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Classification Essay: A Quick Guide with Examples

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A classification essay is a type of academic essay that categorizes a topic into distinct groups based on shared characteristics or criteria. The writer's purpose is to create a clear organization of information. Classification should be logical, making it easier for readers to remember the information being presented.

Let us guess: your professor asked you to write a classification essay. But they didn't explain how to even write one, did they? They often drop students like that as a part of self-learning. That's exactly why you're here! Writing a classification essay requires research. And making sure you've got enough information, you must double check what you've already gathered. Besides, classifying may sound simple, but it takes discipline and logical thinking. Putting thoughts into words and all that… What a task! But we heard a little rumor that those who continue reading would master classification papers. It's time for you to see if this rumor is true!  

What Is a Classification Essay: Definition

Classification essay doesn’t want to hide its essence, considering its name. But the primary goal of this type of article is to classify. Now, what you want to rank is up to you or your professor. Your main goal is to select topics and later put them into categories. The primary purpose of this type of essay is to show your skills in categorisation and generalization. We can take food as a good and tasty example. For instance, apples and oranges belong to the fruit category, while cucumbers will definitely be vegetables. As for avocado, you have to do the research and classify this type of food. Nevertheless, you’ll definitely need to write one of those essays during your college. So to master academic and classification writing, keep reading!  

How to Write a Classification Essay

We will start by teaching you how to write a classification essay. In this case, preparation is our little saving grace. So before you begin the actual writing, typing, or scribbling, it’s a good idea to think about the overall essence of your article. For starters, here are several valuable tips worth remembering:

  • Select a type of organization (you can use tables, documents, or anything that will help you in organizing your work).
  • Choose your categories for classification.
  • Make sure that each category is distinct and clear.
  • Include different examples for visualization.

These several steps will be handy for writing a thesis and starting your introduction. Buy essay papers online once you want good results with as little time spent as possible.

Developing an Effective Classification Essay Thesis Statement

Like with other articles, the classification essay thesis is one of the most vital parts of your work. A good thing worth keeping in mind is that your thesis is the last statement of your introduction. It also determines whether your audience will continue reading your article. Here are several things you should follow to write a good thesis:

  • Summarize your work.
  • Identify your main topic, objective, or goal of your essay.
  • Above all, make readers understand what point you’re making and what your paper is gonna be about.
  • Mention the categories you have chosen.

If you can nail our list given above, congratulations, you’ve got yourself an outstanding thesis.

Classification Essay Outline

Creating a classification essay outline is one of the easiest ways to approach an excellent classification paper. It’s true that it requires a lot of research and remembering. You will not only have to write about a single subject but group topics into categories. In order to do it correctly and understandably for the reader, it’s best if you use an outline. First and foremost, your essay should follow a traditional five paragraph essay format structure. It should have a minimum of three paragraphs. But typically, professors prefer around five. So your introduction must initially include an introduction, several body paragraphs depending on the length of your article, and a conclusion. In your body paragraphs outline, it’s a good idea to describe the groups you will include in your article. So your first paragraph will group fruits according to their color, while the second one can use nutrition for a classification. This will help you to remember your points before writing.  

How to Start a Classification Essay: Introduction

Classification essay introduction is very similar to any other introduction you have probably written. You should never forget that you are writing for an audience. Doesn’t really matter if your reader is your professor or some person online. The rules of good writing apply to any kind of paper. The first thing worth doing is introducing your overall concept. There is no need to give all the information at once. Just start with something more general and narrow it down later to a thesis we’ve talked about. Make sure that you also include the relevant information. Using our previous metaphor, if you’re talking about fruits, maybe mentioning vegetables will not be a good idea. Besides, staying on one topic will help you to write more clearly. And that’s our final requirement for your introduction.  

Body Paragraphs of a Classification Essay

Classification essay's main body commonly has around 1-3 paragraphs. But don't forget to ask your professor about the length. The important thing to remember is that you are classifying items in your work. In order to achieve precise and successful organization, your body paragraphs must be concise. Each body paragraph should focus on a certain group. You're not making mashed potatoes. So stacking all of your ideas in one section would create a mess. Keep it simple in terms of structure:  

  • Paragraph 1 — fruits organized by their color
  • Paragraph 2 — fruits arranged by expert location
  • Paragraph 3 — fruits ordered by size or shape

A simple and understandable organization will make your writing sharp. And your readers will definitely say thank you!

Classification Essay Conclusion

A classification essay conclusion is, just like always, crème de la crème of any article. At this point, your reader knows everything you were telling them. They know all your data, issues, and ideas. Thus, quickly summarizing what they’ve read in your body paragraphs will help a lot. But the last thing to do is organize your conclusion while leaving an impression. Now, their impressions can be different. However, your readers must think about your work for at least some time. So your conclusion must end with something intriguing like the possible future of your topic or piece of mind for the readers. Just don’t include any new information, and you’ll do fantastically!  

Classification Essay Writing: Useful Tips

Even with our help, classification essay writing is challenging. So we prepared for you several good tips that will help you improve and ease your academic life. Check them out:  

  • Define the purpose of the article before you start writing.
  • Avoid popular and often used topics.
  • Write down a number of topics before picking one. (We have a list of classification essay topics at your disposal.)
  • Choose a subject that will be personally interesting for you.
  • Remember that you are also writing for someone else who might not know everything about your topic.
  • Edit and proofread your work.
  • Take a break from writing once in a while and come back with a fresh mind and new look.
  • Don’t try writing about everything simultaneously. Instead, focus on one category and lead with it.

With these steps, we can definitely say that you’re ready.

Classification Essay Examples

How could we leave you without classification essay samples? You’re right; we couldn’t. Check out this example. Keep in mind that our examples always have characteristics that we talked about. So you can read the sample and return back for this article or do some revision. It will help you a lot. What are you waiting for? You can find the example right here. Or simply buy essay for college to avoid any hard work this evening. 

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Classification Essay: Bottom Line

Who knew that  writing a classification essay  wasn’t that hard? We did, and now you know that, too. You have everything it takes to create an excellent paper. You know that:  

  • Your thesis is the most essential part of the essay.
  • The introduction must contain general information on the subject.
  • Body paragraphs must be carefully organized.
  • A conclusion should leave an impression without including new information.

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But if you’re still looking for proficient help, our academic writing services got you covered. Our writers do excellent research before writing a paper and deliver high-quality results. We are also proud of our timely delivery of the papers.

FAQ about Classification Essays

1. what is the purpose of a classification essay.

The purpose of a classification essay is to organize and classify. In the beginning, you have several unique items. They indeed have some things in common. So your job is to identify in what categories they fit best. After doing the research and careful learning, you must put everything you have gathered into words. But still, keep in mind that the second purpose is to make your essay and classification clear to the reader.

2. How long is a classification essay?

There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to classification essay length. Everything will depend on the guidelines. Usually, such articles are 3 to 5 paragraphs long. Their minimum is always an introduction, one body paragraph, and conclusion. However, professors definitely enjoy 5 paragraphs as a standard length. But you always need to remember that the essay should be long enough to provide necessary information for the reader. Or it must be short enough not to drag it out.

3. What is the difference between a division and classification essay?

Division and classification essays are only slightly different. The items you choose for classification essays must belong to strict and certain categories. They cannot overlap or belong to two different groups. On the other hand, division essays allow the subjects to move from one group to another. They might be divided into different groups or categories and thus overlap.

