Compare and Contrast Essay

In educational terms, essay writing is the learning activity initiated by your professors as a means of evaluating your progress throughout the learning process. Since a large part of your marks depends on the quality of your essays, you attempt to capture the attention of your professors and readers by writing impressive essays.

Students may sound like the infallible Einstein or the wise Aristotle in their essays because of their content. But if most of the content contains passages that they did not write on their own, their essay is still bound to go downhill—either with a failing mark or a new project to complete all over again. They have committed plagiarism, which is considered the worst crime any writer can make, and that guarantees a failing mark in your essay.

Plagiarism, as defined, is the imitation or use of ideas or works of an original author in verbatim and crediting them as your own. It is what most students practice that it has become a pressing concern amongst universities. Not only is the moral foundation of the students harmed from committing such act; the overall quality of submitted essays has also slowly deteriorated since students can easily copy passages and add them in their essays. This has defeated the purpose of the essay, which is to give venues to students to demonstrate their organisational, analytical and reasoning skills in writing.

Most of the students who commit the act of plagiarism intentionally copy ideas from books, articles and the Internet and submit them as their own. Most students, however, unintentionally plagiarise because they do not have prior knowledge on how to properly cite and reference the sources that they utilised.

As students, it will remain their responsibility to make sure that their essays, before submission, are plagiarism-free. They have to take note of facts that they have gathered in their research and reference them properly. They must remember that the amount of effort they have extended for their essays will remain unappreciated if the final output is still suspected to contain plagiarised content.

There are several ways on how students can avoid plagiarism on their own. They can start with writing down all the sources of the passages they have found throughout their research. This procedure will help the students cite and references sources of the content they have included in their essays. General citation rules must also be followed. When using direct quotes from the sources, the students can state the name of the author within a parenthesis and enclose the copied phrase with quotation marks. They can also make prior research to the rules of referencing depending on the system their professors require.

When students also take on an original angle or perspective regarding their essays, they are least expected to commit plagiarism. It is the most common and general topics that are predominantly found in the Internet and other sources so taking on a different approach reflects that the essay is not simply copied from somewhere. If the students make their own interpretation on the matter being discussed in the essay, the professor will know that the content is purely original and that the students have properly demonstrated their skill in analysing concepts.

The students can also make use of search engines and other plagiarism detectors online so they can further check their essay copies. If matches are found, the students can then rephrase their sentences to make sure that there will be no similarities found in the essays they wrote.

In school, you have been assigned to write essays as your homework or project. Most of these essays are literary in nature as your professors ask you to describe something in your own way, may it be your experience or learning about a particular topic. You are asked to write your opinion about something and reason with it, but you are not given any definite specifications on how to write your essays.

As you pursue for a higher education, however, your essay writing assignments become more formal and fact-based. The structure and tone of your essay has been defined by your professor and you have to provide a reference list for your researched data. Instead of simply describing something in your essay, you must discuss a topic by its definition or by cause-and-effect, depending on what your professor specifically requires. You may also be tasked to write an essay about your own stand on a certain issue and provide examples or supporting points to substantiate what you have claimed in writing. Mere opinions are as weak as water if not provided with other legitimate details. The tone of your essays, this time, becomes more academic and research-oriented.

It is the academic essay that universities particularly require students to master before they grant them admission. This is because academic writing allows students to properly show the lessons they have learned throughout their learning process. It also allows the students to demonstrate other skills in their essays as well, such as their conceptual grasp of the topic discussed, the coherence and chronology of their thoughts and proper selection of reference materials for their research.

What makes academic writing tough for you is their perception that only those who are highly skilled in writing can make impressive academic essays. You may also create a clear distinction between public speaking and writing. In rhetoric, you have the opportunity to explain whatever may be confusing to your audience right after the questions have been raised. In writing essays, however, you have to explain everything in your content because any misconception meant a decrease of your marks. If you do not also have prior knowledge on the referencing format required, you have to research on it as well, which is an additional load to your expanding academic responsibilities.

