Classification and Division Essay Examples 2021 See Current Structure

When writing a classification or division essay, the writer is supposed to classify or divide the arguments of the essay into categories. In this article, you will get to see some classification and division essay examples, in other to help you write your essay.

Classification and Division Essay

Classification and division is a rhetorical style that, in essay format, takes a whole and splits it up into parts, and then places the divided information into various categories.

While you may see this rhetorical style used within a single paragraph, it’s not uncommon to write an entire essay using a classification and division format.

A classification and division essay combines two different techniques. First, you would divide a complex and difficult topic into subtopics for clarity and explanation purposes. Next, you would determine what categories are needed and what information fits into those categories.

Think of a newspaper. All of the information is divided into different parts: news, advertisements, and classifieds. Then the data is classified into different categories. For example, the report may be categorized as sports, international, local, lifestyle, etc.

How should I go about choosing my topic?

Begin by reading the explanations below. Examples of each are provided below!

• Division Essay: find a topic that people might tend to underestimate or over-simplify.  In other words, choose something that the average person might not know much about, and therefore can’t understand how complex or interesting that topic is.  Your job in the essay will be to break your text down into meaningful and valuable categories.
• Classification Essay: think about the categories we place things in every day and the characteristics of those categories.  The topic you choose should allow you to argue that something has been misplaced.

How should I organize this essay?

As you write, keep these guidelines in mind:

1. Your thesis statement and introduction will need to explain why these divisions/ classifications should matter to your reader.
2. Your thesis statement and introduction MUST define or explain the category you plan to discuss (i.e., A sport is a competitive, physical activity; therefore, cheerleading should be considered a game.)
3. You should organize your body paragraphs so that each division or category has its own paragraph or section. (i.e., the cardio exercise is paragraph 1 and weightlifting is paragraph 2, etc.)

Writing a Classification or Division Essay

When writing a classification or division essay, there are three important factors that the writer should keep in mind. Firstly, the writer needs to be aware of the fact that all the categories in the essay have to reveal the overall theme of the essay to the reader.

Secondly, although some categories may seem separated, they all are to follow the same logical principle. Lastly, every category must include examples. Keeping these three things in mind would make a classification or division essay much easier to write.

Thesis Statement for a Classification or Division Essay

The classification or division essays usually include the topic, and how it is classified. The strength of a thesis statement depends on how it is able to reveal the topic and its classification. The thesis statement has to carefully and logically structured.

Planning a Classification or Division Essay

There are two steps involved in the planning of a classification or division essay:

1. The first step is to decide what to classify. It is always ideal and recommended to choose a topic that you know about or have an interest in. the most important thing to mention here is to bear in mind that whatever topic you choose should be distinct in the category when representing in the essay.
2. The second step is to divide the topic into three distinct items within the broad category that you have already chosen in step one. This will allow you to write three body paragraphs and end up with an organized and ideal

Outlining a Classification or Division Essay

The overall outline of a classification or division essay is pretty much the same as any standard essay would have. For further simplification, a classification or division essay’s outline could normally comprise of the following components:

• The general topic
• The subtopics to be tackled
• Defining every subtopic
• Providing examples for further illustrating each subtopic

Structuring of a Classification and Division Essay

The Introductory Paragraph

In your introduction, clearly identify the classification that you have made and chosen to write about.  The introduction is going to include your thesis statement with a further description of what it exactly means.

In your, you may also want to add some specific informative or descriptive informative details that you believe may attract the interest of your audience.

What the Body Paragraphs Should Ideally Include

• When writing the body paragraphs for a classification or division essay, it is good to begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that mainly explains what the paragraph is going to talk about. Further, explain the topic sentence in an appealing manner that might include describing or illustrating each type with specific details.
• Arrange your body paragraphs in whatever way appeals to you considering the target audience in mind and might strike you as clear and logical. All you need to consider at this point is that your logical sequence of mentioning the items within the category matches the order as mentioned in your thesis statement.
• In order to maintain cohesiveness in the main body of a classification or division essay, the writer must use comparisons. Such type of comparative analysis paves the way for a transition between paragraphs throughout the essay but also reveals the writer’s sympathies.

The Concluding Paragraph

basically is space where the writer constructs and draws his conclusion on the basis of the existing set and class of data and statistics. The writer may want to choose a different approach towards writing the concluding paragraph for a classification or division essay.

This either could be to offer a final comment on each item or could be to summarize the values and limitations of each item.

In any case, the writer needs to ensure that the conclusion explicitly augments the actual reason for the investigation and justifies the classification or divide that was initially made before writing the whole thing.

Common Classification or Division Transitions

The writer could either divide the three items by mentioning in each of the three paragraphs of the body of the essay the specific number that it assigns to it. For example, the first type, the second type, and the third type.

Classification and Division Essay Examples

1. Division Essay Examples

If you want to lose weight, simply saying that you’re going to “exercise” every day may not be the most effective way to do so.  Exercising is more complex than many people realize–attaining your goals will involve understanding how different types of exercise can help you achieve your goals.

Types of Exercise

• Cardio: burns calories and strengthens your heart (running, using an elliptical or stair-stepping machine, etc.)
• weight lifting: tones muscles, increases physical strength, burns fat (using weights or weighted machines)
• recreational/sports: depending on the sport, can provide both cardio and toning benefits (cycling, tennis, kayaking)

We could also narrow this topic down a bit further and write about the important differences between different types of cycling.

Types of Cycling:  stationary (exercise) biking, road biking, mountain biking, recreational biking

Classification Essay Examples

To write this type of essay, we’ll need to think about things that should or should not be placed in a particular category.

Example: Batman (that’s our topic!) is not a superhero (category people place him in), but is simply a local vigilante (category he belongs in).

Ask yourself: Why do I think that…?

• It does not possess super powers (powers most humans don’t possess).
• Chooses to be a hero, rather than being “chosen” by others/other forces.

Example: Cheerleading (That’s our topic!) should be considered a sport (It belongs in the category, “sports”). 

Ask yourself: Why do I think that…?

• cheerleaders go to “practice” and must be in good physical shape
• the cheerleaders work together toward a common goal
• cheerleaders must “try out” for their squad and often compete against other squads

The above are some classification and division essay examples. Do well to read and understand them. Also, feel free to adopt any of the above styles and you can ask your questions in the comment box below.

CSN Team.