The point of comparing and contrasting at this stage is to help you organize and shape your ideas to aid you in structuring your arguments. These visualizations wouldn’t make it into your actual writing, so they don’t have to be very formal in terms of phrasing or presentation. You might visualize the key similarities and differences in a Venn diagram. Or say you’re writing about the major global conflicts of the twentieth century. Mental processes cannot be empirically studiedįocuses on how thinking is affected by conditioning and environmentįocuses on the cognitive processes themselves You might make a table to summarize the key differences between them.
Let’s say your research involves the competing psychological approaches of behaviorism and cognitive psychology. You might use it to compare different theories and approaches you’ve encountered in your preliminary research, for example. Comparing and contrasting as a brainstorming toolĬomparing and contrasting can be a useful tool to help organize your thoughts before you begin writing any type of academic text. Consider what you’re trying to accomplish with any comparisons you make, and be sure to make this clear to the reader. Every element of an essay should serve your central argument in some way. This is why it’s important to clarify the point of your comparisons by writing a focused thesis statement. However, if you contrasted pre-revolutionary France with Han-dynasty China, your reader might wonder why you chose to compare these two societies. You might focus on contrasting quite different subjects or comparing subjects with a lot in common-but there must be some grounds for comparison in the first place.įor example, you might contrast French society before and after the French Revolution you’d likely find many differences, but there would be a valid basis for comparison. For example, a literature review involves comparing and contrasting different studies on your topic, and an argumentative essay may involve weighing up the pros and cons of different arguments.Īs the name suggests, comparing and contrasting is about identifying both similarities and differences. One way to approach this essay might be to contrast the situation before the Great Depression with the situation during it, to highlight how large a difference it made.Ĭomparing and contrasting is also used in all kinds of academic contexts where it’s not explicitly prompted. General prompt Discuss the effects of the Great Depression in the United States. Some other prompts may not directly ask you to compare and contrast, but present you with a topic where comparing and contrasting could be a good approach. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? Many assignments will invite you to make comparisons quite explicitly, as in these prompts.