There are some tips you can use when approaching an academic form of essay. You must remember to take note of the professor’s preferences and requirements first before writing anything. Once you have fully defined the scope you have to cover, you can start planning on the choice of words and the technique of writing to use—whether it is expository or argumentative. You can then proceed with looking for credible sources that contain the supporting facts you can include in your essay.

The tone of the academic essay is one of the most essential elements you have to consider. It must remain its formal tone and to achieve this, there are certain things you have to avoid. The use of contractions, exclamation marks and slang words is strictly prohibited, unless they are part of the passage you have included as a citation.

Joking comments and chattiness is also to be avoided. Academic essays do not also allow the use of one-sentence paragraphs. The standard structure of the essay requires a paragraph that bears one thought and further supported with other sentences. You also have to use the third person point of view for your academic essay.

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One of the things that will make your essay a good reading experience for others is the way your essay has been written. It has to be clear, concise and comprehensive. That is why demonstrating your mastery of grammar usage skills is highly necessary in any of your essay writing tasks. If you do not have the necessary grammar skills needed, not only will your essay suffer; so will your marks and, ultimately, your academic future.

Yes, it is a feat to be able to apply the rules of grammar into your work if you already have enough difficulty trying to organise your muddled thoughts into your essay. You also have to face the fear of not being able to pass in case you botch up your essay writing assignment. If you, however, are able to practice tracking down grammar errors in your essay as early as now, your uncertainties can be easily withdrawn.

One of the most common grammar mistakes you have to avoid is the practice of faulty subject-verb agreement. You have to make sure that both your subject and verb agree in tense, form and number. You also have to make sure that your sentences have complete thoughts, and that can be done by avoiding sentence fragments or run-on sentences. Sentence fragments are sentences that do not have a complete thought. They are usually in the form of dependent phrases or clauses. Run-on sentences are sentences are two sentences that are not linked properly because of the use of improper conjunctions. Proper usage of punctuation marks is also advisable if you wish to complete a grammatically correct essay.

If you continue to practice writing with proper grammar usage in mind, your essay will have the appropriate tone and content that you need. You will also soon notice that the task of writing your essay is not as hard as it once was.

When dealing with facts per se, looking for them is not such a hard feat anymore for students nowadays with the wide range of sources provided by libraries and the Internet. What is more challenging, however, is the task of looking for facts that would determine the weight of their essay’s credibility. Since students understand the importance of completing essays and receiving high marks for these pieces of work on their overall academic performance, they are very much aware they have to get them done correctly.

There are simple rules to remember in the selection of highly credible supporting facts. Students can start looking in libraries and official Web sites of associations, universities and companies, among others. The more credible the sources, the more potentially credible the facts one can get from them. As official organisations usually acquire the information first-hand it is expected that their data are more updated than other sites or locations.

Students must also execute additional precautionary measures in the selection of facts for their essays. One of the things to be taken into consideration is the choice of hypotheses and theories. It is more advisable for students to avoid the use of hypotheses—aside from the fact that they are not yet officially proven to be true, they might not be applied to the situation presented in the essay. Students are advised to use universal laws instead. Visuals like graphs, bars, diagrams and charts, among others, are also recommended for students as supporting facts. Readers retain more information if they have a visual representation of the information they have been presented with. The more readers retain from the essay, the more effective that essay is—and the higher the mark it will garner.

As students, a common scenario that you face once you get started with your essay writing assignment is this: you have done your research and have taken down notes and references you want to include in your essay. You have also taken note of the thesis and essay outline you want to complete.

You are all set to write your essay and yet, you do not know where to start or how to start it. And since you want your essay to have a very high mark, you hesitate on writing anything for fear that what you have thought may not be enough to get you to pass.

The solution to scenarios like this is simple: you can choose any part of the essay where you feel confident to write well—may it be the introduction, the body or the conclusion—and write that paragraph you have in mind. Once you start with the parts that you feel more confident about, you will be able to develop a positive momentum and be encouraged enough to continue your essay on the more difficult parts as well.

