Exemplification: Illustrating a Belief with Vivid Examples

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Exemplification Illustrating a Belief with Vivid
Examples
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Why We Use Examples

• To persuade skeptical readers who are reluctant
  to accept your viewpoint
• To show a causal relationship
• To be more interesting and take the reader beyond
  a telling statement
• To help define or clarify an abstraction
• To avoid unintended ambiguity

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Forms of Illustration

• Specific cases (people, places, products)
• Anecdotes (personal cases)
• Personal observations
• Expert opinions (from outside sources,
  interviews)
• Facts
• Statistics
• Case studies via research

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Example Types

• Personal-anecdotes examples
• Typical-case examples
• Hypothetical examples (scenarios)
• Generalized examples
• Extended examples

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1. Personal anecdotes

• From your own life
• Lend personal authority
• Create drama

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2. Typical-case Examples

• Objective in nature can be especially convincing
• About an actual event/situation, but you didnt
  directly experience it.
• Source could be newspapers, magazines, television

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3. Hypothetical Examples

• Speculative, but be sure its realistic and
  perhaps backed by precedent
• Might ask the reader to imagine a scenario
• Be sure to acknowledge that your example is
  invented
• Ex suppose that or lets for a moment assume
  that

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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.
• Based on commonplace beliefs and experiences
  shared by most people

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5. Extended Examples

• Employ many details and specifics
• Last at least an entire paragraph
• Sometimes can encompass the entire essay, but
  must be significant to stand alone as the only
  example

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Effective Examples Should

• Be relevant have direct bearing on the subject
• Be dramatic
• Be accurate (especially when using facts,
  figures, statistics)
• Be non-contradictory
• Avoid sweeping generalizations at all costs, for
  they do not convince readers

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Effective Examples Should

• Be representative, avoiding oddball or
  one-in-a-million types of examples, as these
  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 As, thats not typical or
  representative. It does not exemplify what MOST
  students experience.

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Effective Examples Should

• Use an organizational approach
• Chronological
• Spatial
• Simple to complex
• Emphatic sequence

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Recognize Use Key Words

• For example,
• For instance,
• First, second, third
• Next, in addition