4. What are different types of classification?

There are several types of classification. Depending on the particular topic, you can choose a specific type that fits the best. Here’s what you can choose from:

  • Spatial classification (location, place and so on).
  • Chronological (you must take time and dates into consideration).
  • Classification by attributes (qualitative).
  • Classification by size (quantitative with numbers and statistics).

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Common Essay Structures / Patterns of Development

Classification and division.

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Classification and Division asks you to break something down into its component parts, offering an insight or analysis into the thing you’re breaking down.  You actually use classification and division thinking a lot, perhaps without realizing it (e.g., different personality types of the people you know, different types of cars, different types of activities for your children, etc.).

In college writing, in addition to grouping and classifying, you’re also asked to make a point about the groupings that offers an analytical insight (e.g., Of all the sixteen personality types that Myers-Briggs identify, the ___ type is the best to hire in a ___ type of job, for a number of reasons.)  Your point – your main idea, angle, assertion – should be complex enough for you to develop creatively.  Division and classification thought is a way of organizing and dealing with complex and/or abundant information in order to provide additional understanding.

Essays using a classification and division pattern have topic sentences and units of support for each group or class.  The topic sentences themselves should have angles that relate back to the main angle in the thesis.

View the following video for a clear definition and multiple basic examples of the concepts of division and classification. (Note that you will be expected to apply the concepts of division and classification to more complex concepts for college essays.)

View the following video for a further explanation of classification and division pattern in essay writing.

Here’s a graphic organizer for the Classification and Division pattern.

Hierarchical diagram; Top = Thesis, makes a point about types or categories of something; middle = Topic sentences (point about first type, point about second type); bottom = Supporting paragraphs (details about first type, details about second type)

Classification and Division in Action:

Make sure to read sample Classification and Division essays in the Sample Essays section of this text.

  • Classification and Division. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Provided by : Empire State College, SUNY OER Services. Project : College Writing. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
  • image of fruit divided and organized into boxes. Authored by : shnomoe. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/farmers-market-berries-fruit-1311017/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
  • video Division and Classification. Authored by : Clay Rooks. Provided by : City College. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DRPwPeOxWY . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
  • video Classification Essay or Paragraph. Authored by : Shaun Macleod. Provided by : Smrt English. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm3ObvB0mLE . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

How to Write a Classification Essay?

17 July, 2020

8 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

Classification essay is comparable to painting creation - an artist works on a specific structure that holds the picture’s elements together and glues different layers to create a powerful visual effect. The same principle applies to a writing piece, in which the central role is devoted to getting things in order. In this article, we’ll discuss the main features and components of a great classification essay and share some tips and tricks on how to take your piece of writing to the next level.

Classification Essay

Classification essay definition

We bet the first thing you want to know concerning the topic is what is a classification essay? This is the task which you’ll most likely deal with at some point in your student life. The essence of this assignment is related to categorization and generalization. Remember these two words because they form the true meaning of classification essay. Also, division and classification are those elements of this essay type which highly correlate and have equal importance for essay creation. Therefore, the main task here is to organize or sort things into categories.

Classification Essay Writing

How to write a classification essay 

Careful attention to planning marks the indication of quality in terms of classification essay. At this point, the main task is to learn how to structure the paper. The length of an article may vary, but the most frequently used “five paragraphs” method is typically applied for classification writing. What does this structure suggest? It has to do with a logical division of your essay into blocks and categories, every one of which should clarify a particular issue.

The first and one of the essential paragraphs is the introductory one. It’s an opening which illuminates the matter you’re going to discuss and the subject you’ll categorize. Besides, you can outline the purpose of your classification essay to readers to bring more clarity into the discussion. Answer the question of why you are categorizing the chosen items and what criteria you use for each of them. Then, you’ll need to close the introduction paragraph with a thesis. It will briefly sum up the objective of your classification and division essay, and identify the categories which you’ll be using for a paper.

The second part is the essay body. Here, a couple of paragraphs are applicable, preferably 3 and more. The most critical nuance you should remember while composing a body is that each paragraph will deal with a separate category. The best way to organize the central part of your division essay is to explain the criteria for each category and desirably, discuss strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, you should include examples that’ll back up your statements with a piece of evidence. Notably, there should be an equal amount of examples for every category to spread the evidence evenly. If your paragraphs in the main body are lengthy, you can also divide them into shorter ones to create a smooth transition between the blocks of text and improve readability.

The final paragraph of your classification essay is a conclusion. The closing statements will sum up the different categories highlighted in the body. Also, it’s advisable to restate each category and advise readers on the subject matter. However, if you choose to recommend this or that topic over the others, don’t forget to state the reason for your stance. This way, readers will take into account your well-grounded explanation, which is deprived of subjectivity, and make relevant conclusions for themselves.

Classification Essay Structure

Apart from the basic understanding of classification essay structure , you should also get prepared for the writing process. For many, implementing theory on practice is even more challenging than the stage of composing an essay. Nonetheless, with enough patience and endurance, this process is really not so bad after all. So, what steps do you need to make in order to prepare well for classification paper writing?

First things first, planning is everything when it comes to the assignment that implies classification. Without a clear and coherent plan, there’s no way you can write a good paper. Therefore, make sure that you have a robust scheme before writing your essay. For this, proceed with the following planning steps:

  • Generate Ideas. Evidently, your essay won’t write itself. If your professor has not assigned you a specific topic, it’s time to do some brainstorming. Remember – you need to choose a group of people, things, or ideas that can be easily divided into categories and then compared.
  • Choose Your Classification Method. Aim at one principle for classification for each category you describe. For example, if you write about people, you can categorize them by age, gender, appearance, or other factors. This will help you better structure your essay and make it look more organized in the eyes of readers.
  • Create a Thesis Statement. As previously mentioned, the thesis statement is the element which closes the introduction of your classification essay. It should include such information as the subject matter, the categories, and the criteria used to classify each category. Besides, you can note down the purpose of your division into these categories.

Preparation for Classification Essay

Classification essay outline

The outline is a general description or plan that schematically displays the main points of your essay. The main point of an outline is to help you see the structure of your essay and use it as a useful guide for writing. Usually, a typical outline describes the essence of each point in one sentence. Also, bullet points are not uncommon, so you can use them to arrange a plan the way you feel is the most appropriate.

Classification essay topics

There is a plethora of themes and subjects for division classification essays to choose from, but most of them are hard to think of straight away. That’s why we’ve collected the list of the top used classification topics for you to facilitate the process of generating ideas or searching for ones elsewhere.

  • The most popular devices students use nowadays
  • Colors and their meaning in the paintings of Frida Kahlo
  • The evolution of rock-music types
  • Standard methods students use to prepare for exams
  • Public speakers that have moved the world  
  • Unique factors to determine a successful relationship  
  • How to improve child-parent relationships
  • Main motives to start a political career
  • Learning techniques for college students
  • Types of TV comedy shows
  • Traveling destinations
  • The main types of mobile applications
  • Communication possibilities online
  • Strategies for making decisions in business
  • Leadership and leader types
  • Conflicts at the job and ways to cope with them
  • The motivation for doing sports
  • Methods to reduce stress

No matter which theme you choose for your classification essay and what techniques you implement to make them elaborated, remember always to keep the structure in mind. The first step to writing this type of assignment is not just sitting and jotting down detached ideas, but planning out clear statements which can later be transmitted on paper. Hopefully, our advice will help you on the way to writing an excellent classification essay which your professor will mark with an A+ grade.

