating a comparative analysis essay outline as we did with the body part. Outlining the whole essay will help you organize your ideas and plan out the structure of the essay beforehand. Write down all paragraph headings, the main aspects you are going to discuss, and include all necessary details you want to mention in the essay.

Good comparative analysis essay topics

Everything begins with a topic, so it's one of the most critical aspects of comparative analysis essay writing. Take your time to consider different topics and pick up the one that will be interesting for both you and the reader. Here are some examples:

  1. Fascism and Nazism: Different or the Same?
  2. World War I and World War II: The Difference in Events
  3. Coffee and Tea: The Effects of Both
  4. Working in the Office or Being a Freelancer?
  5. Education or Professional Career: What Is Easier and What Is More Difficult?
  6. Online Dating vs Real-Life Relations
  7. Anorexia Nervosa and Obesity: What Is More Dangerous?
  8. Life and Death: Philosophical Views

Choose a good topic, follow the guideline and try to enjoy the writing process as much as you can! Great results won't keep you waiting only if you like what you're doing. We wish you all the best with your essay and hope our guideline will come in handy!

If you think that the mission of comparative analysis writing is close to impossible, you can always entrust this task to our professionals and get some rest!

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