Compare and Contrast Essay Topics

If your teacher has just asked you to write a comparative essay, it is a good choice to start working on the paper right away. At first, you will have to read our list of compare and contrast essay topics that are the most popular and easy to cover. Spend enough time to read the list till the end because much depends on your choice.

No matter what topics for a compare and contrast essay you choose, always pay attention to the audience and purpose of writing. It will help you generate proper ideas and choose a writing style (it does make a difference if your reader will be a friend or a professor). To successfully deal with a compare and contrast essay topic, you will have to create an outline and produce ideas that will be further extended in the first draft.

We have good topics for compare and contrast essays, but you should always handle the subject matter according to professor’s instructions. Check the task file and see what your paper should discuss (in other words, how many comparison and contrast paragraphs it should include). Though compare essay topics are pretty easy, the most challenging part is to present a proper discussion of similarities and differences, which will not confuse the reader. You can discuss both similarities and differences simultaneously or divide them into separate paragraphs.

The Most Effective Compare and Contrast Essay Topics

1. Feeling confused vs. scared
2. Small against big college campuses
3. Singing and dancing
4. Chelsea FC vs. Manchester United
5. Madonna vs. Beyoncé
6. The best friend and an acquaintance
7. Extremely poor and almost homeless
8. Donation vs. charity
9. Compare and contrast the book “Goon with the Wind” and the movie
10. Compare hurricanes to earthquakes
11. Developed countries and developing countries
12. Slim and overweight
13. Happy and sad
14. Friendship and hostility
15. Friendship between females and males
16. The President Bush vs. Obama
17. Lying and acting
18. Being active and being lazy
19. A car and a bicycle
20. Democratic power and dictatorship
21. Properties of mammals against reptiles
22. Living at home vs. dormitory
23. Commuting or working at home
24. Using a lap top or a tablet
25. Sitcoms vs. reality shows
26. Emotional and physical beauty
27. Country music vs. Western
28. Hip hop vs. RAP
29. Attending traditional classes and visiting online courses
30. Playing a video game vs. reading a book
31. Reading a printed book vs. reading an electronic copy
32. WWI and Civil War
33. Functions of Microsoft and Apple
34. Go to the cinema and stay at home to watch a movie
35. Participation in extracurricular activities or studying only
36. The poor and the rich
37. Going abroad vs. staying at home
38. Responsibilities of having a dog and a fish
39. Your arch-rival and your best friend
40. Songs of Rihanna and Madonna
41. Cosmetic beauty or natural beauty
42. School friends and college friends
43. Classes at school and in the university
44. Celebrities of the past and the present
45. Max Weber vs. Karl Marx
46. Fitness classes and yoga
47. Classical treatment vs. homeopathy
48. Being on a diet or engaging in sports
49. Low carbohydrate diets vs. low fat diets
50. Vacation abroad vs. vacation at home

We hope that our topics for compare and contrast essay will be helpful if your professor asks you to select a topic on your own. Remember about the primary writing stages and follow all of them to submit a good piece of writing. Include all major paper parts (introduction, main body, and conclusion) in your comparative essay. Your task is to provide explicit details about each aspect of comparison and include at least an approximate amount of similarities and differences.  

1. Creativity and rich imagination
2. Education opportunities in the US and abroad
3. Permissive parenting and authoritarian upbringing
4. Being a child and being an adult
5. The USSR and modern Russia
6. The US of the past vs. present days
7. Democrats and Republicans
8. Females 200 years ago and now
9. Being a teenager vs. being an adult
10. Friendship between women and men
11. Living alone and living with your family
12. Divorce and separation
13. Marriage and cohabitation
14. Camping and hiking
15. A college student and a university student
16. The influences of the World War I and World War II
17. Water vs. juice
18. Visiting the US and visiting Canada
19. The worst and the best employer ever
20. A dream and a nightmare
21. A feeling of anxiety and anger
22. Facebook vs. Twitter
23. Spending all money on vacation or buying a luxurious car
24. Reading a book or watching a reality show
25. Being beautiful or being smart
26. Cooking or buying take-away food
27. Windows or Mac
28. Storms and blizzards
29. Having a dog or having a cat
30. The beauty of deserts or mountains
31. Discoveries vs. inventions
32. Having an apartment vs. having a house
33. Vegetables vs. fruits
34. MacDonald’s and Tacos’
35. The most desired birthday party and the most dreadful birthday party
36. Soccer and football
37. Odysseus and Beowulf
38. Comedy and tragedy
39. Studying in a public school or private school
40. Uniqueness of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes
41. The best boss ever and the worst boss ever
42. Rules in baseball and rugby
43. Judaism and Christianity
44. Watching a comedy and watching a thriller
45. Google vs. Yahoo
46. Democratic leadership and communism
47. Parents’ influence vs. influence of friends
48. Typing vs. handwriting
49. Learning at home and attending school classes
50. Friendship and love.