How to Write a Compare & Contrast Essay in Statistics

The key purpose of the compare and contrast essay in statistics is to do the analysis of similarities or/and differences of two or more distinct issues. A professionally researched and written compare and contrast essay does not just highlight how the issues are different or similar. This essay actually requires the author to provide a meaningful argument about the issues being compared.

In general, statistics is based on a veritable interpretation of various facts by choosing different examples related to it and drawing the mean line. Without a doubt, you may feel pretty terrified at this point. However, once you get to know what steps you have to take, you can easily accomplish a high quality compare and contrast essay in statistics.

Choose the Issues to Compare and Contrast

The first step in dealing with the compare and contrast essay in statistics is to choose two issues that are different enough in order to be compared. Here are the things that you have to keep in mind when picking the issues for further comparison:

As an option, you can choose two items that represent the same “category” but have some differences that are important as well. For instance, the author might choose “crime rates in EU countries vs. crime rates in the United States”.
The author of the essay could choose two items that do not appear to have anything in common, which actually turned out to be a surprisingly similar. For instance, you could decide to compare the principles of statistics and mathematics. (They are based on different concepts, but all its principles and theorems of these two fields are derived from pure math).
You have an opportunity to select two items that might appear to be the same but the truth is that they are different.

Ensure You Can Discuss Your Issues Meaningfully

To make it simple for you, make sure that you can do more than just stating ‘Topic 1 and Topic 2 are both different and similar’. A professionally written compare and contrast essay in statistics will help your target audience to understand why it is useful or interesting to compare those two issues.

For instance, make sure to ask yourself – What can I learn when I think about comparison of Cholesky composition methods and Gaussian elimination that I would miss out if I considered them separately.
Experts in the field of statistics recommend you to consider the question “so what?” when you decide whether your items have meaningful contrasts and comparisons to be made. If you say that Cholesky composition methods and Gaussian elimination techniques are both different and similar, and your pal asked you something like ‘so what?’, what would you answer in such case? To cut the long story short, why bother putting these items together?

Brainstorm Your Topic

Without a doubt, you can’t jump from choosing your compare and contrast essay to topic to writing a thesis statement, and there is nothing wrong in it. It is recommended to put things behind and take your time to brainstorm the most interesting subjects in the field of statistics to decide which ones are different or similar. At the brainstorming stage, you will figure out what points are the major ones you’d like to concentrate on, and can help you to produce a strong thesis statement.

Think about using the ‘Venn diagram’ to move on with your brainstorming. This technique will help you to visualize where your items are different and where they are the same. Put down the key differences in the outer edges of the circle; write what is similar in the overlapping middle part.

The area of statistics include a great number of topics, which means you’re not going to experience any troubles when selecting one for your compare and contrast essay. We have chosen some of them for you exclusively:

The Comparison of Categorical Variables in Multiple Linear Regression;
The Comparison of Univariate and Bivariate Transformations;
The Comparison of the Demographic and Economic Factors of China and the United States of America;
The Comparison of the Major Effects of Separation and Divorce on Affected Children;
The Comparison of Analytical and Experimental Results’ Ways of Comparing;
The Comparison of Development Strategies and Factors in Estee Lauder and Chanel Companies;
The Comparison of Survival Data of Breast Cancer in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Outline Your Compare & Contrast Essay in Statistics Using Point-by-Point Technique

When it comes to the compare and contrast essay in statistics, the point-by-point comparison technique is one of the most popular. Let’s say, you write your essay about the comparison of the causes of depression in the United States of America. As an author, you have an opportunity to write a paragraph about each characteristics of the causes, comparing the causes in the same paragraph. For instance, in this case, you could produce one paragraph that describes the causes relevant to stress, one paragraph describing the causes relevant to substance use, and a third describing the causes relevant to genetics and biology.

Here is how the compare and contrast essay in statistics could look:

Introduction
Body Paragraph 1: Discuss the first type of causes of depression in the USA: stress/grief and loss.
Body Paragraph 2: Discuss the second type of causes of depression in the USA: substance use/irrational use of medications.
Body Paragraph 3: Discuss the third type of causes of depression in the USA: genetics/biology.
Conclusion

More Detailed Essay Outline: Compare and Contrast Essay Introduction

First of all, you write your introduction in order to present the points that you will discuss in your comparing and contrasting essay. Keep in mind that it cannot be just a single subject. List all the specific cases, people, events or terms that possess particular factors that make them different and features that are common.

