Writing An Introduction For A Compare And Contrast Essay: Tips And Examples
An essay, for many students, is just another assignment that needs to be completed. The truth is that it is meant to help you establish your knowledge and memorize better the facts that you learned in class. Besides, it will develop your creativity and you will slowly learn how to put together sentences that are appropriate for the subject. Sure enough, the topic is important, but it is not vital to have an extraordinary subject. If you know how to analyze it and how to write your text, you can create something amazing even about the most common ideas. Here are some tips to get you started:
- For a compare and contrast essay, you have to choose two topics, not only one. You have to analyze two separate elements and emphasize their similarities and differences. For this, the elements need to belong to the same category. You can not write so much about a fruit and a book, but you can easily discuss about two political systems. Make sure that the subject that you choose is interesting.
- Have the proper introduction. This is the first thing that your professor will read therefore it needs to be perfect. There are some elements that must be in the first lines of your paper, no matter what subject you are writing about. You need to state clearly what are the elements that you will compare, how are they related and what made you chose them. However, don’t introduce too many details. Remember that it has to be only a few lines long.
- Make it engaging. When the reader will first see your introduction, he needs to become interested in the rest of your paper. If the first lines are boring, there is a great possibility that they will think that the rest is the same. Use formulas that will keep everything exciting and engaging, to be sure that the professor will appreciate your composition.
- Connect it well to the rest of your essay. Many students make the same mistake: they write a great introduction that is not related in any way to the rest of the essay. You have to avoid this at all costs. You can either start your paper with an idea that you mentioned in the beginning, or use formulas like “As I said in the beginning” to connect the two parts.