Problems with writing Your Classification Essay? Try our Online Essay Writer Service!

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Classification and Division Essay

Classification and division is a rhetorical style that, in essay format, takes a whole and splits it up into parts and then places the divided information into various categories. While you may see this rhetorical style used within a single paragraph, it’s not uncommon to write an entire essay using a classification and division format.

Division of hierarchy of a topic

A classification and division essay combines two different techniques. First, you would divide a complex and difficult topic into subtopics for clarity and explanation purposes. Next, you would determine what categories are needed and what information fits into those categories. Think of a newspaper. All of the information is divided into different parts: news, advertisements, and classifieds. Then the information is classified into different categories. For example, news may be categorized as sports, international, local, lifestyle, etc.

NOTE:  You have to be very clear in a classification and division essay. Your reader needs to understand how you came up with your categories and why information fits into these categories. Therefore, be sure that you make the guidelines for your categories clear to the reader and that you don’t merge, confuse, or have superficial categories.

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10.4 Classification

Learning objectives.

  • Determine the purpose and structure of the classification essay.
  • Understand how to write a classification essay.

The Purpose of Classification in Writing

The purpose of classification is to break down broad subjects into smaller, more manageable, more specific parts. We classify things in our daily lives all the time, often without even thinking about it. Cell phones, for example, have now become part of a broad category. They can be classified as feature phones, media phones, and smartphones.

Smaller categories, and the way in which these categories are created, help us make sense of the world. Keep both of these elements in mind when writing a classification essay.

Choose topics that you know well when writing classification essays. The more you know about a topic, the more you can break it into smaller, more interesting parts. Adding interest and insight will enhance your classification essays.

On a separate sheet of paper, break the following categories into smaller classifications.

  • The United States
  • Colleges and universities

The Structure of a Classification Essay

The classification essay opens with an introductory paragraph that introduces the broader topic. The thesis should then explain how that topic is divided into subgroups and why. Take the following introductory paragraph, for example:

When people think of New York, they often think of only New York City. But New York is actually a diverse state with a full range of activities to do, sights to see, and cultures to explore. In order to better understand the diversity of New York state, it is helpful to break it into these five separate regions: Long Island, New York City, Western New York, Central New York, and Northern New York.

The underlined thesis explains not only the category and subcategory but also the rationale for breaking it into those categories. Through this classification essay, the writer hopes to show his or her readers a different way of considering the state.

Each body paragraph of a classification essay is dedicated to fully illustrating each of the subcategories. In the previous example, then, each region of New York would have its own paragraph.

The conclusion should bring all the categories and subcategories back together again to show the reader the big picture. In the previous example, the conclusion might explain how the various sights and activities of each region of New York add to its diversity and complexity.

To avoid settling for an overly simplistic classification, make sure you break down any given topic at least three different ways. This will help you think outside the box and perhaps even learn something entirely new about a subject.

Using your classifications from Note 10.43 “Exercise 1” , write a brief paragraph explaining why you chose to organize each main category in the way that you did.

Writing a Classification Essay

Start with an engaging opening that will adequately introduce the general topic that you will be dividing into smaller subcategories. Your thesis should come at the end of your introduction. It should include the topic, your subtopics, and the reason you are choosing to break down the topic in the way that you are. Use the following classification thesis equation:

topic + subtopics + rationale for the subtopics = thesis.

The organizing strategy of a classification essay is dictated by the initial topic and the subsequent subtopics. Each body paragraph is dedicated to fully illustrating each of the subtopics. In a way, coming up with a strong topic pays double rewards in a classification essay. Not only do you have a good topic, but you also have a solid organizational structure within which to write.

Be sure you use strong details and explanations for each subcategory paragraph that help explain and support your thesis. Also, be sure to give examples to illustrate your points. Finally, write a conclusion that links all the subgroups together again. The conclusion should successfully wrap up your essay by connecting it to your topic initially discussed in the introduction. See Chapter 15 “Readings: Examples of Essays” to read a sample classification essay.

Building on Note 10.43 “Exercise 1” and Note 10.46 “Exercise 2” , write a five-paragraph classification essay about one of the four original topics. In your thesis, make sure to include the topic, subtopics, and rationale for your breakdown. And make sure that your essay is organized into paragraphs that each describes a subtopic.

Key Takeaways

  • The purpose of classification is to break a subject into smaller, more manageable, more specific parts.
  • Smaller subcategories help us make sense of the world, and the way in which these subcategories are created also helps us make sense of the world.
  • A classification essay is organized by its subcategories.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

How to Develop and Organize a Classification Essay

Basic Approaches to Drafting a Five-Paragraph Essay

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Classification is a method of developing an essay by arranging people, objects, or ideas with shared characteristics into particular classes or groups. After you have settled on a topic for a classification essay * and explored it through various prewriting strategies, you should be ready to attempt a first draft . Here is how to develop and organize a five-paragraph classification essay .

Introductory Paragraph

In your introduction , clearly identify your subject — in this case, the group you are classifying. If you have narrowed your subject in any way (for example, types of bad drivers, rock guitarists, or annoying moviegoers), make this clear from the start.

You may also want to provide some specific descriptive or informative details to attract the interest of your readers and suggest the purpose of the essay .

Finally, include a thesis sentence (usually at the end of the introduction) that briefly identifies the main types or approaches that you're about to examine. 

Intro Paragraph Example: Baseball Fans

Here's an example of a short but effective introductory paragraph to a classification essay:

It's a warm evening in July, and all across the country Americans are gathering to watch a game of professional baseball. Armed with hot dogs and cold drinks, they stroll to their seats, some in grand stadiums, others in cozy minor-league parks. But no matter where the game is played, you will find the same three types of baseball fan: the Party Rooter, the Sunshine Supporter, and the Diehard Fan.

Notice how this introduction creates certain expectations. The specific details provide a setting (a ballpark on "a warm evening in July") in which we expect to see the various fans described. In addition, the labels assigned to these fans (the Party Rooter , the Sunshine Supporter , and the Diehard Fan ) lead us to expect descriptions of each type in the order they're given. A good writer will go on to fulfill these expectations in the body of the essay.

Body Paragraphs

Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that identifies a particular type of approach. Then  illustrate each type with specific details.

Arrange your body paragraphs in whatever order strikes you as clear and logical — say, from the least effective approach to the most effective, or from the most common type to the least familiar (or the other way around). Just make sure that the order of your body paragraphs matches the arrangement promised in your thesis sentence.

Body Paragraphs Example: Types of Fans

Here, in the body of the essay on baseball fans, you can see that the writer has fulfilled the expectations set up in the introduction. (In each body paragraph, the topic sentence is in italics.)

