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