How To Write A Literary Analysis: Compare And Contrast Essay Basic Hints


When you have to compose a literary analysis, the most important element is the topic that you choose. This will lead to a great paper, or to a bad one. Sure enough, you struggled to this kind of assignments many times and you already know how difficult they can be. If you are not passionate about literature, you can inspire yourself from other essays and get ideas about what you have to write. You can find these samples online or you can ask your colleagues about this. Once you decided to start working on your essay, follow these hints:

  • Make sure that the topic is appropriate. For a compare and contrast essay, you have to analyze two different elements and find similar or different points. In this case, you will have to pick two books or two published papers, depending on what you like. It’s the best to focus on subjects that you are interested in. You already have some knowledge about this so you will save some time with research. Besides, all this process will not seem such a struggle.

  • Give details about the books. The reader needs to know from the very beginning what is the topic of your paper. This means that you have to mention titles, authors and more important, why you chose theses two particular pieces. This is the perfect moment to say your personal opinion about them, and why you thought that they are perfect to be the subject of your project.

  • Start with the comparison. This is the perfect way to write this kind of essay, even though this is not a strict requirement. Since the elements are already similar, it should not be very difficult for you to find the common points. You can write something about the characters, action and so on.

  • Don’t forget the differences. Probably there will be much more differences than similarities. However, try to mention only the important ones, not every insignificant detail.

  • Present a smart conclusion. Of course, you can say why you like a text more than the other one, but you have to bring solid arguments for this. Besides, don’t forget that the conclusion should not be longer than a few lines, therefore do not introduce any new information or terms that need explanation. Keep it simple and explicit so everyone can understand.