How to Write a Classification Essay Outline?
An essay outline is written to enlist all the ideas and points that are further going to be elaborated in the essay. An essay outline provides a proper structure to the essay and determines the flow of content.
A classification essay outline will help you classify and organize the subjects being discussed. This is done in such a way that it is easy for the reader to understand and comprehend.
Not just the classification essay, but every type of essay requires you to draft an outline first. This is considered to be the prewriting phase of essay writing.
“How do you write an outline for a classification essay?”
To create a logical flow of information in the essay, a general format of a classification essay outline has the following sections:
- Introduction
- Body Paragraph 1
- Body Paragraph 2
- Body Paragraph 3
- Conclusion
The number of paragraphs in your essay may vary according to your topic or the essay requirements. However, the general three sections of an outline are Introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion.
How to Write a Classification Essay Introduction?
The first section of a classification essay is its introduction. The introduction paragraph introduces the topic and the terms being discussed in the essay.
To ensure that a reader reads your essay thoroughly with interest, hook them to your essay right from the beginning. So, it is recommended to begin your introduction paragraph with a hook sentence on an attention grabber.
Once you have successfully hooked the reader to your essay, you can introduce the topic to your reader and provide relevant background. Lastly, you need to put forward our thesis statement towards the end of your introduction paragraph.
An effective introductory paragraph for a classification essay will have the following elements:
- Hook:
A hook is an interesting attention grabber that compels your reader to read the essay further on. There are multiple types of hooks that can be used. You can view hook examples to select an appropriate hook for your essay.
You can select an appropriate hook according to the nature of your essay and the topic. If it is a serious topic you can begin with a fact or a quotation. However, if it is a funnier topic you can go for a light-hearted anecdote.
- Topic Introduction:
Introduce the topic of your essay. If there are any technical terms try to explain them here. Otherwise, give a general overview of the topic briefly.
- Background or Purpose:
Tell the background of your topic or the purpose of writing an essay on this specific topic. This will help in developing the context of your essay.
- Thesis Statement:
A thesis statement is a two-three sentence statement. It tells your viewpoint or main claim of the essay to the reader. It should be concise and clear.
To properly end the introduction paragraph you can add a transition sentence at the end. This sentence will create the flow of your writing and connect the introduction paragraph to the upcoming body paragraphs.
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How to Write a Classification Essay Body Paragraphs?
The next section of your classification essay is the body. All the details that are to be written in an essay are mentioned paragraph-wise in the body section.
Usually, there are three body paragraphs. However, the number can increase according to the number of categories that you make.
Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence that highlights the separate category being discussed in the paragraph. After the topic sentence, mention the supporting details and then end the paragraph with a concluding sentence.
The body paragraphs of a classification essay can be written in the following manner:
- Category: Here you will mention the categories into which you have classified the subject or the topic. You also need to tell the criteria for classifying the subject accordingly.
- Explanation: Explain the merits and demerits of the category or classification. Also, explain the classification more for clarification.
- Example: Provide the relevant examples to authenticate your classification. Examples mostly act as evidence of your claim. So, make sure to write examples that are relevant and support your point of view.
How to Write a Classification Essay Conclusion?
Lastly, you will end your essay with a conclusion paragraph. The conclusion section is drafted to summarize the whole essay and to conclude the discussion.
Keep in mind that no new information or argument is ever added in the conclusion paragraph. Instead, the conclusion paragraph only summarizes the essay.
A wise strategy is to summarize each of the outline points in a single sentence within the conclusion paragraph.
The concluding parargaph of a classification essay should include the following information:
- Summary of the Arguments/Points: All the categories or the classification discussed previously are summarized logically in the conclusion paragraph. Also, don’t forget to reiterate the thesis statement here.
- Mention the Future Recommendations: At the end of the essay and the conclusion, mention the recommendations or future interventions. This means you can also provide a call to action.