The Party Rooter goes to games for the hot dogs, the gimmicks, the giveaways, and the companionship; he's not really that interested in the ballgame itself. The Party Rooter is the sort of fan who shows up on Buck-a-Brew Night, often with a gang of fellow partiers. He cracks jokes, hurls peanuts at the team mascot, applauds the exploding scoreboard, blasts an electronic horn whenever he pleases—and occasionally nudges a companion and asks, "Hey, who's winning?" The Party Rooter often wanders out of the park in the sixth or seventh inning to continue his celebrations in the car on the way home. The Sunshine Supporter, usually a more common type than the Party Rooter, goes to the park to cheer on a winning team and bask in its glory. When the home side is on a winning streak and still in contention for a playoff spot, the stadium will be packed with this sort of fan. As long as her team is winning, the Sunshine Supporter will be roaring at every play, waving her pennant and shouting out the names of her heroes. However, as the name implies, the Sunshine Supporter is a fickle fan, and her cheers quickly turn to boos when a hero strikes out or drops a line drive. She will stay around until the end of the game to celebrate a victory, but should her team fall a few runs behind, she's likely to slip out to the parking lot during the seventh-inning stretch.​ Diehard Fans are also strong supporters of the local team, but they go to the park to watch good baseball, not just to root for a winner.  More attentive to the game than other fans, Diehards will study the stance of a power hitter, note the finesse of a quick fielder, and anticipate the strategy of a pitcher who has fallen behind in the count. While the Party Rooter is chugging a beer or dropping wisecracks, Diehards may be filling in a scorecard or commenting on a player's RBI tally over the past few months. And when a Sunshine Supporter boos an opposing player for tagging out a local hero, Diehards may be quietly applauding the expert moves of this "enemy" infielder. No matter what the score is, Diehard Fans remain in their seats until the last batter is out, and they may still be talking about the game long after it's over.​

Comparisons Ensure Cohesion

Notice how the writer uses comparisons to ensure cohesion in the body of the essay. The topic sentence in both the second and third paragraphs refers to the preceding paragraph. Likewise, in the third body paragraph, the writer draws explicit contrasts between the Diehards and the other two types of baseball fans.

Such comparisons not only provide smooth transitions from one paragraph to the next but also reveal the sympathies of the writer. He begins with the type of fan he likes the least and ends with the one he most admires. We now expect the writer to justify his attitudes in the conclusion.

Concluding Paragraph

The concluding paragraph gives you an opportunity to draw together the various types and approaches you have been examining in the body of the essay. You may choose to offer a final brief comment on each one, summarizing its value or its limitations. Or you may want to recommend one approach over the others and explain why. In any case, make sure that your conclusion clearly emphasizes the purpose of your classification.

Concluding Paragraph: Only the Diehard Fans Remain

In the concluding paragraph to "Baseball Fans," consider whether the author has been successful in his effort to tie his observations together.

Professional baseball would have trouble surviving without all three types of fans. The Party Rooters provide much of the money that owners need to hire talented players. The Sunshine Supporters bring a stadium to life and help boost the morale of the home team. But only the Diehard Fans maintain their support all season long, year in and year out. By late September in most ballparks, enduring chilly winds, rain delays, and sometimes humiliating losses, only the Diehards remain.

Connecting the Conclusion to the Introduction

Notice how the writer hooks his conclusion back to the introduction by contrasting the chilly night in September with the warm evening in July. Connections such as this help to unify an essay and give it a sense of completeness.

As you develop and organize your draft , experiment with various strategies, but keep this basic format in mind: an introduction that identifies your subject and the different types of approaches; three (or more) body paragraphs that rely on specific details to describe or illustrate the types; and a conclusion that draws your points together and makes the overall purpose of the classification clear.

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  • Understanding General-to-Specific Order in Composition
  • How To Write an Essay
  • Definition and Examples of Body Paragraphs in Composition
  • What is Classification in Grammar?
  • How to Structure an Essay
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  • Understanding Organization in Composition and Speech
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Macdonald DeWitt Library at SUNY Ulster

Eng 101 oer: classification.

  • Reading to Write
  • Why We Write
  • Rhetorical Context
  • Brainstorming
  • Proofreading & Editing
  • Paragraph Development
  • Thesis Statements
  • Introductions
  • Conclusions
  • Transitions & Phrases
  • Peer Reviews
  • Exemplification
  • Classification
  • Cause/Effect
  • Grammar Resources

Learning Objectives

  • Determine the purpose and structure of the classification essay.
  • Understand how to write a classification essay.

The Purpose of Dividing & Classifying

The purpose of  classification  is to break down broad subjects into smaller, more manageable, more specific parts. We classify things in our daily lives all the time, often without even thinking about it. Cell phones, for example, have now become part of a broad category. They can be classified as feature phones, media phones, and smartphones.

Smaller categories, and the way in which these categories are created, help us make sense of the world. Keep both of these elements in mind when writing a classification essay.

The Structure of a Division/Classification Essay

The classification essay opens with an introductory paragraph that introduces the broader topic. The thesis should then explain how that topic is divided into subgroups and why. Take the following introductory paragraph, for example:

When people think of New York, they often think of only New York City. But New York is

actually a diverse state with a full range of activities to do, sights to see, and cultures to

explore.  In order to better understand the diversity of New York state, it is helpful to

break it into these five separate regions: Long Island, New York City, Western New York,

Central New York, and Northern New York.

The thesis explains not only the category and subcategory but also the rationale for breaking it into those categories. Through this classification essay, the writer hopes to show his or her readers a different way of considering the state.

Each body paragraph of a classification essay is dedicated to fully illustrating each of the subcategories. In the previous example, then, each region of New York would have its own paragraph.

The conclusion should bring all the categories and subcategories back together again to show the reader the big picture. In the previous example, the conclusion might explain how the various sights and activities of each region of New York add to its diversity and complexity.

Writing a Division/Classification Essay

Start with an engaging opening that will adequately introduce the general topic that you will be dividing into smaller subcategories. Your thesis should come at the end of your introduction. It should include the topic, your subtopics, and the reason you are choosing to break down the topic in the way that you are. Use the following classification thesis equation:

topic + subtopics + rationale for the subtopics = thesis.

The organizing strategy of a classification essay is dictated by the initial topic and the subsequent subtopics. Each body paragraph is dedicated to fully illustrating each of the subtopics. In a way, coming up with a strong topic pays double rewards in a classification essay. Not only do you have a good topic, but you also have a solid organizational structure within which to write.

Be sure you use strong details and explanations for each subcategory paragraph that help explain and support your thesis. Also, be sure to give examples to illustrate your points. Finally, write a conclusion that links all the subgroups together again. The conclusion should successfully wrap up your essay by connecting it to your topic initially discussed in the introduction. 

Classification Essays

Amy Tan describes relationship with her heritage, her mother, and her languages in  Mother Tongue :

  • http://www.scribd.com/doc/13297165/Mother-Tongue-By-Amy-Tan-I-Am-Not-A
  • http://learning.swc.hccs.edu/members/donna.gordon/sum-2010-engl-1301-5-wk-crn-33454/1301-reading-block-crn-33454/Tan_Mother%20Tongue.pdf
  • http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mcunningham/grapes/mother%20tounge.pdf

Jonathan Koppell discusses anonymity, your name, and how the Internet has changed in  On the Internet, There’s No Place to Hide :

  • http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2000/on_the_internet_theres_no_place_to_hide

Student Sample Essay

Types of Higher Education Programs

Today’s students have many choices when it comes to pursuing a degree: four-year programs, two-year programs, large or small classroom settings, and even daytime or evening classes. With all the different options to consider, potential students should learn about the different types of colleges so they can find a school that best fits their personality, budget, and educational goals.

