How to compare in an essay
NESA defines it as: “Show how things are similar or different.”
To compare is to hold two subjects side by side, draw out both what they share and where they part, then say what the pairing reveals. This is the heart of Module A, where the whole task is the conversation between two texts. The model below compares two characters within one play to show the method; in Module A you compare your two texts in exactly the same way.
New here first? Start with breaking down the whole question, then come back for this.
One idea, both subjects, same paragraph
A comparison lives inside the paragraph, moving between the two subjects rather than handling them one after the other.
- 1
Anchor on a shared idea
Compare on a single point at a time, rather than everything at once.
- 2
Move between the two inside the paragraph
Weave the subjects together, instead of writing one, then the other.
- 3
Land on what the pairing reveals
Finish by naming the meaning of the similarity or difference, not just that it exists.
In Module A the two subjects are your paired texts. The method is identical whether you compare texts, characters or moments.
The shape of the paragraph
The paragraph anchors on a shared idea, then moves between the two subjects, ending on what the comparison reveals.
Topic sentence (the shared idea)
Open with the single idea both subjects illuminate, and signal that they answer it differently or alike.
Watch out:Anchor on one point of comparison, rather than promising to compare everything.
Subject A
Give subject A's evidence and brief analysis on that shared idea.
Watch out:Keep it tied to the shared point, not a general summary of subject A.
Pivot to Subject B
Use a comparative connective ('by contrast', 'where A does this, B') and give subject B's evidence on the same idea.
Watch out:The pivot word matters. Without it the two halves read as separate, not compared.
Return line (what it reveals)
Name what the juxtaposition shows about the shared idea.
Watch out:End on meaning. 'They are different' is not yet a comparison's conclusion.
A model paragraph, labelled sentence by sentence
Here is the structure at work. Read the paragraph straight through first: it should sound like one continuous argument, not a checklist. Then read the label beside each sentence to see the job it is doing. It is written to support this thesis:
The thesis
Proctor and Danforth embody two opposed answers to the same pressure: where Proctor lets conscience overrule authority, Danforth lets authority silence conscience, and the gap between them measures the play's moral world.
The paragraph, read straight through
Miller sets Proctor and Danforth against the same question, how a person should answer to authority, and has them resolve it in opposite directions. Proctor finally places conscience above the court, refusing the confession with “Because it is my name!”, where the anaphoric insistence makes private integrity the higher law. Danforth, by contrast, dissolves conscience into obedience, ruling that “there be no road between” loyalty and guilt, so that for him the court's authority is itself the measure of right. Placed side by side, the two men map the play's central choice: an integrity that answers inward against a power that answers only to itself. The comparison shows that Miller's tragedy turns not on witchcraft but on where each character locates moral authority.
Miller sets Proctor and Danforth against the same question, how a person should answer to authority, and has them resolve it in opposite directions.
Proctor finally places conscience above the court, refusing the confession with “Because it is my name!”, where the anaphoric insistence makes private integrity the higher law.
Danforth, by contrast, dissolves conscience into obedience, ruling that “there be no road between” loyalty and guilt, so that for him the court's authority is itself the measure of right.
Placed side by side, the two men map the play's central choice: an integrity that answers inward against a power that answers only to itself.
The comparison shows that Miller's tragedy turns not on witchcraft but on where each character locates moral authority.
Every quotation above is verbatim from The Crucible (Arthur Miller) and verified against the source text.
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The definition is quoted from NESA's Glossary of Key Words. The structure, teaching and model paragraph are our own, aligned to the 2017 English Advanced syllabus (2019–2026 prescriptions).