Make sure to effectively conclude the essay else your whole essay can fall flat. Your conclusion should be such that it leaves the reader thinking about your essay
Significance of Writing a Classification Essay Outline
Most students usually jump directly to essay writing and start with an essay without creating an outline first. This is not a wise strategy and can cause writing troubles for you. Here is why writing a classification essay outline can help you:
- Provides a Clear Focus: An outline helps the writer to remain focused on their topic and main points. Without an outline, you can get sidetracked and write extra on unnecessary information.
- Ensure a Logical Flow: An outline helps you organize your points well. Thus, it ensures a logical flow and a smooth transition from one point to another.
- Prevents Structural Issues: Through an outline, you clearly divide the information into the introduction, body, and conclusion sections of your essay. So, there are less chances of making any structural mistakes.
- Makes the Essay Concise and Precise: Unnecessarily elongated pieces of writings are not at all impressive. It is always recommended that an essay should be concise and precise, rather than unnecessarily extensive. An outline helps you achieve this preciseness as it prevents you from deviating to irrelevant points.
- Helps to Organize Information: While brainstorming ideas for an essay you think about multiple points to be written in your essay. However, not every point is relevant or important enough to be mentioned. So, with the help of an outline, you filter out the relevant points and organize them correctly for the essay.
These points tell you how significant it is to write an essay outline. They show you how an outline can help you improve your academic papers and writing skills.
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Classification Essay Outline Examples
Students are mostly looking for examples and samples to learn from while writing their academic assignments. So, here are some classification essay outline samples for your help:
Division and Classification Essay Outline
Classification Essay
Definition:
In a classification essay, we organize things into categories and give examples of things that fit into each category. For example, if you choose to write about types of computers (PCs and servers), each of your developmental paragraphs will define the characteristics of a different computer type.
Classification criteria:
Before writing, it is necessary to decide on the classification criteria. We should think according to what properties we are going to classify things. The criteria must be discriminating and the emerging classes should be non-overlapping.
In the sample essay about types of computers, the computers are classified according to their functions and capabilities, as:
Sample essay analysis
topic: 5 types of computers
criteria: their functions and capabilities
- PC
- Workstation
- Server
- Main frame
- Super computer
general use by a single person
used for 3D graphics, game development
used to provide services to other computers
used in business
used for jobs that take massive amounts of calculating
desktop: permanent laptop: portable
powerful microprocessor, additional memory and enhanced capabilities
have powerful processors, lots of memory and large hard drives
enables hundreds of people to work together
very powerful
Organization:
The introduction of a classification essay is quite straightforward. In the thesis statement, you mention that there are (number) types of (something) according to their (properties).
In the developmental paragraphs, you need to define each type you mentioned in the thesis. You may also need to show the similarities and/or differences of these types. Giving examples would enable your readers to understand better.
Language:
The common transitions used while classifying are the first kind / type / group, the second kind / type / group, the third kind / type / group.
Sample classification essay:
Types of Computers
There are a lot of terms used to describe computers. Most of these words imply the size, expected use or capability of the computer. While the term “computer” can apply to virtually any device that has a microprocessor in it, most people think of a computer as a device that receives input from the user through a mouse or keyboard, processes it in some fashion and displays the result on a screen. Computers can be divided into five according to the purpose they are used for and their capabilities.
The most familiar type of microprocessor is the personal computer (PC). It designed for general use by a single person. While a Mac is also a PC, most people relate the term with systems that run the Windows operating system. PCs were first known as microcomputers because they were a complete computer but built on a smaller scale than the huge systems in use by most businesses. A PC can come in two types (three if we include the Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) that differ from PCs not by the working policy but in appearance as well.): Desktop and laptop. The former is not designed for portability. The expectation with desktop systems is that you will set the computer up in a permanent location. Most desktops offer more power, storage and versatility for less cost than their portable brethren. On the other hand, the laptops – also called notebooks – are portable computers that integrate the display, keyboard, a pointing device or trackball, processor, memory and hard drive all in a battery-operated package slightly larger than an average hardcover book.
Another purpose for using a microprocessor is as a workstation. The computers used for this purpose have a more powerful processor, additional memory and enhanced capabilities for performing a special group of task, such as 3D Graphics or game development.
