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When you were a kid, you were introduced to a thinking skill known as classification. You were probably given a box of something – coins, rocks, or buttons perhaps – and were asked to sort them by some criterion – size, shape, color, etc. As you moved through school, you were given other classification activities or were introduced to real world examples of classification. In biology, you learned how animals are classified into phyla, classes, and species. In chemistry, the periodic table of elements which are grouped according to their characteristics. You also write classification essays in English class as a part of an essay writing unit. Classification essays usually fall within the genres of expository or definition.
If you have not written one in a while, you may be asking, what is a classification essay? If so, go back to elementary school and think about those buttons. It really is as simple as that. You are going to identify a large group of something as a topic and then break them down into smaller groups based upon common characteristics of some sort.
Step by Step Process for Writing a Classification Essay
In the case of a classification essay, you can go against traditional advice that says to write your body paragraphs before your introduction. You have all of the information on your topic and the details of the sub-groups, and that is all you need. Suppose you are writing a classification essay about friends. You might begin with a statement such as, “Not all of my friends are created equal.” You would then state something like, you have 4 different types of friends and you hang out with them for different purposes or you share different levels of yourself with each group.
Each type of friend you have will be given one paragraph. There might be the friend who is really just an acquaintance with whom you share some information about yourself, but not much; there might be the friend with whom you study, and both of you occasionally talk of your personal lives; there might be the type of friend with whom you work and socialize a bit. S/he may know a bit more about you; then there is the friend who is really close and with whom you share everything, good and bad.
This final paragraph may speak to the fact that all four types of friends are important because they represent the types of friendship you will have as an adult – it is good to be able to relate to all types well.
Classification essays are really easy to organize once you have your sub-groups identified. Even if you have to conduct research to get the details, they are easily found.