Writing an essay on one piece of literature is difficult enough, so when it comes to comparing two or more in the same essay, it’s easy to get bogged down and struggle to write anything meaningful. Here are a few ideas which can help the whole process and make writing these essays a little easier!
Construct a table where you can note down ideas about the themes, stylistic devices, characterisation, or other important elements commonly found in most literature. Delegate a column for each piece of literature you’re studying and a separate row for each literary technique. This serves as an easy source of comparison and a starting point for your essays.
Copy important quotes which can demonstrate these techniques which you can later use in your essays as evidence.
Understand the context of the literature. This can provide useful information which can explain the similarities and differences you encounter between the texts.
Select the elements of the text your essay will compare. This is likely to be dictated by the essay question. Supposing you’ve created a table as outlined in the above section, you will already have a vague comparison of the texts your essay will cover. Rereading the literature with these elements of comparison in mind can allow you to gain a better understanding of the texts and the techniques you will compare, and also supply you with further evidence to support your argument.
Create an outline which you can follow to write your essay. Outlines are critically important to writing essays which are coherent and clearly expressed. They can be as crude or as detailed as you like, just so long as you include the main ideas. I also like to include quotes I will use as evidence in my outline so as not to forget them while writing the essay. With an outline, all that’s left to writing the essay is finding the right words to express your ideas!
The introduction is as you would write any essay introduction. Start with an opening sentence which encapsulates the overall ideas of the essay in an interesting way, outline the ideas your essay will cover, and outline the thesis to your reader. Be sure to define key terms relevant to your essay, and provide a grounds for comparison between the texts.
The body of the essay can be structured in numerous ways, some of which I have outlined below. These only include 2 texts and are certainly not the only ways to structure comparative essays, so do not feel limited to these alone!
Text-by-text - This method outlines each text separately in the body section (i.e. discuss all of text A, then discuss all of text B) and leaves the comparative element until the end.
Point-by-point - This method deconstructs the texts down to the individual elements your essay will compare and you alternate between texts A and B for each element, comparing them as you go. I’ve found this to be a more sophisticated way of writing comparative essays, and it has generally scored higher grades in my experience, however the demands of the essay question, the marker, the texts themselves, and you as the writer ultimately determine which structure is most effective.
The conclusion, like the introduction, is similar to any conclusion you write for an essay. I have a separate post which can help with writing conclusions should you need it!
Proof read and edit as necessary! A single typo or grammatical error can undermine any essay, no matter how persuasively it is written.
Comparative essays are less concerned with the ideas a novel presents than they are with the comparison of the ideas and techniques of the texts. This should be reflected in your essay, such that the bulk of its content is comparison. A brief outline of the ideas is necessary, but it is not the focus!
Always be clear which text you are discussing by referring to the title or author.
Using the authors’ names and putting them in the foreground as the creator of the texts is an easy way to do this, and also serves as an excellent writing style.
e.g.: Fitzgerald creates a curiosity within the reader to understand her motives and to better comprehend her actions.
e.g.: Atwood’s construction of The Handmaid’s Tale and the nature of Offred’s character creates unreliability such that we cannot entirely trust her story.
Signpost your comparisons with easily identifiable linking/transition words
Differences e.g.: contrastingly, conversely, alternatively, however, unlike, whereas
Similarities e.g.: similarly, likewise, the same can be seen, this is mirrored in
Hopefully this can be of some help when you next need to tackle a comparative essay! My inbox is open if you ever need further help.
other essay writing posts:
how to write a critical review
how to write conclusions
how to structure essays
how to reduce your word count
understanding the question
how to write a killer unprepared text essay
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