One type of higher education program for students to consider is a liberal arts college. These schools tend to be small in size and offer a range of undergraduate degrees in subjects like English, history, psychology, and education. Students may choose a liberal arts college if they want a more intimate classroom setting rather than large lecture-style classes. Students may also consider a liberal arts college if they want to gain knowledge from a variety of disciplines, rather than focus on a single area of study. Many liberal arts schools are privately owned, and some have religious affiliations. Liberal arts schools can come with a hefty price tag, and their high cost presents an obstacle for students on a tight budget; moreover, while some students might appreciate a liberal arts school’s intimate atmosphere, others might encounter a lack of diversity in the student body. Still, students seeking a well-rounded education in the humanities will find liberal arts colleges to be one option.

Universities, another type of higher education program, offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Usually universities are larger than colleges and can accommodate tens of thousands of students in many different majors and areas of study. A large student body means that class sizes are often larger, and some classes may be taught by graduate students rather than professors. Students will feel at home at a university if they want a focused academic program and state-of-the-art research facilities. While some universities are private, many are public, which means they receive funding from the government, so tuition is more affordable and some even offer discounted in-state tuition for state residents. Also, universities attract many international students, so those looking for a variety of campus cultural groups and clubs will appreciate a greater sense of diversity among the student body. Universities can be overwhelming for some, but they are the right fit for students who seek research opportunities and academic studies, especially in the fields of mathematics and science.

Community college is a type of higher education program popular with students on a limited budget who want to take college courses but may not know what they want to major in. Most schools offer degrees after two years of study, usually an associate’s degree that prepares students to enter the work force; many students choose to study at a community college for two years and then transfer to a four-year college to complete their undergraduate degree. Like liberal arts schools, classes are small and allow instructors to pay more attention to their students. Community college allows students to live at home rather than in a dormitory, which also keeps costs down. While some young people might not like the idea of living at home for school, many adults choose to attend community college so they can advance their education while working and living with their families.

Online universities are another type of higher education program that are gaining popularity as technology improves. These schools offer many of the same degree programs as traditional liberal arts colleges and universities. Unlike traditional programs, which require students to attend classes and lectures, online universities offer greater academic flexibility and are a great option for students wishing to pursue a degree while still working full time. At online universities, students access course materials, such as video lectures and assessments, remotely using a personal computer and are able to speed up or slow down their progress to complete their degree at their own pace. Students may attend classes in the comfort of their own home or a local library, but students hoping for the social community of higher education might not enjoy this aspect of higher education.

With so many colleges and universities to choose from, it may be difficult for a student to narrow down his or her selection, but once a student knows what he or she is looking for, the process may become much easier. It is very important for students to learn about the different types of higher education programs available before making their selections.

classification division essay

Key Takeaways

  • The purpose of classification is to break a subject into smaller, more manageable, more specific parts.
  • Smaller subcategories help us make sense of the world, and the way in which these subcategories are created also helps us make sense of the world.
  • A classification essay is organized by its subcategories.

This is a derivative of  WRITING FOR SUCCESS  by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution, originally released and is used under CC BY-NC-SA. This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

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  • Rhetorical Patterns - Classification/Division
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  • Rhetorical Patterns

The Rhetorical Patterns -  Organizing Essays for Different Rhetorical Situations

The following pages will provide you with several effective ways of organizing information in your essays. Oftentimes, when you know who your audience is and what your purpose is for writing (which is called your rhetorical situation), you can begin to consider the organization of what is going to be in your paper, how you will introduce your paper, and what to write for your conclusion. The following rhetorical patterns will help you answer these questions.   

Narration   |   Description   |   Process   |   Exemplification   |   Classification   |   Comparison and Contrast Cause and Effect   |   Persuasion and Argument

Classification/Division

Definition:   Classification/Division, essentially, is a system of exclusive organization using categorized examples.

Description:  When you consider which examples to use in a classification/division essay, you should begin both grouping (or classifying) your examples together according to their similarities and excluding (or dividing) them apart based on their differences.  

Classification helps your readers completely understand the subject of your paper because you have organized the things you are considering according to a logical method. 

Through classification and division, readers can understand what might appear to them to be unassociated ideas because your logical method has identified relationships between them all. In many rhetorical situations, classification/division brings a sense of order to what your readers might have perceived as a chaotic scenario. Although, both classification and division are two separate steps, they must occur together in the same paper. 

Conventions:  Most readers of classification essays will want a detailed understanding about your principle of classification, which you will recall is how you divided and organized your paper’s things or examples. Readers may want you to announce in the first person that you are creating a class (i.e., “These things can be divided into four categories, of which I will exclude the first three. These categories are…”). On the other hand, your readers will probably become distracted if larger, first person elements of narration intrude and interrupt your discussion of your classification principle. Most classification/division essays are written in the present tense, unless, that is, the principle of classification deals with historical analysis. Finally, the internal logic most readers expect from a classification/division essay results from adherence to three ideas: The principle of classification will produce all the classes and categories; all of the sub-categories and sub-classes are equal in value; and, that you will consider all objects and examples within the category or class that you analyze. 

Strategies:   When you begin to classify, consider your individual things or examples and sort and parse them into classes or categories. Many of these things will have several different elements and characteristics, so realize that they can be classified in many different ways. Then divide these groups further, so that you can isolate a certain class. While you are performing these operations, you should consider what particular principle helped you to assign specific things to one category or to another. Then analyze, and perhaps use as the basis of an argument, the examples or things in the class you have developed. 

Organization:   The principle of classification you choose would depend on how you wished to approach the members of this large and diverse group. This principle should be specifically articulated in detail in your introduction. Once a class has been identified and assigned, and its principle is known to your readers, they will generally prefer to have a body paragraph devoted to each of the objects in the class or to each of the attributes of the one exemplary object in the class. Since classification/division lends itself so well to social science papers, most readers will want to know any implications or ramifications of your analysis in the conclusion.

What is division?

Division is the separation of the things into groups and classes. Normally, readers expect that you will divide things into large groups, and then smaller and smaller groups, based on the similarities of the things in each class. Consistent or mutually-exclusive categories are what you are aiming for. You want each of your classes or categories to have things in it that would not belong to other classes or categories. 

What is classification?

Classification is the system that you use to get from all the things to a certain number of categories of things. Complete or exhaustive classes are what you are aiming for. You want all of your items or things to fit into one of your classes.  Each classification system can differ depending on what you are classifying; there are certain classification words that are conventional. Some of these are:

  • Category  

Develop your classification system logically and according to your purposes.

How do I draft my introduction?

Your readers will almost certainly look for a description of the entire population you will divide and classify and your principle of division and classification in your introduction.  

​ How do I focus my main point or thesis?

Some readers and writers prefer the multipart thesis, which provides the categories in their order and use the categories as cue words for the body paragraph topic sentences.

Students who succeed at college normally fall into the categories of academics, athletes, and socializers. 

How do I draft my body paragraphs and focus on my principle of classification?

Your body paragraphs should deal with each category, probably in the same order that you developed them as you presented your principle of classification, methodically and comprehensively. The aim of the body paragraphs is two-fold: develop your analysis and reinforce your principle of classification. 

