CHAPTER 8

Exemplification

What is Exemplification?

An Exemplification essay uses specific examples to illustrate or explain a general point.

Types of examples include: Specific Observations Anecdotes (personal stories) Details Opinions

Using Examples to Explain and Clarify

Use specific detail to inform or persuade your reader.

General statement: Even though horror movies seem modern, they really

aren’t. Specific, precise, detailed statement:

Despite the fact that horror movies seem modern, two of the most memorable ones are adaptations of nineteenth-century novels. Specific examples to take it a step further: Frankenstein

and Dracula

Practice Prompt

Practice Prompt:

In a dated notebook entry, respond to the following prompt. Support your answer with at least one sentence that uses a specific example to explain or clarify your answer:

If there was one thing you could change about your school, what would it be?

Example Response

Illini Bluffs High School should have its own football team. High Schools around our area have the luxury of celebrating homecoming with a Friday night football game followed by a Saturday night dance, but students at Illini Bluffs miss out on half of the traditional homecoming experience.

Using Examples to Add Interest

Examples must be both interesting and pertinent. To test the effectiveness of the examples you’re using,

put yourself in your readers’ place. If YOU think what you’re writing is boring, so will your

reader. Imaginative, colorful, and thought-provoking examples will

make your essay interesting.

How Do I Add Interest?

Unspecific Example: “I became thoroughly familiar with the language of

fear.” Huh? What is “the language of fear”?

Adding interest to unspecific example “I became thoroughly familiar with the language of

fear. At dark, shadowy intersections in Chicago, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver hammering down the door locks.” This example SHOWS what the author means by the

“language of fear” through specific and detailed imagery.

Practice Prompt: Part 2

Expand your response to the original prompt by adding another example that ADDS INTEREST to what you’ve already written. Hint: Use specific and detailed imagery this time.

Example Response: Part 2

Illini Bluffs High School should have its own football team. High Schools around our area have the luxury of celebrating homecoming with a Friday night football game followed by a Saturday night dance, but students at Illini Bluffs miss out on half of the traditional homecoming experience. Bundling up in warm clothes, gathering under the stadium lights on a crisp fall evening, and cheering on the home team provides a school and its surrounding community with a sense of unity.

Using Examples to Persuade

Use specific examples to PROVE what you’re saying is both reasonable and worth considering.

General example: School districts across the country cannot cope with

the numerous students with limited English skills. Says who? How do you know?

Specific, detailed example used as support: In Massachusetts alone, the number of students who

speak English as a second language has increased by more than 20 percent over the past ten years.

Practice Prompt: Part 3

Add yet another example to your “change in our school” argument. This time try TO PERSUADE the reader that he/she should support the change you’ve proposed. Hint: Since you don’t have the opportunity to research

at the moment, the “facts” you use can be fictitious.

Example Response: Part 3

Illini Bluffs High School should have its own football team. High Schools around our area have the luxury of celebrating homecoming with a Friday night football game followed by a Saturday night dance, but students at Illini Bluffs miss out on half of the traditional homecoming experience. Bundling up in warm clothes, gathering under the stadium lights on a crisp fall evening, and cheering on the home team provides a school and its surrounding community with a sense of unity. If our small town had a football team to rally around, students, parents, teachers, families and community members would have a reason to remain in Glasford on Friday nights, and that would bring much needed revenue to our community. Some would argue that a football program is too expensive for our community, but USA Today’s Steve Wieburg shows how the sport can financially benefit a community in his article, "Millions of Dollars Pour Into High School Football.” Weinburg explains that Superintendent Sam Allan of Valdosta City High School in Valdosta, Georgia claims that in their town the football program “more than pays for itself, accounting for $469,000 in revenue and a $49,600 profit that helped subsidize their high school's 15 other varsity sports during the 2003-04 school year.” In the same article, Terry Daniel, Valdosta’s athletics representative and keeper of the athletics budget, explains, "We hear it all the time. 'We can't understand why you're spending so much money on athletics, on football. Why are you building a new stadium when they're cutting back funds for education?' I don't know how to respond to that other than if we do away with football, then we do away with all sports.“

Special Points to Remember

Your thesis statement is important. It makes the point that the rest of your essay will

support with examples.How many examples do I use?

It depends on your thesis statement. (See page 214)Choose a range of examples.

When trying to persuade someone, sometimes your personal opinion is not enough.

Providing objective, fact-based examples will help you represent the full range of your topic.

If you cannot cite a fair range of examples, you might want to reexamine your topic.

Special Points to Remember

Use transitions! Readers need to SEE the connection between the point

you’re trying to make and the examples your using, so as a write you MUST connect them. (see pg. 57 for a list of transitions)

Pay attention to the structure of your paragraphs. In order to make your point effectively, body paragraphs

should use examples that build upon one another. Chronologically In order of complexity In order of importance

See sample outline on page 216 for details on structuring an exemplification essay.