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Classification Essay

 

 

Aristotle. The 'Art' of Rhetoric. The 5 canons of rhetoric.

  1. Invention [or discovery]. Find information.
  2. Arrangement
  3. Style
  4. Memory
  5. Delivery

Today we introduce the next essay, which is a classification essay. You'll write a rough draft based on Classification Task 1. Then you'll write a final draft based on Classification Task 2. I'll give you Classification Task 2 on Moodle, and you'll have 2 hours to write your essay. Because it is a timed essay, you'll need to write quickly. That means you'll need to understand the task ahead of time. If you read this carefully & do the homework, you should be able to understand the graded task.

Classification focuses on invention and arrangement, both of which should be familiar by now. In invention, you make a list of things pertaining to your topic. In arrangement, you create categories to place the items into. According to your instructions, the categories should be conceptually distinct. That just means the categories should be different and not overlap. Once you have figured out your categories, then you arrange those in the order you want to follow, and you have your outline.

Here are some general rules about arranging material into categories.

  1. Every category must be named.
  2. Every category must be conceptually distinct. So if you are coming up with categories for Classification Task 1, you would not create a health risk category and a medical category. They are the same thing.
  3. Every item in the list must be placed in a category.

Read Classification Task 1 carefully and follow the directions.Write a rough draft on the dangers of writing. It's important to understand this task so you can do well on the graded essay, so stick with it. We'll grade the sample rough draft next time.

Rough draft.

  1. Page 1. Outline. Name of categories & letters for each item. Use only the letters, not the whole sentence.
  2. Page 2. Rough draft.
    1. Introduction paragraph. Has a thesis. Recognized the audience and the assignment topic.
    2. At least 2 paragraphs in the body. Total of 3 paragraphs. Each should have a topic and a topic sentence.
    3. Each item should be in one of the body paragraphs.
    4. The letter for each item should be in the left margin.
    5. Follow the criteria sheet. Add the criterion of grammar from the other criteria sheets.


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