Paper 2: Comparative essay skills
Paper 2 asks for a comparative essay on two literary works studied, written in 1 hour 45 minutes in response to one of four questions. It tests sustained comparison and argument under timed conditions.
Build an integrated comparison
- Decode the question: identify the key concept and the comparative demand.
- Write a thesis that makes a claim about both works.
- Integrate comparison paragraph by paragraph: point of comparison, evidence from both, analysis of authorial choice, evaluation.
- Use precise textual evidence; avoid long plot summary. Balance the works.
Worked example
A question asks how settings function in two works. A thesis might claim: 'In both works, the house is less a setting than a mechanism of control over women.' A paragraph then compares thresholds: one text uses realist domestic detail, the other expressionist distortion. The comparison is not that both have houses, but that their different techniques produce different critiques of confinement.
Traps
Writing two separate essays; retelling plot; ignoring the key comparative term; imbalance between works; unsupported generalisations about society.