The Purpose of Illustrative Writing

To illustrate means to show or demonstrate something clearly. An effective illustration essay, also known as an example essay, clearly demonstrates and supports a point through the use of evidence.

The controlling idea of an essay is called a THESIS. A writer can use different types of evidence to support his or her thesis, such as scientific studies, quotes from experts in a particular field, statistics, historical events, current events, analogies, and personal anecdotes. All of these are examples of ways writers can illustrate a thesis. Ultimately, you want the evidence to help the reader “see” your point, as one would see a good illustration in a magazine or on a website. The stronger your evidence is, the more clearly the reader will consider your point.

Using evidence effectively can be challenging, though. The evidence you choose will usually depend on your subject and who your reader is (your AUDIENCE). When writing an illustration essay, keep in mind the following:

• Use evidence that is appropriate to your topic as well as appropriate for your AUDIENCE.
• Determine how much evidence you need to fully explain your point depending on the complexity of the subject and the knowledge of your AUDIENCE’s likely familiarity regarding that subject.

For example, if you are writing for a university newspaper about a new communication software,  you know that your audience is primarily college students with different backgrounds and different experiences with software. You might choose to use an analogy or a personal story to illustrate how the software works and how college students might incorporate it into their daily lives. You might also choose to add a few more pieces of evidence to make sure the audience understands your point.

If, however, you are writing about the same subject for a journal for information technology (IT) professionals, then you know your audience members are specialists in the field and have a great deal of expertise with communication software. You would choose to use more technical evidence to illustrate your point because the audience is already familiar with the subject.

Always keep your audience in mind as you determine the best types of illustrations to include in your essay.

Know Your Purpose

As with all writing, it’s important to know what your purpose is before you begin. Are you going to use illustration to inform your readers about an important discovery, invention, or product? If so, what is your relationship to the topic? That is, do you work for the company that developed the product and hope to boost sales? Were you on the research team that made the discovery and want to warn readers about it? Or are you a columnist for a consumer report publication trying to inform readers about the pros and cons of certain items?

Whatever situation you are in as the writer, you will make choices about how to address your audience to achieve the effect you want. Your word choice, your level of formality, your tone, even your thesis will all change depending on whom you are writing your illustration for.

In some cases, your instructor will assign a particular audience and purpose for an essay. She or he may assign an opinion piece for a large daily newspaper such as The Baltimore Sun or The Washington Post. In either of these cases, you would be writing for a general audience of adults living in or around the city. Not only will your topic need to be about something timely, but it will need to be relevant to the citizens of the area. Think about it this way: if it’s not relevant or isn’t about a current event, why would they read your opinion about it?

In other cases, your reader will be your instructor and your purpose will be, to be honest, just to get a passing grade. That’s fine, too. You will still make appropriate choices that match your intention.

The Structure of an Illustration Essay

The controlling idea, or thesis, belongs at the beginning of the essay. Evidence is then presented in the essay’s body paragraphs to support the thesis. You can start supporting your main point with your strongest evidence first, or you can start with evidence of lesser importance and have the essay build to increasingly stronger evidence. This type of organization is called “order of importance.”

Transition words are also helpful in ordering the presentation of evidence. Words like first, second, third, currently, next, and finally all help orient the reader and sequence evidence clearly. Because an illustration essay uses so many examples, it is also helpful to have a list of words and phrases to present each piece of evidence. Certain transitional words and phrases aid in keeping the reader oriented in the sequencing of a story. Some of these phrases are listed here:

Phrases of Illustration

Vary the phrases of illustration you use. Do not rely on just one. Variety in choice of words and phrasing is critical when trying to keep readers engaged in your writing and your ideas.

Basic Components of an Illustration Essay

Thesis—your controlling idea or, in other words, your main point.

Examples—whether in the form of statistics, quotes, personal anecdotes, interviews, etc. the examples you include illustrate (show, demonstrate, make visible) your thesis.

Supporting details—these are the specific explanations you use to elaborate on each example. The amount of detail you include depends upon your audience.

Order of Importance—this is the order in which your examples appear.

Transitional phrases—Usually appearing at the beginning of each body paragraph, a transitional phrase indicates the order (“To begin with,” or “In addition,”) or the importance (“Most importantly”).

Writing an Illustration Essay

First, decide on a topic that you feel interested in writing about. Then create an interesting introduction to engage the reader. The main point, or thesis, should be stated at the end of the introduction.

Gather evidence that is appropriate to both your subject and your audience. You can order the evidence in terms of importance, either from least important to most important or from most important to least important. Be sure to fully explain all of your examples using strong, clear supporting details.