How can I draft my conclusion?

There are other techniques for wrapping up your paper. You might return to the technique that you used to open your introduction and further develop it. Or you might do one of the following:

  • Give your interpretation of what has happened.
  • Make a prediction about the future.
  • Provide a solution to a problem raised in your paper. 
  • Offer a suggestion or advice to people dealing with problems raised in your paper.
  • Formulate new questions that might be asked given your analysis of the situation. Where can further research go?

Peer-Review Worksheet for Classification:

What is the total population of the things that you can divide and classify?

(Have these things already been divided and classified in a way that you can use, modify, or suggest an alternative to?)

What is your purpose for dividing and classifying?

Who is your primary audience? Does your audience already know something about your paper’s subject? If so, what kinds of things does your audience know?

How will you divide your total population? Into what groups and classes?

Are there any “problems” for your principle of classification? Would some readers think that certain groups might contain elements from other groups? Explain how you will deal with this problem.

What is the thesis statement?

What are your topic sentences?

What will you do in your conclusion?

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Writing Toolkit: Division and Classification Essays

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Division/Classification

Writing modes and essay types: division and classification essays.

  • Classification & Division Essay From the Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL).
  • Classification and Analysis From the Guide to Grammar.
  • Writing a Classification Paper From Butte College.

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  • 125 Classification and Division Essay Topics

Throughout your academic career, you may be asked to write a number of different essay types to demonstrate your understanding of particular concepts. One such essay type is known as a classification and division essay. In order to write one effectively, you must first understand what it is and what it requires of you.

This guide will walk you through the fundamentals of writing an excellent classification and division essay and provide 125 essay topics to use for your next writing assignment.

What Is a Classification and Division Essay?

A classification and division essay takes a large topic and breaks it down into smaller parts or categories. These categories are then further divided into more specific subcategories.

For example, if you were asked to write a classification and division essay about vehicles, you could break them down into categories such as land vehicles, water vehicles, and air vehicles. Each of these categories could then be further divided into subcategories such as:

  • cars, trucks, buses, etc. for land vehicles
  • boats, submarines, etc. for water vehicles
  • planes, helicopters, etc. for air vehicles

In order to write a classification and division essay effectively, you must choose a topic that can be easily divided into smaller parts. Once you have selected a topic, you will need to determine how you will classify and divide it. You will also need to decide on a purpose for writing your essay. For example, are you trying to inform, explain, or persuade your reader?

How to Write a Classification and Division Essay

When it comes to essay writing, each type has its own set of rules and guidelines that need to be followed in order to produce a well-written piece. The same is true for a classification and division essay.

Writing the Intro

Classification and division essays all start with an introduction. In your introduction, you will need to provide background information on your topic and explain why it is important or interesting. You will also need to state your thesis statement in your introduction. This is the main point of your essay that you will be trying to support with evidence and examples.

Remember that your goal for this essay is to effectively classify and divide your chosen topic. Therefore, your thesis statement should make this clear to your reader. For example, if you are classifying and dividing vehicles, your thesis statement might look something like this:

“There are three main types of vehicles: land, water, and air vehicles. Each type of vehicle has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.”

If your thesis is not the final sentence of your introduction paragraph, you will also need to include a road map sentence that tells your reader what you will be discussing in the rest of your essay. This will help them follow along more easily as you present your information.

Writing Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of your classification and division essay should each focus on one main category. You will need to provide evidence and examples to support each of your main points.

Continuing with the example about vehicles for land, water, and air, your first body paragraph might discuss land vehicles. You would provide information about the different types of land vehicles and their advantages and disadvantages. You would do the same for water vehicles in your second body paragraph and air vehicles in your third body paragraph.

Remember that in each body paragraph, you should have a topic sentence that introduces the main point of that paragraph as well as a transition sentence that ends the section and leads into the next one.

Writing the Conclusion

Your classification and division essay will end with a conclusion paragraph. In your conclusion, you will want to briefly summarize the main points of your essay and explain how they support your thesis statement. You’ll want to end with a final thought that wraps up your essay in a satisfying way. This could be a final line that invokes a call to action, provides a humorous insight, or leaves the reader with something to think about.

Essential Tips for Writing a Classification and Division Essay

When writing this type of essay, it is essential to follow these guidelines to ensure that you stay on track and don’t inadvertently leave anything out:

  • Pick topics that can easily be divided into smaller parts.
  • Make sure you have a clear purpose for writing your essay.
  • State your thesis statement in the introduction paragraph.
  • Focus each body paragraph on one main category.
  • Include evidence and examples to support your points.
  • Don’t introduce new information in your conclusion paragraph.
  • End with a final thought that leaves the reader satisfied.

By following these tips, you can be sure to write an effective classification and division essay that will impress your readers and get you the grade you deserve.

These topics should help you organize and outline your classification and division essay into a coherent and effective paper.

Classification and Division Essay Topics About School

  • The different types of schools
  • The different types of teachers
  • The different mechanisms for online learning
  • Standardized tests
  • Extracurricular activities
  • Post high-school options
  • Social dynamics/groups in schools
  • The different types of homeschooling
  • The different responses from colleges
  • Types of cheating in school

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Life

  • The stages of life
  • The different types of families
  • The different types of marriages
  • Types of living situations
  • Types of friends
  • The different types of sibling relationships
  • Types of parents
  • Types of pets
  • Types of awkward feelings
  • The different types of love

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Food

  • Types of cuisines
  • Types of fast food
  • Different types of diets
  • Types of restaurants
  • Ways to cook a particular food
  • The different types of ethnic foods
  • Traditional family recipes
  • Comfort foods
  • Foods from around the world

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Sports

  • Types of sports
  • Extreme sports
  • Team sports
  • Individual sports
  • Spectator sports
  • Professional athletes
  • Olympic athletes
  • College athletes
  • High school athletes
  • Children’s sports leagues

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Technology

  • The different types of phones
  • Cell phone features
  • The different types of laptops
  • Laptop features
  • Online security threats
  • Types of social media posts
  • Types of devices for a particular purpose

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Music

  • The different types of music genres
  • Types of instruments
  • Music from different cultures
  • The evolution of music
  • Music theory
  • Types of recording styles

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Movies and TV Shows

  • The different types of movies
  • The different types of TV shows
  • The different types of movie genres
  • The different types of TV show genres
  • Reality television
  • Scripted television
  • Soap operas
  • Mini-series
  • Animated movies and shows
  • Documentaries
  • Experimental films
  • Blockbuster films

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Books and Literature

  • The different types of books
  • The different types of literature
  • The different types of book genres
  • The different types of literary genres
  • The classics
  • Modern literature
  • Children’s books
  • Young adult literature

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Shopping and Clothes

  • The different types of stores
  • The different types of clothes
  • The different types of shopping experiences
  • Online shopping
  • In-person shopping
  • Luxury items
  • Everyday items
  • Clothes for a special occasion
  • Clothes for work
  • Clothes for school

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Travel and Tourism

  • The different types of vacations
  • The different types of tourist destinations
  • The different types of transportation
  • Types of luggage
  • Types of tourists
  • Different ways of packing for a trip
  • Family activities while on vacation
  • Ways of dealing with jet lag

Classification and Division Essays About Science

  • The different types of diseases
  • The different types of mental disorders
  • The different types of physical disorders
  • Types of treatments
  • Types of medication
  • Different types of therapy
  • Cures for illnesses
  • Different types of viruses

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Health

  • Ways to avoid getting sick
  • The different types of fitness programs
  • Types of exercise equipment
  • The benefits of a healthy diet
  • Ways to eat healthy on a budget
  • Vitamins and minerals
  • The different food groups
  • Eating disorders
  • Sleeping disorders

Classification and Division Essay Topics About Animals

  • The different types of animals
  • Wild animals
  • Farm animals
  • Exotic animals
  • Endangered animals
  • Animal behavior
  • The animal kingdom

With these 125 classification and division essay topics, you’ll be on your way to writing the best division and classification essay that you can. Just remember to choose a topic that can be divided into smaller, more manageable parts and to focus on a single main idea or purpose for your essay.

