P OWER WRITING T ECHNIQUE You have 5 minutes to write a paragraph about what you think of a particular type of a student. excellent, average, or Careless ). Describe this type of student. Show how this student is similar or different from another type. Give an example of this type. Don’t worry about spelling or mechanical errors such as punctuation or capitalization. Count the number of words you have written.

C LASSIFICATION E SSAY Is an essay that classifies, sorts, or groups ideas or things into categories in a logical way. Purpose: To make things easier to understand.

Three Steps to Effective Classification: Sort things into useful categories. Make sure all the categories follow a single organizing principle. Example on the board. Give examples that fit into each category.

. For example, say you need to sort the stack of papers on your desk. Before you would put them in random piles, you would decide what useful categories might be: papers that can be thrown away; papers that need immediate action; papers to read; papers to pass on to other coworkers; or papers to file.

The thesis statement usually includes the topic and how it is classified. Sometimes the categories are named. (Three categories are the most common way). (topic)...(how classified)...(category) (category) (category) Ex: Tourists in Hawaii can enjoy three water sports: snorkeling, surfing, and sailing. Burns fall under three categories: first degree, second degree and third degree.

H OW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE CLASSIFICATION ESSAY : 1. Don’t leave out a critical category: For example, if you say water sports of Hawaii include snorkeling and sailing, but leave out surfing, your essay would be incomplete because surfing is Hawaii's most famous water sport. On the other hand, don't include too many categories, which will blur your classification. For example, if your topic is smart teachers, you may include the ones that prepare well, pay attention to students and those who offer extra help, but not the ones that act nicely to trick their students.

P RINCIPLES OF C LASSIFICATION Three common principles of organization for a classification essay: 1. Degree: Student in this college can be classified based on their intelligence: those who are brilliant, those who are average and those who are bellow average. 2. Location: housing: those who live on campus, off campus or at home. 3. Year(Chronology): those who are in the freshmen year, the ones in the sophomore, junior or senior year.

2. Support equally each category with examples. In general, you should write the same quantity, i.e., give the same number of examples, for each category. The most important category, usually reserved for last, might require more elaboration.

I NTRODUCTION The turnabout (page 190). The basic part of the introduction is the thesis statement. The thesis statement has a very determined logical structure (the number of categories is suggested to be limited to three in order not to blur the classification). For instance: Exchange students can face three benefits: education, experience and cultural exchange.

Turnabout: Example Have you ever thought of the meaning of the word learner? The common sense concept of a student in any logical person’s mind is equivalent to a perfect knowledge seeker with excellent level of intelligence. People would always think that a student’s job is only to study and spend most of his/her time between books’ pages. Well, this is a perfect picture of any student in every parent’s mind and dream. However and unfortunately, we have to always bear in my mind that not all students think the same and are equally smart. Therefore, students can be classified into the following categories based on their level of intelligence: the weak student, the average student and the ideal one.

Body First category (The least important category). Second category Third category (The most important one and requires brighter examples). In a body paragraph for this type of essay you need to do the following: 1. introduce the category and explain it. 2. Starting from body paragraph two, show similarities, differences to a previous category or either. 3. Introduce examples of the categories.

The Average student Average students are those learners who do their best to succeed but not receive high marks most of the time. This type of learner strives to get excellent grades but rarely succeeds. On the contrary, they usually get C’s as their final marks and are mostly satisfied with these results because they know that this is their level. However, they try to change this reality, but most of the time, they can’t. An example of a student who falls under this category is my friend Sara. This girl’s marks are always in the seventies, and this has never bothered her. Furthermore, she can go on with her life happily and move easily into the next chapter of her life without feeling annoyed by her average marks. This group of students is different from the previous lazy group in the way that they know how to use their brain on a regular basis. Meaning, their brains are able to function naturally unlike the previous group who doesn't’ have even an average level of intelligence and don’t bother to try improving and using their brains. Finally, this group exists vastly among new high school students who are in their early teenage years and have many new ideas to think of in their minds. (199 words).

Conclusion The conclusion is the summary of the analyzed categories or the restatement of the thesis statement. Transitions used in a classification essay are on page 191.

Resource Regina L. Smalley et al. Refining Composition Skills. 6th. Heinle ELT, Chapter 8