How Do I Write a Classification/Division Essay?
A classification or division essay takes what you learned about using examples in the example/illustration essay and applies those examples more specifically to a thesis. In other words, you should be using examples that demonstrate the form of the composition: either how ideas or objects may be grouped into categories (classifying) or how an idea or object may be separated into parts (dividing).
Things to Watch For:
Classification
Think of classification as a way of categorizing. There are four food groups. Let’s write about them and (here comes the thesis) what they contribute to proper nutrition:
̧ What you’re doing when you classify is finding the common denominators among ideas or objects that are different: What do eggs, ice cream, and Swiss cheese have in common? Well, monster cholesterol, for one. But is there classification there? This might be a topic that works better as cause-effect. Be sure you don’t stray beyond the point of your assigned rhetorical form unless your professor has allowed this.
̧ Once the classifications are under way, make sure they don’t overlap.
̧ Don’t omit an important category (all classifications must completely classify
the topic or run the risk of merely being isolated examples).
̧ Make sure that they remain logical.
Example:
What’s wrong with this picture? The classifications are of houses: brick, frame, ranch, and big. Big doesn’t fit. Stucco fits. Adobe fits. Big belongs to a different basis of classification—size rather than style.