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classification division essay

How to Write a Division Classification Essay

Mar 15, 2019 | Classification Essay

classification division essay

Essay writing is a broad aspect that most students have to dealwith in school. In other words, college writing has different aspects that the student must learn to do in order to become an all-around writer. Essay ring involves persuasive essays, expository essays, argumentative essays, admission essays division classification essays , and so on. Thewriting skills of a student must be good enough to write top-notch assignments. Most importantly, the perspective from which the student approaches to essaywriting ought to be different. Most students have a negative attitude especially when it comes to essay writing,but that has tochange.

Now, when dealing with a division and classification essay, a student has to follow the requirement of the assignment. First, he must understand the definition of division and classification essay, which brings us to the next important point here. A division and classification essay is defined as the breakdown of a largesubject into smaller ones to enhance the understanding of the subject in a more clear manner.  With classification, you have to take items and put them in different categories. The classification hinges other writer’s decision o classifies the items. You have to pay attention to the most significant elements of the subject and how they can be classified.

all assignments relating to classification division essays are not as hard as they seem, even though sometimes students force essays into unprecedented divisions as they try to create three divisions. If you are writing a three-part structure of your division classification essay, you have several advantages. One, the two-part classification is usuallyvery simple. Secondly, classification and division essays going beyond five paragraphs give the student expandedparameters of discussing the topic as opposed to the typical essay. Since division classification essays have two aspects, it is goodfirst to break them down.

When writing a classification essay, you have to organise the details in three or more categories. Every category must have characteristics that stand out. More so, classification essays will use description and examples as evidence and supporting details.  When you describe in division classification essays, you give the means to identify the distinct traits and examples that illustrate the members of each category. They also use anecdotes as well as short narratives as evidence to back up and illustrate a category.

Elements of classification

  • The set of things or items under the classification
  • The principle of selection or the scheme that classifies the set.
  • The classes  into which the sets are divided

In your division, classification essays, any set that is under classification must share similar traits or be differentiated from other things outside that set. For instance, living organisms are classified in biology. Non-living organisms fall outside the set. More so, generic nouns like the student, vacation spots, or pets can fall in a classifiable set.

The principle of selection or the scheme

This standard type, quality, or function is the criteria for selecting the elements for every class, which is why it is referred to as the principle of selection. For instance, biology classifies living organisms on the premise of life process and qualities. In geology, roc is classified into ingenious, sedimentary as well as metamorphic classifications. The classification anchorson how the rocks were formed. When you want to come up with an effective classification scheme, it must have relevance, importance and a valuable way to understand the set of thing under consideration. Thisis what makes division classification essays easy to write.

In your quest of knowing how to write division and classification essays , you have to understand all these elements of classification. Now, when it comes to the classes, you start with the explanation of the descriptor, the characteristics that identify the members of a given class and what makes them stand out from the members of other classes.Provide representative examples of that class and in your discussion, evaluate the worth of this class. On the other hand, you can compare and contact this class with other classes within the same scheme. For instance, in biology, there are frequent references made on how class members are different from the member of other classes. The methods you use in your classification can be description, narration, definition, examples as well as compare and contrast.

When writing your division classification essays, try to come up with a lead that identifies the set that you are classing. It should provide general significance, importance or relevance and the value of the applicable scheme. Your thesis statement must identify the classes in which the set will be identified.

The body paragraphs of your division classification essay have to identify the class that is in consideration. When writing this essay, you need to show the relation of the class to the scheme. Everal classifies re available,but it depends on the reason why you are classifyingthe set and what you want to gain from the scheme of classification. One important aspect to understand is that if you are writing a classification essay separately, you ought to deal with one scheme of set classification.

The conclusion ought to reiterate the importance, relevance, or value of the scheme that has a classified set.

When classification division essays, students must produce examples that illustrate a class. Do not fail to explain and define the class first, and thenfollow it with examples. If you want your division, classification essays to be effective, you need to identify each class by describing its unique characteristics.  Every member or item should belong to a single class,and each class must have several members. Every paragraph must have a topic sentence that identifies the class under consideration. Use the supporting sentence to describe the class members. Give examples of the members that fit theclass and show their connection to the class.

When it comes to division, the writer is supposed to break down the subject into parts to get a better understanding of the subject. In your division classification essays, you ought to explainthe relations; of these parts. In this type of writing, you deal with systems and subsystems. The breakdown transcends list of items and focuses on the individual aspects of the subsystem and how they relate to the whole system.

As part of creating an understanding of how to write division and classification essays, you have to know the elements of the division.  They include the system, the principle of analysis and the subsystem. For instance, if you are dealing with a car, it is the system; its functionality is the principle of analysis. For a mechanic, it is easy to divide the car into subsystems of transmission, engine, and exhaust and so on. For you to understand the entire system, explain the entire functionality of every subsystem, and the other subsystems as well as the entire system.

The subtle difference between classification and division is that embers of a class in classification must be strictly different from those of other classes. They can also not belong to two classes at the same time. In the division, members can belong to two or more classes at sometime. However, the evaluation is based on individual members to identify their relationship with regard to other members of the subsystem.

For instance, the human boy can be subdivided into circulatory, respiratory, and excretory subsystems. Since the blood is the universal element of each system, its function can be interpreted differently with regard to the subsystem under discussion. Division essays use method since they examine functionality. Process essay and division essays are different in that the former focuses on the interdependence of processes of subsystems and the entire system.

With the understanding of the elements of division classification essays, it is time to delve into the planning process and how to write division and classification essays.

Those who know how to write division and classification essaysunderstand that there are two approaches or steps involved in planning for these essays. They include the following:

Deciding on what to classify

Imperatively, choose a topic that sparks interest in you. Just like any other essay, the division classification essays that you write must revolve around an interesting topic not only to the audience but also to you as a writer. Whatever the topic that you choose, you should have a distinct category when you are presenting it.

Divide the topic into three different items within the category that you would have chosen in step one. This will allow for three body paragraphs that culminate in a good and ideal organisation.

Outlining your division classification essay

The d ivision and classification essays take the same standard format of a typical essay. The outline that you formulate must have the following sections:

  • Generic topic
  • Subtopics to be used
  • Definition of subtopics
  • Examples for illustrating each subtopic

Writing the classification and division essay

It is important to understand the categories in division and classification essays because they will help you in revealing the theme of the essay. Even though some categories are seemingly separate hey must follow a logical principle and every category must incorporate examples. These aspects make the writing process of division classification essays easier.

