How To Write A Religion Compare And Contrast Essay: A Step-By-Step Guide

Compare and contrast essays essentially analyse two different things in relation to one another. As a result, this is an excellent way of looking at two topics related to religion. If you are unsure about how to write such an academic paper, the following will provide a step-by-step guide to help you with your work.

Decide on what aspect of religion you want to base your essay on

Firstly, you need to decide what aspect of religion you wish to write about. It may be that you wish to compare two completely different religions or, alternatively, you may compare two different denominations of the same religion.

In fact, there is a wide range of possibilities for what you can do with your religious paper and you may wish to consider something completely different, such as analysing religious views and opinions from two different centuries.

Look for similarities between the two things you are writing about and note these down

Once you’ve chosen a topic to write about you will need to examine each of the two aspects that you will be comparing and contrasting. A good idea is to first look for any similarities that you can find between these two aspects, noting them down as you go, for later use.

Look for any major differences, and note these down as well

Once you have a list of similarities - which can be used for the comparison part of your paper - you will then need to look for any differences - which will be used for the contrast part of the paper. If you note these down as well, for later use, then you should hopefully be ready to begin writing the essay itself.

Create an introduction

One of the first things you need to do when writing the work is to create the introduction. This essentially outlines what you will attempt to discuss, and will introduce the reader to the two different aspects that you hope to compare and contrast.

Use your notes to help you write paragraph each point that you have noted down

As part of the body section you will be performing your analysis. In order to do this you can write a new paragraph for each point that you want to discuss, whether it be a comparison or contrast.

The conclusion

When writing a conclusion for a compare and contrast essay, you may wish to highlight any points that you brought up in the body section, so as to demonstrate how similar or different the two aspects are.