exemplification: writing essays with vivid examples and illustrations english 100: college writing...
TRANSCRIPT
Exemplification: Writing Essays With Vivid Examples and IllustrationsEnglish 100: College WritingDarren Chiang-Schultheisswww.wiredprof.com
Why We Use Examples
To persuade skeptical readers who are reluctant to accept your viewpointTo show a causal relationshipTo be more interesting and take the reader beyond a telling statementHelp to explain or clarify an abstractionTo avoid unintended ambiguity
Forms of Examples
Specific names (people, places, products)
AnecdotesPersonal observationsExpert opinions (from outside sources, interviews)
FactsStatisticsCase studies via research
Example Types
Personal-case examplesTypical-case examplesHypothetical examplesGeneralized examplesExtended examples
1. Personal-experience Examples
From your own lifeLend personal authorityCreate drama
2. Typical-case Examples
Objective in nature: can be especially convincingAbout an actual event/situation, but you didn’t directly experience it.Source could be newspapers, magazines, television
3. Hypothetical Examples
Speculative, but be sure it’s conceivableMight ask the reader to imagine a scenarioBe sure to acknowledge that your example is invented Ex: “suppose that…” or “let’s for a
moment assume that…”
4. Generalized Examples
Composite of the typical and usual Ex: “all of us, at one time or another,
have been driven to distraction by a trivial annoyance like the buzzing of a fly or the sting of a paper cut.”
Ex: “when most people get a compliment, they perk up, preen, and think the praise-giver is blessed with astute power of observation.”
5. Extended Examples
Employ many details and specificsLast an entire paragraphSometimes can encompass the entire essay, but must be significant to stand alone as the only example
Effective Examples Should:
Be relevant; Have direct bearing on the subjectBe dramaticBe accurate (esp. When using facts, figures, statistics)Be non-contradictoryAvoid sweeping generalizations at all costs, for they do not convince readers
Effective Examples Should:
Be representative: avoid oddball or one-in-a-million types of examples; They distort and are not honest Ex: if writing a paper on the
difficulties of getting through college and you use the example of a student who works 35 hours a week and still gets straight A’s, that’s not typical or representative. It does not exemplify what MOST students experience.
Effective Examples Should:
Use an organizational approach: Chronological Spatial Simple to complex Emphatic sequence
Recognize & Use Key Words
For example,For instance,First, second, thirdNext, in addition