Classification Essay

The first step to classifying is dividing. To divide is to break something down into its components.
Examples of division: Manhattan by neighborhoods
Art into types: sculpture, painting, drawing, and other types

Classifying: After dividing into components, the subject is classified into categories, as in the forest wildlife management example to follow. When dividing and classifying, the point is to make order out of a complex or overwhelming amount of information.

Example: There are six scales of forest wildlife management: (1) national, (2) regional, (3) state or industrial, (4) county or parish, (5) intra-state region, management unit or watershed, and (6) forest. Each is different. At the national and regional levels, management includes decisions on timber, grazing, official stance on forest taxation bills, cutting policy relative to threatened and endangered species, management of migratory species, and research fund allocation. At the state or industrial level, decision types include land acquisition, sale or trade; season setting; and permit systems and fees. At the county level, plans are made, seasons set, and special fees levied. At the intra-state level, decisions include what seasons to recommend, what stances to take on bills, land acquisition, and the placement of facilities. At the forest level, decisions may include some of those of the larger management unit but typically are those of maintenance schedules, planting stock, cutting rotations, personnel, road closures, equipment use, and boundaries to be marked.

Example 2: The researchers also found that certain of these temperamental qualities tended to occur together. These clusters of characteristics generally fell into three types - the easy baby, the difficult baby, and the baby who was slow to warm up. The easy infant has regular patterns of eating and sleeping, readily approaches new objects and people, adapts easily to changes in the environment, generally reacts with low or moderate intensity, and typically is in a cheerful mood. The difficult infant usually shows irregular patterns of eating and sleeping, withdraws from new objects or people, adapts slowly to changes, reacts with great intensity, and is frequently cranky. The slow-to-warm-up infant typically has a low activity level, tends to withdraw from an unfamiliar object, reacts with a low level of intensity, and adapts slowly to changes in the environment. Fortunately for parents, most healthy infants - 40 percent or more - have an easy temperament. Only about 10 percent have a difficult temperament, and about 15 percent are slow to warm up. The remaining 35 percent do not easily fit one of the three types but show some other pattern.

Make sure the components and categories you identify are sensible, given the purpose, and follow the same principle of classification or analysis for all categories. For example, if you’re discussing campus relations, good and bad divisions might be: Good: instructor, students, staff Poor: people from the south, people from other states, people from overseas

Questions to Consider: Do you use the most logical principle of division or classification for your purpose? Do you stick to one principle throughout? Have you identified components or categories that are comparable? Have you used the best order for your components or categories? Have you given specific examples for each of your components or categories? Have you made a complex subject more accessible to your readers?

Revising and Editing: Does the introduction set up the whole essay? Is your thesis clear? Have you used a topic sentence to state the category in each paragraph? Have you used a transition word to introduce each paragraph? Is the main idea in each paragraph fully developed? Is each detail or piece of evidence relevant to the paragraph? Does the conclusion answer the question, "So what?"

Choose one of the following subjects. Brainstorm 5 minutes. Come up with as many components as possible. Form groups with your classmates of all students who chose the same subject. Create one large list by combining items from all students who chose each subject. Working as a group, classify the items on the list into logical categories. Add or change components or categories as necessary. students customers sports families teachers web sites vacations drivers