The secret of an outstanding essay—or any written work—is not the writing but the rewriting process. Once you have written all your notes and ideas, you can now organise them into an order that will make your essay have more impact on your readers. Continue rewriting your draft until you feel satisfied that it is good enough to be handed in. You can also ask your colleagues for feedback – an extra pair of eyes might help track mistakes you have not seen yourself.

Essays that discuss the creation of economic blocs or the upshots of inflation rates usually exercise the cause-and-effect style of writing. Topics like these require a different level of analysis: the writer must present the historical situation that triggered a certain event and further expound on the events that followed after it.

The technique of cause-and-effect essentially attempts to explain why a situation happens and what the results were. There may be one or more causes and one or more effects.

Before a writer begins writing a cause-and-effect essay, the writer should be able to establish the connection between two objects or events. The writer can start with focusing on the reasons why the event happened and what its influences or consequences on society were.

To come up with a sound analysis on the possible causes of a situation, the writer can employ several methods, one of which is the Root Cause Analysis (RCA). The principle of the RCA states that issues can be easily solved if its root causes are prevented and not just solved by simply addressing the immediately obvious symptoms. This concept further believes that by addressing corrective measures to root causes, the recurrence of the issue will be minimised.

Upon exploring the causes and effects of the topic a writer seeks to dissect, the writer should be able to define the chronology of events very clearly. The process of writing a cause-and-effect essay requires thorough selection of root causes and effects that can be easily linked to one another. Each idea must be properly supported with logical reasoning to convince the readers that the events are indeed connected.

Essay writing takes time to develop and master, provided that you utilise your time well by practicing the craft seriously. The more you give yourself more opportunities to practice writing, the better your skills will become. Aside from constant practice, it is also important to understand the different types of writing and how each type is approached so you will be properly armed whenever your professor assigns you a writing task for a particular reason.

If you master all these aspects, you will be able to avoid other difficulties that often give you trouble while you are developing good essay writing skills, such as the feeling of helplessness or mental frustration.

Of all types of writing, one of the most commonly used is expository writing. Whenever you read a book, magazine, or newspaper article, the author actually uses expository writing to inform you, the reader, about the topic. Similarly, at school, you are required to submit essays and dissertations as a means for your professors to grade your progress.

You use expository writing in your essays when you aim to deposit information to your readers by explaining an idea or a process. To make your readers understand a topic, it answers the questions who, what, where, why, or how.

To have a well-written essay that uses exposition, you must remain focused on the main topic while providing logical supporting facts, details, explanations and other examples into your work. The essay must be organised, clear and coherent, using smooth transitions to make it more understandable to your readers.

You must also remember that for your essay to be effective, you have to perceive your readers as having no prior knowledge of the topic that is being discussed so you can use words that clearly explain what you are writing about.

When a professor asks you to elaborate on a certain topic based on your own ideas through an essay, it is better to state the original meaning of the idea first before you incorporate your own. If this is the approach you are going to take, then you can employ the definition format of expository essay writing.

A definition basically tells what something means or what it does. In writing definitions, however, you must remember that it has two parts or attributes: the genus and the differentia. The genus states what the idea generally is by discussing its common characteristics. The differentia, on the other hand, states what distinguishes the thing from another entity.

Provided is a sample paragraph that uses the definition format. Take note of the genus (set in bold) and differentia (underlined) used:

• The agenda-setting theory is a theory created by Rogers, Dearing and Bergman which states that the mass media has the ability to influence public opinion by choosing what agenda or issue the public should be talking about. To be able to do this, the mass media acts as gates by choosing what news or issue should be highlighted as important—giving the issue more airtime and more coverage—and what issue should be given less attention.

In writing an expository essay using the definition format, the main definition of the idea appears in the first sentence. The other sentences elaborate the main definition by providing additional details to make it more complete. After this is done, you can now incorporate your own ideas into your essay so your readers can smoothly follow through your train of thoughts.