Exemplification writing is not a complicated concept at all. It is merely a form of an argumentative essay whose purpose is to help you illustrate your point of view.
For an exemplification essay to be effective, you need to provide examples that support your point of view. You need to reflect on your experiences and memories that seem to fit well together – almost like a jigsaw.
What Is An Exemplification Essay?
An exemplification essay is a type of argumentative essay. However, it has relevant examples, which support your point of view.
If, for example, you are writing on the harmful effects of global warming, it’s not enough to say that it is terrible for the environment. Instead, it would be more sensible if you provided reasons that would convince your readers that global warming is harmful.
Here are some examples that would support the harmful effects of global warming. These examples may include:
-
The melting of the glacier might cause water shortage.
-
Climate change is detrimental to the weather
-
Changes in the ecosystem can lead to the extinction of some species.
How To Write An Exemplification Essay
The best exemplification essay follows the following steps to achieve the goals of your essay. Some of the steps on writing an exemplification essay that convinces your readers may include:
Step 1: Choose A Topic
Since this type of writing requires examples to prove your point of view, you need to choose a subject that is similar to the topics you would expect to find in an argumentative essay. Then look for issues that can easily be adapted for two contentious sides.
When picking a topic, remember to pick topics that are a little hard to address in everyday conversations and only provide hard facts or examples to back up your argument.
You can also think about what interests you the most, and it could be on any topic ranging from technology to world history. You can also research exemplification essay topics on the web.
Keep in mind that your chosen topic should be different from the commonly selected items.
Pick a unique essay subject to convince your readers.
Step 2: Have a Variety of Relevant Sources
So, you have your topic now; make sure that your research has a wide variety of relevant sources. If it hasn’t, rethink your decision, ask yourself if there are enough sources out there that can help you in writing your essay.
Step 3: Write About Your Interests
Write about your interests, but keep it relevant to the situation with a technical background.
Avoid writing about the football match last night, or what you ate for lunch. While those events may be exciting, they may do very little in supporting your point of view.
Step 4: Create a Mind Map
Mind maps are handy for planning. Use them to write down all your ideas to include in the essay. Use your Google search results and other useful resources to map out your essay.
Step 5: Maintain Relevance
Your exemplification essay should be related to your field of study. If it fails to do so, you may not have a good grade after all; a lack of relevancy can lower your grades. And we don’t want that.
For example, if your course is computer science, a good topic would be why Python is better than C++.
Step 6: Don’t Forget Your Research
It is essential to back up your claims with plenty of examples; exemplification essays need at least two or three different sources.
Google academic, which is useful for finding previously written papers by graduate students and professors, is an excellent place to start.
Step 7: The Actual Writing Process
The actual writing process has several levels attached to it. They include these four levels:
- Brainstorm And Create Your Outline
Before you start writing your paragraphs, you need to brainstorm and create an outline that will eventually determine how well you write your article.
Your outline must have all the essential details that can support the idea you are trying to convey in your essay. If you cannot create your own framework or outline, you can find several outline templates on the internet.
Your outline should help you to organize your thoughts into a simple map that your mind can read easily. The framework should also help you can follow through when you begin to write your essay.
So, it is vital to put all the ideas in your head down on paper. Doing this allows you to make room for other thoughts and ideas that may be important in helping you write your exemplification essay. After writing your ideas down on paper, you can sift through them and rearrange them in the correct order.
When writing your outline, remember to add an introduction at the beginning and a conclusion at the end. Include as many details as you desire to each paragraph to make your essay complete.
In the body section, you can add your main point of view. Remember that you can have only one central point of view. Any other aspect you add should serve the purpose of supporting your main idea.
You must sprinkle facts that back up your point of view in the body of your exemplification essay. You are free to use the resources you gathered during the research phase.
Elaborate and break each point into paragraphs that are easy and interesting to read.
- Writing the Introduction
Exemplification essays have two main parts – the actual hook and thesis statement. The thesis statement is a short description that summarizes all the main points of your topic that you are going to describe in more detail in the body of your essay.
The hook, on the other hand, gets the readers’ attention and gives them an idea of what your exemplification writing is all about.
- The Body Paragraphs are Everything
The body paragraphs are different from the introduction and conclusion; they are all the paragraphs in between. The number of paragraphs in your exemplification essay will depend on the length of the article and the requirements set for you by your teacher. As much as you would like to keep writing to complete your essay, it follows the requirements carefully.
The body paragraphs should elaborate on the information or ideas you introduced in the opening paragraph. Think of them like the layers of your story.
Each paragraph must have flow and support the main topic, and every word should have meaning. Focus on only using words that are relevant in conveying the message you are trying to convey.
You must choose your words carefully, so they blend and not cause any confusion.
If you experience a writer’s block, which may sometimes be inevitable, take a break and walk away from your essay. When you come back to it, your mind may be clear and full of new words and ideas to support your essay.
Step 7: Conclusion Matters
Now that you have everything you need: an introductory paragraph and body with enough ideas that support your main topic, you need a conclusion to bring your readers to a new place. The conclusion should summarize your point of view, but it shouldn’t repeat the same things you have already said in the body of your exemplification essay.
It is essential to always include a conclusion in your essay because, well, I don’t need to state the obvious. Summarize all your main points along with the author’s arguments finalizing the concluding sentence.
The Conclusion Is Your Verdict
It can contain as little or as much information as you want, but not so much that it has a new paragraph with a new idea. Do not use this paragraph to attract more attention to a different point of view; instead, use it to convince your reader that you know what you are talking about. Provide them some food for thought.
You can add a final sentence to your essay, and it will be good to go.
Don’t try to trick your reader into your opinion, because then you will not be presenting an exemplification essay.
Step 8: Don’t Forget to Proofread Your Essay
Proofread your work to make sure it doesn’t have any writing issues. You must invest time in reviewing, editing, and editing your essay so that everything you have on paper makes sense to both you and your readers. An article full of grammatical errors will most definitely lower your grade, so, consider using the services of professional editors and getting the error-free paper.
If, after proofreading or editing your essay, you are not satisfied with your work, then you can use websites like Grammarly to tighten your sentence structure and ensure it is clear, engaging, and easy to read. If you have done all the above, you deserve a tap on the back for all your efforts.
In conclusion, this type of essay requires that you follow the argumentative side of things and support them with detailed facts. Remember that here, you cannot state your opinion, because your readers expect that you will give them a new point of view on the topic you are writing on.
You need to describe it, bring the new feeling, you throw a few personal jabs at the overall theory, and then leave the reader pondering on the subject in a way they may never have thought about before.
