Page 346 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing
P. 346
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn how to
1 Identify definition, classification, and process modes.
2 Write effective definition essays.
3 Write effective classification essays.
4 Write effective process essays.
As a writer, you have probably found that your
ideas are sometimes hard to pin down—they
prefer to roam free. Writing an essay can be a bit
like herding sheep into a pen—finding ideas that
go together, separating them from their natural
environment, and confining them within the fences
of an essay. The techniques of definition,
classification, and process will help you to fence
in your ideas—to limit and order information and
to answer the questions What is it? How many
different types exist? and How does it work?
Although this chapter presents each technique in
isolation, you may eventually find yourself using
the three techniques together to define an idea,
show its different variations, and describe how it
works.
