Think Before You Begin

Topic Selection

If you have not been given a topic, select two things that have a basis of comparison. This is essential because if the items have too little in common, you won’t have a successful essay.

Writing for Your Audience

Is your audience familiar with what you’re comparing and contrasting?  Have you made your basis of comparison clear to the reader? Are you providing the reader with a new approach or knowledge about your topic? Try to introduce new ways of looking at your items in order to give your reader a fresh outlook about what you are discussing.

Prewriting Techniques

Which prewriting techniques may help you write your essay? Do you want to use a prewriting technique to write your essay, or do you want to start with a rough draft? Brainstorming is a great way for deciding how the two things differ, and you may use a graphic organizer to help decide if there is a basis of comparison.

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). Located at: https://owl.excelsior.edu/ . This site is licensed under a https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .