Did you get assigned another essay for class? Well, it is something pretty normal for high school and college students. They encounter different types of essays every other day for multiple subjects. Classification essays are one of them. It sure seems like a daunting task when you have no clue about the writing process, but you can easily complete it with the proper understanding and practice. Such essays allow the teacher to evaluate your writing skills and your ability to classify different objects into appropriate categories. To learn more about this type of essay, carefully go through this detailed guide and find the different steps and essay topics.
On this PageBy now, you must have understood the classification essay definition. Let’s move on and learn how to write it.
The following points will help you structure your classification essay. Plan ahead! Make sure to follow these guidelines when creating outlines.
The introductory paragraph is an integral part of the essay since it is the first thing that your reader goes through.
Use it to grab the reader’s attention and build their interest in the paper. You can hook them by presenting some unusual or intriguing information relevant to the topic.
Next, get them familiar with the topic at hand with the help of some background information. Leave out details regarding the categories at this stage. Just give them an overview of your concept.
Finally, state the thesis statement that you defined earlier to give the reader an idea about what to expect from your paper.
A classification essay differs from a typical five-paragraph essay. The number of paragraphs here depends on the number of categories that you have.
Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence. In other words, open with a brief summary of the content presented in that particular paragraph.
Make sure that your topic sentences are interesting and make the reader want to read further. If you don’t have a clear idea about them, check out this detailed guide on writing a topic sentence .
When writing the body paragraphs, make sure that you follow a logical approach and use appropriate transitions.
A classification essay conclusion restates the thesis statement and highlights the importance of classifying people or objects in groups.
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Classifications are different from your typical essays. You need to do research and plan before you start writing. Your essay needs to be planned out. You need to think about what categories it would fall under, the traits of those categories, and more!
Following are some useful steps to craft an interesting and informative classification essay:
1. Brainstorm Ideas
The first step is figuring out a topic, in case you haven’t been assigned one already. Writing a topic of your choice is both a challenge and an opportunity.
You get to brainstorm and explore different ideas and choose the one that interests you the most. But at the same time, looking for objects that can be logically organized into different groups can be a bit challenging.
The trick is to look for objects that have an apparent basis for comparison. However, don’t go with something that has more than five categories.
We have mentioned some interesting classification essay topics in the coming sections to give you a better idea.
2. Determine the Categories
The next after deciding on a topic is to choose the categories to divide them. There can be different angles in some cases, so determine the approach you want to stick with. For instance, if you’re analyzing a group of people, then you can filter them by demographics, age, gender, etc.
However, make sure that you aren’t skipping an important category. And every category follows unique criteria for grouping.
3. Develop a Thesis Statement
Although the thesis statement is part of your introductory paragraph, it’s better to define it at this stage. A thesis statement defines the purpose of your paper, along with its main points. Think of it as the foundation of your essay that highlights the subject under analysis and the criteria being used to classify it into different categories.
This will help you give a sense of direction and help keep the essay on the right track. However, if you want, you can refine the thesis as you go.
4. Develop a Strategy
It can be hard to come up with an essay when you have no idea where the paper is going. However, this doesn't mean that there aren’t any steps in achieving success - just stick with it! A good way of doing so would be by dividing your time between different tasks and always keeping one step at hand.
5. Carry Out Extensive Research
Before you start writing the essay, have a clear idea of what type and how many sources your teacher is looking for. Use different research and writing methods to make it easier on yourself when reading over all that work later!
6. Writing the Essay
Finally, coming to the most important part – the write-up itself. In order to make your write-up organized and concise, it’s always a good idea to start with an outline. This will help you maintain a logical flow of information throughout the entire piece so that there are no confusing tangents or dead-ends in sight!
7. Revise and Update
When you are done with the first draft, give yourself a break. Go back to your essay and make sure there aren't any inconsistencies or errors in what was written before coming up for air!
Before starting the wiring process, it is better to look at our expert writer’s example. This way, you will better understand how professional essays are written and for that, go ahead and take a peek at this one from their division example library!
CLASSIFICATION ESSAY EXAMPLE