A computer can also be used as a server. For this, it needs to be optimized to provide services to other computers over a network. Servers usually have powerful processors, lots of memory and large hard drives. Servers also have the capacity to store data related to the company. If there is an Internet connection, a server is also enables the company workers to observe who is visiting their pages from which server. This helps developing the business.
A fourth type, a main frame is the heart of a network of computers or terminals which allows hundreds of people to work at the same time on the same data. It is indispensable for the business world. These machines are huge both in size and in capacity. Generally they are kept in a separate room where nobody can reach since their breakdown can cause a fortune to the company.
Sometimes, computers can be used for specialized fields as well. The supercomputer is the top of the heap in power and expense. It is used for jobs that take massive amounts of calculating, like weather forecasting, engineering design and testing, serious decryption, and economic forecasting.
With the increasing demand in different specialties, new adjustments are being made to microprocessors and new types of computers that serve different purposes emerge. In this ongoing process, it would not possible to put a full stop here. What we suggest is that it is better to keep en eye on the development of science in this field and keep updating our knowledge in order not to be out-of-date like the computers of old times that were as big as a room.
Written by Oya Ozagac, May 2004 Copyright @ 2006 Bogazici University SFL
Classification Essay Outline Template
ClassificationEssay:Example#1
Many Ways to Turn a Page
People say that one can understand a lot about someone’s personality just by looking at his shoes. The way people take care of their shoes reveals a lot about their characters.
Similarly, the way people treat their books can be definitive about a reader’s personality. Therefore, most readers could fall into one of five groups: the perfectionist, the teacher, the antiquarian, the collector, and the aesthete.
If one happens to be in a bookstore and sees someone asking the bookseller for a copy that has never been opened before, this person must be a perfectionist. People in this category are usually very fastidious about everything, including their books. Book lovers in this category are most likely to go to a shelf in a bookstore and spend hours exploring the contents of books before they choose one. After they choose a book, they will ask for an immaculate copy – if it is possible, never touched by a hand – and for sure they will check for misprints, folded pages and may ask that the tag with the price be peeled off (if there is one). They use their books in the same manner. They probably read their books at a 45- degree angle, so that they look as if they have never been read. A perfectionist will never write on his books, and he will shelve them in perfect thematic order. Of course, his shoes always look blindingly polished.
The next category of readers is the teachers. People in this category are usually life- long readers and use books as a tool for gaining knowledge. For them, the book as an object doesn’t have as much value as the book as a source of information, knowledge, and ideas. The teacher most likely will write on his books, since for him they are not sacred objects of adoration, but just useful tools for sharing ideas. His beliefs, ideas, and positions can be seen in the remarks made in the margins. Usually people from this category have a very accurate ability to distinguish significant things from marginal ones. Like the perfectionist, the teacher will put his books in thematic order, but he will always care more about the knowledge inside them instead of the books themselves. The teacher is a kind of reader who easily will share his books with other people because he actually enjoys sharing ideas. Moreover, he wouldn’t care if some of his books were lost, since he has already read them.
The third category is the antiquarian. This category is very specific. People who have an antiquarian interest in books should be called book lovers, rather than readers. Of course, they like to read books, but their main attitude toward books is expressed generally in the possession of books as objects with commercial value. These people have a wide bibliographic knowledge about books. For example, they know about publishers, different
editions, years of publication, copies, and reprints. People in this category are “book
hunters”. Sometimes they dedicate their whole life to the passion of finding rare books; as a result, they make this interest about books their profession. Most of them are bookstore owners since they evaluate books mainly as objects with a high commercial value. The antiquarian reminds me of a souteneur (a pimp) : he loves books, but more than that, he loves the money he gains from them.
The collectors are a different group of book lovers. How is this category different from those already mentioned? On the one hand, it looks pretty close to the antiquarian; on the other hand, it has a lot in common with the teacher. Thus, it seems that this category of people is somehow in between these two others. While the antiquarian likes to collect books with a commercial interest, the collector has a 100% personal interest. This is the main difference. The collector, like the teacher, evaluates books according to the knowledge he can find through them. However, instead of gaining this knowledge, he buys books with the idea to read them later, at some future moment. This way he makes huge collections of books that he doesn’t read for years, sometimes even never. The collector enjoys reading, but since he doesn’t have time to read, he develops a dependence on the possession of books. In other words the collector is “a put-off-teacher” and not a real antiquarian.
