Hot to Write a Classification Essay

As a kid in elementary school, you probably did sorting activities, usually with buttons. You were given a large bag of buttons and told to decide how you wanted to sort them (by size, shape, two-hole or 4-hole, etc.), and then to sort them. This activity was to give you practice in an important thinking skill – classification. As you moved on in school, you also took courses in which classification was key to mastering the content – think biology and chemistry, for example. How, for example are animals classified? First by vertebrates and invertebrates, of course. Then they are assigned to Phyla based upon certain physical characteristics, then into classes and species. You probably also had at least one classification essay to write, usually in English class, because this type is a form of expository writing.

Strategies for Writing a Classification Essay

If it’s been a long time since you have written one, you may have forgotten how to write a classification essay, so here are a few tips to make yours rock.

1. Choose a general subject area that you will enjoy writing about and about which you have really good understanding. If, for example, you work in a grocery store, can you classify shoppers into specific “types?” If you are a huge baseball fan, can you classify the types of fans who attend games? On a more serious side, classification essays can be written to categorize types of terrorists, religions, etc.
2.  Determine your groups or categories. For example, if you are going to select grocery shoppers, how many different types are there – the lazy slow shopper who meanders down the aisles, the 5:30pm shopper running through the aisles to pick up something for the family’s dinner; the determined organized shopper with her list and calculator; the mom two kids, stuffing food items around them as she tries to get an entire week’s worth of shopping done, etc.? Because this will be a humorous essay, try coming up with nicknames for them.
3. Organize your content. List each shopper at the top of a column and then make notes of what you will say about that shopper. You will have as many body paragraphs as you have types of shoppers, baseball fans, or such. You are now organized to begin writing.

Writing the Essay

Normally, it is recommended that you write your body paragraphs first, but in this instance, you can easily begin with your introduction. You have your topic and you can develop a thesis statement, such as, “It is amusing to observe the four different types of grocery shoppers - (here you can insert their nicknames) – that frequent my grocery store on a daily basis.”

Each body paragraph will address one type of shopper, but you will need to be careful to get a good transition sentence at the end of each paragraph that will lead into the next type of shopper.

Your conclusion can speak to how your workday is made much more enjoyable by encountering all of these shopper types, and that you are constantly on the lookout for a new type that you have not seen before!

Of course, you will review and edit our essay, cleaning up any grammar or mechanical errors before you type your final copy for submission.

Classification essays can be fun to write, and the organizational structure is really easy, once you have your groups categorized.