Secondly, provide certain things with names in order to point out gaps and draw parallels. It’s forbidden to begin to talk about things that make the items different or things that the items have in common out of the blue. Your introduction is the part of your comparing and contrasting essay where you list the issues you’re about to discuss without going into details. They should be presented in the body section. Provide a separate sentence or a couple of those in order to name certain themes under central idea.

Finally, the body of your comparing and contrasting essay in statistics should have a strong thesis statement. This is the sentence that you use to introduce the key argument of the whole project and reasons why you decided to compare and contrast particular issues. Since your introduction is the first thing that your readers see, it is the most powerful part of the essay and you have to make it attractive enough.

Place a thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph. When your work on a comparing and contrasting essay on ‘The Comparison of the Incidents of Murder in New York and New Orleans?’, your thesis statement might look like this: ‘According to the latest comparative analysis, New Orleans murder rate continuously increased since 2000. At the same time, the murder rate in New York continuously dropped down since 1994. The key difference in rates in New Orleans and New York can be determined by the factors that may result in the pervasiveness of the crime such as poverty, policy management, employment rate and illegal activities’.

The next part of the comparing and contrasting essay in statistics is the body.

More Detailed Essay Outline: Body Paragraphs

When you work on your comparing and contrasting essay in statistics, make sure you know the structure of the paper. For instance, your project may include more than standards 5 paragraphs altogether depending on the items that you, as the author, are analyzing and comparing. For instance, if you’d like to demonstrate differences and similarities between 3 items using several perspectives, make sure to provide two paragraphs in the body. In other words, your comparing and contrasting essay will include four paragraphs.

It is important to check the paper requirements that your college professor might provide you with to find whether she or he recommend a certain amount of paragraphs or you’re the one to choose the amount. It is better keep away from including more than 3 items.

Begin every other paragraph in your body with a theme sentence (issue 1/criterion A/point 1) that focuses on one of the issues that you are going to analyze, compare and contrast. Talk about the differences and similarities, add your personal viewpoint on the topic, as well as support everything you say with the true-life statistics, credible facts, strong evidence, words of the professionals of the area. In order to enhance the general readability and flow of the essay text, it is good to use smooth transitions between different segments of the comparing and contrasting essay. Check out some of the most popular transition phrases and words that you may use to link different paragraphs:

Correspondingly
Both
At the same time
On the other hand
In the same way
Unlike
Meanwhile
On the contrary
Conversely
Nevertheless

Every body paragraph should be analyzed from the independent point of view. So, make sure that your comparing and contrasting essay in statistics is unbiased.

More Detailed Essay Outline: Conclusion

Once you’re done with the introduction and the body of the comparing and contrasting essay, the essay conclusion should summarize all evidence and arguments, as well as restate thesis statement but in a more confident way since it has successfully proven its point.

Some of the experts recommend summarizing the essay paragraphs for a blunter and bolder emphasis, while the others insist that a comparing and contrasting essay conclusion should be used to provide the body paragraphs support in a more implicit way. In other words, the concluding part is your last opportunity to cement your argument and solidify your claim.

Compare & Contrast Words

An important thing about working on a comparing and contrasting essay in statistics is that you have to use special words that will make your paper more logical and coherent. Here are some of the basic words that signify comparing and contrasting:

Words of comparing: as well as, like, compared to, correspondingly, in addition, similar to, similarly, by analogy, too, likewise, in the same way, both, at the same time, same as, etc.

Words to contrast: nevertheless, unlike, on the one hand/on the other hand, conversely, regardless, yet, however, still, although, while, but, even though, although, despite, etc.

Proofread and Revise Your Essay Carefully

Once you’ve written the last sentence of your essay, read the text several times in order to see if it contains any punctuation, grammar and spelling mistakes. It is recommended to use the grammar and spell check tools like Reverso or GrammarCheck to scan your work. If possible, ask your friends or family to take a look at your essay (it will be especially good if there’s at least someone skilled in statistics) and show what you might have missed to fix. The thing is that people always have difficulties reading their own writings and can skip many mistakes.

We hope that this guide provided you with a better understanding of how to organize the process of writing a compare and contrast essay in statistics. Keep in mind that proper preparation for work is the key if you want to achieve the top results!