Crafting An Outline For A Compare And Contrast Essay

Do you always write an outline when you need to compose an essay? Many students think that outlines eat away their precious time which they would rather spend on more pleasant things. This is a common mistake because an outline is a sure way not to mix everything up. Visit MyCustomEssay to get expert assistance right now.

What Is a Compare and Contrast Essay?

If you receive the assignment to compose a compare and contrast essay, you need to choose a pair of objects or situations, compare them, find what they have in common, and what makes them different. For example, if you compare studying at school with studying at a university, you need to compare the most characteristic features of each and oppose them to each other.

In a regular project of this size, there are five paragraphs, involving an introduction, and conclusions. So, you have three body paragraphs to do the compare and contrast analysis, composing one paragraph per a couple of compared features. This is why you need an outline that will help you build up a chain correctly.

How to Compose an Essay Outline

  • Use simple and multilevel structures.
  • Simple outlines are less detailed but they provide fewer chances of making a mistake. It’s better to try to compose a multilevel outline, at least, in the body paragraphs.

  • Don’t make it too detailed.
  • Be careful in order to avoid overdoing with the details. If you render too many of them, your outline will look overloaded with useless stuff. If you use full-size sentences, keep them laconic enough.

  • Choose the comparison method.
  • The method you choose to compare two objects or situations will influence the structure of your paper and the outline, too. Remember that you have only three paragraphs to do the comparison of three main features of the objects.

  • Compose a draft first.
  • Although it takes some more time, you need everything to be perfectly clean and correct in the final edition.

  • Do the formatting.
  • Depending on the academic writing style that has been chosen for your paper, you need to find out whether it has specific requirements to outlines. A proper formatting shows you as a professional researcher who knows how to unfold the subject and make the results of research look good on paper. Some students may think that skipping some requirements is not a big deal. But this isn’t true as formatting issues can even lead to the paper rejection.