Exemplification, Exposition, Illustration, Explanatory Writing

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Exemplification, Exposition, Illustration,
Explanatory Writing

• Notes by Brian Yablon

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What is exposition?

• Longer works
• Memoir
• Biography
• Autobiography
• History
• Research report
• Newsletter
• Brochure

• Shorter works
• Essay
• Speech
• Letter
• Memorandum
• Note
• Advertisement
• Instructions
• News or feature article

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Why write exemplification?

• The overall purpose of writing exemplification
  has two parts
• You state your assertion (your opinion,
  perspective, your point of view, or how youre
  going to treat your subject).
• You support or back up your assertion with
  evidence.

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Specific uses

• To inform/To explain
• To clarify
• To persuade
• To entertain

• To compare or contrast
• To show cause and/or effect
• To report

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How do you do it?

• First, figure out who your audience is -- that
  will affect what you say and how you say it.
• Second, figure out what your purpose is -- that
  is the end result, the reaction you want to get
  from your audience.

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Then what?

• You need to generate as many pieces of support
  (evidence) as you can to help back up your
  assertion.

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What is evidence?

• Personal experience or observation
• Typical situations
• Hypothetical situations
• Generalized situations
• Facts
• Names
• Statistics

• References to authorities
• Experts
• Documents
• Anecdotes
• Explanations and interpretations
• Extended or brief
• Quotations

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Evidence must be

• Accurate
• Supportive, not contradictory
• Relevant
• Specific, detailed, precise, vivid
• Interesting
• Clear and easy to understand
• Representative (not the exception)
• Cited, if necessary.

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Choose a point of view

• First person P.O.V.
• Uses I as the narrator.
• Is personal, which may be an advantage or
  disadvantage.

• Third person P.O.V.
• Uses She, He, They, or It to relay
  information.
• Is more distant, which may be an advantage or
  disadvantage.

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Thesis statement

• A good thesis statement is clear, opinionated,
  and specific.
• It relays
• The topic of discussion.
• How you will treat that topic.
• Perhaps the focus of the discussion about that
  topic.
• It includes every major idea in the essay.

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A special note on structure

• An exemplification essay is usually highly
  structured.
• It has a stated, clearly identifiable thesis
  statement.
• Alas, if I cannot identify your thesis, the
  highest grade the paper will receive is a D, so
  this is important!

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Ways to organize

• Chronological
• Spatial
• Emphatic
• Moderate-Weak-Strong
• Simple to complex

• You need
• Strong thesis
• Clear topic sentences -- that support the overall
  thesis.
• Evidence that supports each topic sentence
• A clear conclusion

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Transitions

• Use suitable transitional words and phrases.
• For instance
• For example
• To illustrate
• A classic example
• Also
• In addition
• Additionally
• A case in point is
• Avoid unimaginative transitions like My first
  example is

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Never!

• Never write the following types of sentences
• In this paragraph, I will explain
• In this essay, I will discuss
• Those are fine, even expected, in a scientific or
  mathematical paper, but for the typical English
  paper they are simply terrible, absolutely
  horrible!
• Additionally, you never really need to write
• I feel I believe or I think If its
  your paper, then the reader already knows theyre
  your thoughts, beliefs or feelings.

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Significance

• Good essays have importance they answer a need,
  a question or problem that has been posed.
• The reader never puts down the essay and says,
  So what?
• You need to convey to your reader why your essay
  is important to read.

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Citing sources

• Within the text
• After a quotation or a paraphrase, give credit to
  your source of information.
• That credit goes within parenthesis and has a
  name and a page number, such as (Jones 6-7).
• This brief reference should point the reader to
  the more detailed reference at the end of the
  text.

• At the end of the text
• Create a Works Cited page where you give all of
  the detailed information where a reader could
  find your specific source.

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Thoughts on quotations

• The MLA suggests that you limit your use of
  quoted material to no more than 10 of your
  entire essay. Try to quote or paraphrase only
  when the original author says something better
  than you can.
• Always
• Lead in to your quotation
• Cite your quotation correctly
• Explain and/or interpret your quotation
• Show us why your quotation is significant

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Thoughts on paraphrases

• When you paraphrase, you take someone elses
  words and put them into your own words.
• You still must cite the source where you got your
  ideas. Both name(s) and page numbers should be
  mentioned within the text of the essay, as well
  as in the Works Cited page.

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Sample in-text citation
Human beings have been described as
"symbol-using animals" (Burke 3). The sentence
above shows the writer using a brief quote -- in
order to make a point -- from someone named
Burke. The quotation, symbol-using animals was
found on page 3 of Burkes original work.
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Sample Works Cited entry
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action
Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley
University of California Press, 1966. The above
entry would be one entry on a page full of
entries, all at the end after the last page of
the essay. This entry would allow the reader to
find the specific source for the quotation or
paraphrase cited (mentioned) within the text of
the essay.
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Possible essay beginnings

• Broad statement narrowing to a limited subject
  (end introduction with thesis statement)
• Brief anecdote leading up to thesis
• Comparative or opposite ideas leading up to
  thesis
• Series of short questions leading to thesis
• Quotations leading to thesis
• Refutation of a common belief leading up to a
  thesis
• Dramatic fact or statistic leading to thesis

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Possible essay endings

• Summary of information presented
• Prediction based on information presented
• Quotation leading to concluding statement
• Statistics leading to concluding statement
• Recommendation or call for action
• Echo of the introduction
• Please do not write, In conclusion

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Be aware of your language

• Transitions show relationships between ideas, so
  make sure youre clear and you make the choices
  you intend.
• Be wary of jargon
• Avoid slang and profanity.
• Remember that almost all words have a denotation
  and a connotation.

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Some additional thoughts

• Exemplification is very descriptive and uses many
  of the same techniques as fiction.
• Be aware of the tone you convey.
• Vary sentence structure.
• Vary sentence length.
• Vary paragraph length.

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Some final thoughts

• I assure you your first draft will be lousy.
• Subsequent drafts improve your writing.
• You make your writing worth reading by revising
• Adding
• Subtracting
• Reorganizing
• Substituting

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The end of the process

• First, concentrate on your message -- what you
  have to say.
• Second, concentrate on your organization -- how
  you say it.
• Third, concentrate on surface features --
  spelling, grammar, mechanics, usage.
• Always do your best work -- every draft.