Writing Quick Start: Explaining with Examples

14

Illustration:

Explaining with Examples

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL LEARN TO

  • understand the purpose and function of illustration essays,
  • use graphic organizers to visualize illustration essays,
  • integrate illustration into an essay,
  • read and think critically about illustration, and
  • plan, organize, draft, revise, and edit essays using illustration.

WRITING QUICK START

image
Hulton Archive/Getty

I

n an environmental science class, the instructor projects the photograph on this page onto a screen and makes the following statement: “Environmental pollution is a growing global problem.” She asks the class to think of several examples, similar to the one shown in the photograph, that support this statement. Using the instructor’s statement as your topic sentence, write a paragraph with examples of different types of environmental pollution that you have either observed or read about.

The sentences you just wrote could be part of an illustration essay. An illustration essay uses examples to reveal a topic’s essential characteristics and reinforce the thesis statement. By providing specific examples that make abstract ideas concrete, you help readers connect these abstract ideas to their own experience.

USING ILLUSTRATION IN COLLEGE AND THE WORKPLACE

  • Your literature instructor assigns an analysis of metaphor and simile in the poems of Emily Dickinson. To explain your point about Dickinson’s use of animal metaphors, you provide specific examples from several of her poems.
  • You are studying sexual dimorphism (differences in appearance between the sexes) in a biology course. The following question appears on an exam: “Define sexual dimorphism and illustrate its occurrence in several different species.” In your answer, you give examples of peacocks, geese, and chickens, explaining how the males and females in each species differ in physical appearance.
  • As an elementary school reading teacher, you are writing a letter to the school board justifying the cost of the new computer software you have requested. In your letter, you provide several examples of the software’s benefits to students.