Academics · Study Skills

Two texts,
one argument about both.

A comparison essay fails when it becomes two summaries stapled together. Line the texts up point by point, mark where they are alike and where they differ, and write a thesis about what the pairing shows. The organizer counts the balance and flags the gaps a teacher would mark.

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Your comparisons

The worked example uses public-domain texts: Frankenstein with Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark”, well planned, and two Shakespeare sonnets with a thesis that needs work. Saved on this device only.

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What you get

Academics · Study Skills$5

What you finish with
A record per comparison: both texts with authors and years, the focus, each point (aspect, text A, text B, alike or different), the thesis, the essay structure and five checks. Counts points, likenesses, differences and years apart; flags thin comparisons, all-alike or all-different sets, one-sided points and a thesis that only names a shared subject.
Who it is for
High school and college students writing comparison essays in English and literature courses.
Format
Browser organizer with a saved record per comparison. Prints one comparison, every comparison in a table or a blank sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Study skills kit ($29) and the Academics Suite pass ($149), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Study Skills space in Caveat Academics.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Add both texts with their authors and years.
  2. Choose a focus: theme, character, style, structure or context.
  3. Add three or four points, each with both sides.
  4. Mark each point alike or different.
  5. Write a thesis about what the pairing reveals, then choose a structure.

Add a comparison

Structure

Three ways to organizePoint by pointEach paragraph takesone aspect and bothtexts.Keeps the comparisonin every paragraph.Best for three or morepoints.Text by textFirst half on text A,second half on text B.Easier to write, easyto drift into twosummaries.Best for short essays.Then togetherText A, text B, then asection reading themside by side.The last sectioncarries the thesis.Best for long papers.Three ways to organizePoint by pointEach paragraph takes one aspect and bothtexts.Keeps the comparison in every paragraph.Best for three or more points.Text by textFirst half on text A, second half on text B.Easier to write, easy to drift into twosummaries.Best for short essays.Then togetherText A, text B, then a section reading themside by side.The last section carries the thesis.Best for long papers.
Point by point is the hardest to drift out of: every paragraph has to compare.

The so-what

“Both stories are about science” names a subject. “Read together, they show the danger lies in a scientist who will not accept limits” makes a claim that neither story makes as clearly alone. That is the sentence a comparison essay exists to prove.

Context

Frankenstein (1818) and “The Birth-Mark” (1843) were written a generation apart, as chemistry and electricity changed fast; Sonnets 18 and 130 were printed together in 1609. When the texts belong to different moments, say what changed between them.

Sources

  1. Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Public domain.
  2. Hawthorne, N. (1843). The Birth-Mark. The Pioneer; collected in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Public domain.
  3. Shakespeare, W. (1609). Shake-speares Sonnets, Sonnets 18 and 130. Public domain.
  4. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Writing a comparative analysis and Harvard College Writing Center, How to write a comparative analysis.

The texts are public domain; the points and theses are made-up student work. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.