Used with book Refining Composition Skills 6th ed. by Regina Smalley

1. THE
CLASSIFICATION ESSAY
Prof. Mara Luna
ENGL 3104

2. Marketing and Advertising
• Advertising is everywhere.
• We see it on television; we hear it on the radio. There are
print ads in every newspaper and magazine we read, on
billboards, on the sides of buses and on many Internet sites.
• Advertising, however, is just part of the marketing effort that
companies (and governments, candidates, and other groups)
put forth to further their cause of getting us to buy a product,
change our minds about an issue, change our behavior, or
vote for a candidate.
• The reading in this chapter explore the question: “What is
marketing and why does it work?

3. Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs

4. Building vocabulary
• A prefix is a letter or group of letters that are
attached to the beginning of a word to change the
word’s meaning.
• Studying prefixes is a good way to improve your
reading comprehension, but it is also a good way
to help you increase the number of words you can
use productively –in your speaking and writing.
• Some of the most common prefixes give the root
word a negative meaning.

5. Building vocabulary
Prefix Example Prefix Example
dis- discomfort un- unenthusiast
ic
in- / im- interminable il- / ir- illegible /
/ irresponsible
impossible
non- nonviolent de- destabilize
anti- antibiotic

6. Classifying
• The patterns of exposition are really ways to organize
thoughts, to develop ideas in an organized fashion so the
reader can follow them easily. Some topics are best
developed as comparison and contrast essays.
• There’s another common pattern of exposition:
classification and division. This pattern, like process
analysis and cause-and-effect analysis, is used for
analyzing topics.
• When analyzing a subject, you break it down into parts to
study or determine the relationship of the parts or the nature
of the parts.

7. Principles of classification
• When you classify, you need a principle of
classification – a guideline for your classifying
procedure.
• The important thing is to remember to use only
one principle of classification in an essay.
• Three common principles of classification are:
degree
chronology – dividing the subject according to
time periods
location

8. Making the Classification
Complete
• Once you have decided on a principle of
classification, check to see if the
classification includes all members of the
group.
• To avoid omitting members and
oversimplifying the analysis, then, it is
generally a good idea to divide the group into
more than two categories.
• For most college essays, three or four
categories are the average.

9. Organizing the Classification
essay
• After deciding on the principle of classification
and dividing the group into categories, you need
to discuss each of those categories.
• Plan on devoting at least one paragraph to each
category.

10. Organizing the Classification
Essay
For each category include the following:
1)Identify the group. If it has a special name, identify the name.
2)Describe or define the category. What are the general
characteristics of the members of this category?
3)Illustrate the generalizations you make by giving one or two
examples of typical members of the category.
4)In the second and subsequent developmental paragraphs,
distinguish the new category from the other categories.
Discuss the characteristics of the second category by
comparing and contrasting them with those of the first
category.

11. Introducing Categories
• In an introductory paragraph it is often a good
idea to introduce the categories by mentioning
the names of the groups.
• The thesis statement for the classification essay
can be one that simply introduces the
classification and the categories.
• When you name the categories in the
introduction, express them in parallel structure:
that is, express them in the same parts of
speech.

12. Introductory Paragraphs
In Chapter 6 you learned about the Funnel.
• Like the Funnel, the Turnabout opens generally and
congenially, but unlike the Funnel, the Turnabout
has a dramatic shift in ideas.
• In the Turnabout, the writer sets up the opponent’s
view for attack.

13. Transitions
for Classification
• A classification essay is really a combination of the
example and comparison-contrast essays.
• Therefore, expect the transitions for this type of essay to
be generally the same as those for the example and
comparison-contrast essays.
Type Explanation Examples
to introduce categories these are generally The first group…
additive transitions The next group…
The last category…
to show similarities and it is important to clarify the Unlike…
differences distinctions between the However…
categories. In contrast to…
to introduce examples A good example of…
An excellent example of…

14. Additional Resources
• http://writing.wikinut.com/How-to-Write-a-Well-
Developed-And-Organized-Classification-Essay-5-
Paragraphs/nb3g58w_/
• http://www.ehow.com/about_4597015_what-
classification-essay.html
• http://www.ehow.com/video_4757585_what-
classification-essay.html