Compare and Contrast Essay Topics to Help Students to Improve Their Writing

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics to Help Students to Improve Their WritingOne of the best ways to help students in their first few years of college is to provide them with sample essays that they can study as they go through the course. Essays help to determine what type of writing students will be required to do in college, and what types of material they are likely to learn about on each topic. This allows you to test your students when they are learning in one subject and to compare or contrast the subjects they are learning, and the material they already know, at the same time.Students are often surprised by how much information they may already know about a topic and by how much more you can tell them when you compare or contrast their essay with what they already know. For example, many students who take Honors courses are accustomed to working with religious figures. Yet they are usually unable to identify the name of the Pope when you compare or contrast their essay with oth er essays that cover the same topic.You can use the same approach when you compare or contrast your essay with others. For example, if you want to compare the lives of Presidents, you might compare Abraham Lincoln with John F. Kennedy. Or, if you want to compare your essay with a different essay on the same topic, you might compare Thomas Jefferson with Abraham Lincoln.You can also compare your student's essay with essay examples written by other students who are reviewing the course. For example, if you are reviewing a philosophy course, you might use examples from various colleges and universities to help compare your own experiences with other experiences. Your essay could start with an example written by a student who grew up in the same country as you, or one who grew up in another country. For example, you might compare your experiences in both countries by describing how you learned about events and issues that are unique to each country.It is also helpful to bring to the stu dents' attention the fact that students living in a multicultural society face unique challenges when they are writing about diverse cultures. You can help the students understand the challenges that they may face when they are writing about cultural differences by using examples that are drawn from local populations. One such example could be to compare a Native American Indian writing about the challenges of being a city slicker living in a metropolis.By comparing your Native American student's essay with those written by other Native Americans in a similar situation, you can help them see the challenges of living in such a diverse society. You can compare your Native American student's essay with the experience of a student who lives in a predominantly Caucasian culture. You can compare your Native American student's essay with those of students who have grown up in large urban and rural areas.These examples, and others, can help you and your students appreciate the variety of pe rspectives that students must draw from when they write about events and situations that are so different from their own experience. Moreover, you can help your students to appreciate the uniqueness of each writing experience. They may not fully understand why a writer's style should be compared to that of another's, but this is especially true if they are comparing their essays with one another.When you compare or contrast essay topics, you help them to become better writers. The students can benefit from knowing that the opinions they express in their writing are not shared by other students. As a result, they may be more motivated to strive for excellence in their writing.