CLASSIFICATION ESSAY: In a classification essay, you take a plural noun, like crowds, or more specifically unruly crowds
In a classification essay, you take a plural noun, like crowds, or more specifically unruly crowds, and you break it into typically 3 categories which you choose depending on your thesis statement. For example, about unruly crowds you could attempt to show that there are three types of them—the drunken crowd, the frenzied crowd, and the panicked crowd. Your thesis might be something like: “There are three types of unruly crowds, and since any crowd can become unruly in a moment, it is best to stay out of them.”
Then you break the body of your essay into three paragraphs, each one discussing one of the categories you’ve come up with and in each body paragraph demonstrating that your thesis is true. In the case of the example above, you would attempt to show how unpredictable each type of unruly crowd can be and why it’s best to stay out of situations that can turn dangerous.
The most common mistake people make in classification essays is coming up with categories that don’t cover all possible things that can fall under that topic. For example, let’s take the plural topic of pets. Often students will write about the topic of pets and then they will choose as their categories: cats, dogs, and birds. The problem with these categories is that they don’t cover all possible types of pets. Under which category—cats, dogs, or birds—would guinea pigs fall? How about turtles? goldfish? bearded dragons? monkeys? You see, the categories chosen don’t account for all the possible pets. You must make sure your categories do.
There is an exception to this rule, however. If you create your own topic—as I did above with my topic unruly crowds. There’s no consensus as to what categories fall under unruly crowds. You can’t consult a text book and find official categories of unruly crowds. I can come up with as many or as few categories as I need. So I tell a student wanting to classify pets that he should invent a narrower, perhaps lighter, topic like “scary pets” or “pets that people overpay for.” Then he can come up with whatever 3 categories he wants since he made up the topic and it’s not a real topic.
Make sure you first read Chapter 12 in your textbook for a thoroughgoing discussion of the Classification Essay. Be sure to have a thesis (last sentence of your introduction) that states what point you wish to make. You should choose one of the topics from the list below:
Leaders
Villains
Heroes
Dates
Christmas or birthday gifts
Coaches
People in a waiting room
Cold or flu sufferers
Divorces
Mature video games
Workers or employees
Doctors
Salespersons
In a classification essay, you take a plural noun, like crowds, or more specifically unruly crowds, and you break it into typically 3 categories which you choose depending on your thesis statement. For example, about unruly crowds you could attempt to show that there are three types of them—the drunken crowd, the frenzied crowd, and the panicked crowd. Your thesis might be something like: “There are three types of unruly crowds, and since any crowd can become unruly in a moment, it is best to stay out of them.”
Then you break the body of your essay into three paragraphs, each one discussing one of the categories you’ve come up with and in each body paragraph demonstrating that your thesis is true. In the case of the example above, you would attempt to show how unpredictable each type of unruly crowd can be and why it’s best to stay out of situations that can turn dangerous.
The most common mistake people make in classification essays is coming up with categories that don’t cover all possible things that can fall under that topic. For example, let’s take the plural topic of pets. Often students will write about the topic of pets and then they will choose as their categories: cats, dogs, and birds. The problem with these categories is that they don’t cover all possible types of pets. Under which category—cats, dogs, or birds—would guinea pigs fall? How about turtles? goldfish? bearded dragons? monkeys? You see, the categories chosen don’t account for all the possible pets. You must make sure your categories do.
There is an exception to this rule, however. If you create your own topic—as I did above with my topic unruly crowds. There’s no consensus as to what categories fall under unruly crowds. You can’t consult a text book and find official categories of unruly crowds. I can come up with as many or as few categories as I need. So I tell a student wanting to classify pets that he should invent a narrower, perhaps lighter, topic like “scary pets” or “pets that people overpay for.” Then he can come up with whatever 3 categories he wants since he made up the topic and it’s not a real topic.
Make sure you first read Chapter 12 in your textbook for a thoroughgoing discussion of the Classification Essay. Be sure to have a thesis (last sentence of your introduction) that states what point you wish to make. You should choose one of the topics from the list below:
Leaders
Villains
Heroes
Dates
Christmas or birthday gifts
Coaches
People in a waiting room
Cold or flu sufferers
Divorces
Mature video games
Workers or employees
Doctors
Salespersons
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