Written Assignment, Classification Essay – Due: Nov. 10

Classification Essay

For this essay, you will be categorizing related items, placing them into three or four groups with sub-groups representing specific examples.

If you remember, comparison/contrast focused on two specific items (Mr. Smith vs. Ms. Jones, two teachers). Everything in the essay developed an understanding of those two teachers: their habits, their techniques and their personality, for instance. The classification takes a step back and puts the two teachers into groups of many teachers.

For instance, let’s say you recognize three distinct types of teachers:

· The lecturer;

· The discussion leader;

· The textbook reader.

Mr. Smith might be a textbook reader. In your comparison essay, you looked at him in great detail as he read from the textbook day after day. Ms. Jones always directs the class in discussion, and you showed that thoroughly in your contrast.

For the classification, you would have a section on lecturers, with a definition of what you mean by lectures and some examples of lecturers; then you would have a section on discussion leaders (and Ms. Jones could be one example); finally, you would have a section on textbook readers (ala Mr. Smith).

Remember, you need some kind of connection between the categories. Do you want to look at teachers based on their teaching methods or based on their subject matter or based on their appearance, for instance. The fish example looked at types of fish based on their food habits or based on where they lived or based on what anglers were looking for: that would be three separate essays on one topic.

Your categories need examples for support. If you are doing types of players in soccer, you couldn’t use goalies as a category. The goalie is the goalie. You could have offensive category, a defensive category and a swing category (both offensive and defensive), I suppose. Then wings and centers could be examples of offensive players, Fullbacks and goalies as the defenders.

Try to use three categories. Two tends to look like comparison/contrast. More than three gets more and more difficult to develop with specific support.

You can use research for this assignment if you like (research is mandatory for the next assignment- the argumentative).

Remember to analyze those rough drafts. I really need to see that you are considering all the ideas we have formulated about critical thinking. Good luck.