Dividing and Classifying
For more on analyzing a subject, see Analyzing a Subject.
To divide is to break something down, identifying or analyzing its components. It’s far easier to take in a subject, especially a complex one, a piece at a time. The thing divided may be as concrete as a medical center (which you might divide into specialty units) or as abstract as a knowledge of art (which you might divide into sculpture, painting, drawing, and other forms). To classify is to make sense of a potentially bewildering array of things—works of literature, this year’s movies—by sorting them into categories (types or classes) that you can deal with one at a time. Literature is customarily arranged by genre—novels, stories, poems, plays. Movies might be sorted by audience (children, teenagers, mature adults). Dividing and classifying are like two sides of the same coin. In theory, any broad subject can be divided into components, which can then be classified into categories. In practice, it’s often difficult to tell where division stops and classification begins.
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In the following paragraph from David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (Little, Brown, 2013), Malcolm Gladwell uses division to simplify for modern readers what might be an unfamiliar subject: the types of warriors deployed in ancient battles.
Ancient armies had three kinds of warriors. The first was cavalry—armed men on horseback or in chariots. The second was infantry—foot soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords and shields. The third were projectile warriors, or what today would be called artillery: archers and, most important, slingers. Slingers had a leather pouch attached on two sides by a long strand of rope. They would put a rock or lead ball into the pouch, swing it around in increasingly wider and faster circles, and then release one end of the rope, hurling the rock forward.
Gladwell’s intent, however, is less to enlighten readers about historical warfare than, as the book’s subtitle suggests, to help them think differently about contemporary contests by considering the advantages of disadvantages. After he classifies Goliath as “heavy infantry” and David as “a slinger, and slingers beat infantry, hands down,” readers are equipped to interpret their ancient Biblical contest differently.
Classification also helps to identify patterns and relationships that might otherwise be missed. In “How Wonder Works” (Aeon, 21 June 2013), Jessie Prinz explores the nature of wonder, “humanity’s most important emotion,” fed and unified by science, religion, and art. To do so, he classifies various human reactions to novelty, spectacle, and all sorts of natural and creative works—in short, responses that identify and express wonder.
These bodily symptoms point to three dimensions that might in fact be essential components of wonder. The first is sensory: wondrous things engage our senses—we stare and widen our eyes. The second is cognitive: such things are perplexing because we cannot rely on past experience to comprehend them. This leads to a suspension of breath, akin to the freezing response that kicks in when we are startled: we gasp and say “Wow!” Finally, wonder has a dimension that can be described as spiritual: we look upwards in veneration; hence Smith’s invocation of the swelling heart.
When you divide and classify, your point is to make order out of a complex or overwhelming jumble.
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Make sure the components and categories you identify are sensible, given your purpose, and follow the same principle of classification or analysis for all categories. For example, to discuss campus relations, it makes sense to divide the school population into instructors, students, and support staff; it would make less sense to divide it into people from the South, people from other states, and people from overseas.
Try to group apples with apples, not with oranges, so that all the components or categories are roughly equivalent. For example, if you’re classifying television shows and you’ve come up with reality shows, dramas, talk shows, children’s shows, news, and cartoons, then you’ve got a problem: the last category is probably part of children’s shows.
Check that your final system is easy for readers to understand. Most people can handle only about seven things at once. If you’ve got more than five or six components or categories, try to combine or eliminate some.
DISCOVERY CHECKLIST
How does your division or classification support your main idea or thesis?
Do you use the most logical principle to divide or classify for your purpose?
Do you stick to one principle throughout?
Have you identified components or categories that are comparable?
Have you arranged your components or categories in the best order?
Have you given specific examples for each component or category?
Have you made a complex subject more accessible to your readers?
For more on brainstorming, see Finding Ideas in Ch. 19.
Learning by Doing Dividing and Classifying
Learning by Doing
Dividing and Classifying
Brainstorm on one or two of the following subjects to come up with as many components as you can. With classmates, create one large list by combining items for each subject. Working together, classify the items on the largest list into logical categories. Add or change components or categories as needed.
| students | books | sports | friends |
| teachers | music | movies | drivers |