Finally, the last category of book lovers is the aesthete. People from this category can be called “readers” only in a formal sense. Actually, they don’t like to read at all, but they have specific attitudes toward books. These are people who see books as a nice way to add comfort, a good look or the “last detail” to their magazine-style interior. Books in their world exist along with vases, family pictures, boxes, and candles. The most important quality that book can have in such a world is a pretty cover matching the interior style. For the aesthete, books have value only as a decoration. They are nothing more than a needed accent, so that the interior vision looks complete. For example, the aesthete often buys book collections only to fill the empty shelves, so the room can look cozy. The aesthete will rarely open a book, but will regularly clean the dust from it as a part of the furniture.
In conclusion, it can be seen that books are like signs reflecting people’s personalities; indeed, books are a very significant factor expressing someone’s personal values. Since the scripts of antiquity until today, books have changed their image many times, but they have always had a significant role as cultural icons. Maybe soon books will have mostly a virtual existence; however, the attitude toward reading will still reveal one’s personal philosophy.
Andriana Yovcheva
Classification essay: Example #2
First Families
“My host family took me to the beach yesterday. It was so nice!” “Really? I envy you! My host family doesn’t even feed me well!”
There are sometimes these kinds of conversations among the international students. Many international students, especially those who stay in America for a short time, prefer to stay with an American host family because they can experience American culture, and it is helpful to improve their English. However, not all international students get to stay with a pleasant host family. Having talked about host families with several of my acquaintances, I realized that there are different reasons why American host families invite an international student.
The first type of American host family is the host family who invites an international student because of money. Of course, this is one of the basic reasons why most American host families invite international students. However, this type of host family’s purpose is only to earn money from an international student. When I studied in a private English academy, I met a student who was living with that kind of host family. She paid more than $500 per month, but they’d never offered her good food. They always gave her only a slice of bread or a small portion of frozen food. She’d never seen milk or fruit in her host family’s house. When she asked her host mother to give one more slice of bread, her host mother even answered no. Another student whom I met was living in a bad environment. For example, there was no lamp in his room and no telephone in his house. Of course, this type of host family doesn’t treat its host students well, and they don’t try to take care of their host students.
The second type of American host family is the host family who really wants to-help international students. In the city where I am living now, there is a Christian group organized to help international students. All members in this Christian group try to help international students by offering a volunteer tutoring service or making a party for international students. Also, some members invite host students, and most of the students who find their host family in this group are satisfied with their family. Because their main goal is to help international students, these families don’t receive much money from their students. They treat their students well, and try to help their host students to live in America, which is a very strange country for them. In my case, I also found a host family by contacting this group, and they were very helpful people. They gave me a lot of information about the area, like the locations of important buildings or the way to use public transportation. Also, they tried to make me experience American culture, so my host parents took me to a potluck party or invited me to a family dinner. Whenever I asked about English expressions, American customs, or my homework, they tried to help me in any way they could.
The third type of host family is the family who invites international students to stay out of their own loneliness. This is usually a family consisting of a retired couple or a single person. Some people feel lonely after retirement and have nothing to do, especially if their house is an empty nest. Therefore, therefore they host an international student and treat
the international student like their real daughter or son. This also applies to people who live alone. One of my friends who came to America to learn English lived with this kind of host mother. The host mother was divorced, and she wanted to host a student because she was lonely living alone. Therefore, she treated my friend like a real daughter. She took my friend everywhere she went and introduced my friend whenever they met new people. When my friend returned to her home after class, she and her host mother made dinner together, watched TV and talked for a long time.
Living with an American host family has many advantages. Especially for foreign students, having the experience of living with a host family is a huge support. However, whether the experience is pleasant or not depends on the attitudes of the students as well as the attitudes of the families themselves. Therefore, I hope international students living in America can meet host families who will enrich their experiences in this country and leave them with pleasant memories.
Hae Yeon Cho