ThoughtCo. By. Melissa Kelly. Updated. Compare and contrast essays are taught in school for many reasons. On the one hand, they are relatively easy to teach, understand and format. Students can generally understand the structure and contrasting essay topics. Writing a compare and contrast essay is usually much more interesting and fun than working on a Just for Fun compare and contrast essay topic. Dogs vs. Cats as Pets Paper Books or E-Books Hot Dogs vs. Tacos Summer and Winter Fall and Spring Big Mac vs. Whopper Coke vs. Pepsi, Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Students - A Compare and Contrast Essay is an important academic assignment for school or college students; Blog. Essay writing guides. Best inspiration for comparing and contrasting essay topics for students. Do you think it would be helpful to write a comparison 1. Ancient Greece vs. Ancient Rome. Compare the political systems, architecture, and cultural achievements of these civilizations. 2. Aztecs versus Mayans; Therefore, this can also be a great activity for teaching Venn diagrams. 4. Image analysis. A simple and straightforward compare and contrast activity for children, analyzing pictures can be a great way to engage. What is a compare and contrast essay? A compare and contrast essay is actually a multi-paragraph essay. It is written to explain different aspects in which two or more topics differ or match. When writing this type of essay, the word compare refers to similarities and contrast means differences. Basically the comparison says: Shoes – laces or no laces. Pants or shorts. Glasses or no glasses. Hairstyles. Color of clothes. A note on skin color. It's not a deciding factor in my students' choice, but I also don't mind if they find similarities and differences in their skin color. It's a good thing to have diversity. The compare and contrast thesis includes the following elements and logic: It tells the reader the necessity of the chosen topic. In this introductory part, we make a statement that may be debatable. The thesis is like the agenda of a paper that helps the reader understand its structure. Compare and contrast math activities. 6. Peer review. Comparing answers and methods used in math operations can help students see where they may have gone wrong. Before revealing the correct answer to a problem, have students pair up with their partner to compare their processes and results.