Creating your thesis statement

If you know and understand how to write division and classification essays, it is good to mention that you must have a topic that shows its classification. Your thesis statement must be written in a manner that reveals the topic and how it is going to be classified. As such, you must follow a logical and meticulous structure.

The introduction

This is the first paragraph of yourclassification division essay.  When writing your introduction, you have to identify the classification that you have selected. It should also house your thesis statement and a description of what it means. Your thesis statement usually comes at the end of your introduction,only that this time around it has a simple description.

The body paragraphs

The paragraphs that you write in your classification division essays must discuss your thesis statement exhaustively. To achieve this, every paragraph should have a topic sentence is discusses. The topic sentence is explained through the description and illustration using details. The body paragraphs of your division classification essays must be arranged in a manner that achieves a logicalsequence of items in every category as you mentioned it in your thesis statement.

Comparative analysis is essential in division and classification essays in that it helps in creating smooth transitions between the paragraphs. It also reveals the sympathies for the writer.

The conclusion

This paragraph ends the discussion of your topic. The conclusion of your division and classification essays is anchored on the existing set and class of data and statistics. You can give a final moment and each item or provide a summary of the values and limitations of each item. This conclusion must augment the reason that led to the investigation and justifies the classification. The writer can divide what was made initially before he started writing the division classification essay.

When writing your division classification essays, you can divide three items by mentioning in each of the body paragraphs the specific number that is assigned to it. For instance, you canuse phrases like “the first type,” “the second type,” “the third type” and so on. Onething you should always remember when it comes to writing division and classification essay is that you should organise things into useful categories, use a very distinct organisingprinciple, and illustrate the categories well by providing good examples.

After you are done with your essay, do your proofreading and editing toensure everything is in line with the assignment requirements, after that submit your paper where relevant.

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Writing a Classification/Division Essay

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Pre-College Composition for English Language Learners Copyright © by Breana Bayraktar; Jacqueline Weaver; and Martha Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

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classification division essay

Donald Trump Has Never Sounded Like This

No major American presidential candidate has talked like he now does at his rallies — not Richard Nixon, not George Wallace, not even Donald Trump himself.

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Greensboro, N.C., in March. Credit... Mark Peterson/Redux, for The New York Times

Supported by

Charles Homans

By Charles Homans

Charles Homans covers politics for The Times. He has attended seven Trump rallies in seven states since October.

  • April 27, 2024

It was Super Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, and the people — his people — were feeling good. They had arrived around sundown, disgorged from a small fleet of buses and ushered into the grand ballroom. Some of them were old hands at this place, they explained with great pleasure. Others, first-timers, gawked visibly at the chandeliers the size of jet turbines, the gilded molding and the grape-dangling cherubs, all that marble and mirror.

Listen to this article, read by Robert Petkoff

“It’s not quite Versailles,” a county party chairman mused aloud, “but it’s the closest thing we have here.”

Screens around the room were tuned to Fox News, relaying word of one state primary triumph after another, and the mood was expansive. Forgiato Blow, a self-described “MAGA rapper,” was showing off a heavy Cuban link chain, from which dangled a lemon-size bust of the man we had all come to see. His face was rendered in solid gold. His diamond eyes peered out from beneath the brim of a red cap, the cap, emblazoned with his once and future promise to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

The man himself appeared at 10:14 p.m., strolling into the ballroom from somewhere in the private depths of the club. For a strange moment he stood there, alone and mostly unnoticed in the doorway, a ghost at his own party, before the music kicked in and he made his way to the stage.

He began with some thank-yous and superlatives, some reminiscences about his presidency and denunciations of the one that followed. Then he got down to business. “We’re going to win this election, because we have no choice,” Donald J. Trump told us. “If we lose this election, we’re not going to have a country left.” He said it in a tone he might have used to complain about the rain that had doused Palm Beach that weekend.

“We love you!” someone shouted.

“We love you, too — and we love our country,” Trump replied, momentarily upbeat, before souring again. “This is a magnificent place, a magnificent country. And it’s so sad to see how far it’s come and gone.”

Victory-night speeches are not complicated. You thank the voters and supporters, the brilliant campaign staff, the long-suffering spouse and children. You celebrate the triumphs so far, express measured confidence about the road ahead. But if Trump did most of this on that night of March 5, none of it seemed to hold his attention very long, sometimes not even for the duration of a sentence, before he caromed off the prepared material back into the darkness.

classification division essay

“Our cities are choking to death,” he was saying now, some 20 minutes in. “Our states are dying. And frankly, our country is dying.” He seemed only belatedly to remember the phrase stitched onto the red hats dotting the crowd before him. “And we’re going to make America great again, greater than ever before. Thank you very much. It’s been a big night.”

By the time the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” came on, he was already gone.

As the guests were ushered back onto their buses, Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime consigliere and presidential-pardon recipient, materialized before a small gaggle of reporters and reiterated what the former president said. “This will be our last election,” he said, “unless we elect Donald Trump.”

I had been attending Trump’s speeches on and off for several months by this time, as I had in the last days of the 2016 campaign and then throughout and after his presidency. Watching him in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this campaign season, it was clear that something had shifted.

Trump is among the world’s most obvious political creatures, but the sheer constancy of his public communications, their assaultiveness and density, has sometimes made it hard to see clearly their evolutions, to trace changes in the signal through the formidable noise. His demands on the world’s attention make it paradoxically easy not to pay attention to the particulars. Most Americans, in any case, made up their minds about him one way or another long ago. This has made Trump appear more static than he actually is — made it harder to see how the Trump presidency, which profoundly changed America, also changed Trump.

When I got home from Mar-a-Lago, I pulled up a video of him from Super Tuesday 2016, addressing his supporters in the same ballroom under similar circumstances. I was stunned by how different the man on the screen was from the one I had just seen. The Trump of 2016 had a spring in his step as he congratulated Ted Cruz on winning Texas, ribbed a vanquished Chris Christie, bantered and parried with the assembled reporters. His digressions into the many evils he sought to remedy were brief, and he seemed eager to get back to all he had accomplished, and all he would accomplish.

“This has been an amazing period of time,” he said. “It’s been amazing for me, even from an educational standpoint, and I think honestly we’ve done something that almost nobody thought could be done. And I’m very proud of it. And I just want to leave you with this: I am a unifier.”

Trump’s critics were right in 2016 to observe the grim novelty of his politics: their ideology of national pessimism, their open demagoguery and clear affinities with the far right, their blunt division of the country into us and them in a way that no major party’s presidential nominee had dared for decades. But Trump’s great accomplishment, one that was less visible from a distance but immediately apparent at his rallies, was the us that he conjured there: the way his supporters saw not only him but one another, and saw in themselves a movement.

That us is still there in Trump’s 2024 speeches. But it is not really the main character anymore. These speeches, and the events that surround them, are about them — what they have done to Trump, and what Trump intends to do in return.

“I keep telling people: ‘Watch the speeches,’” Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s 2016 campaign chief executive and, briefly, chief White House strategist, told me recently. “When you look at the content of what he’s putting out there, he couldn’t telegraph this any more clearly: what he stands for, and what he’s up against.”

Trump has always said what he means in his speeches. He is also constantly obscuring it, by instinct or design, contradicting his own statements or waving them off as jokes, scribbling over them with tangents and lies and just plain weirdness. One of the first things I noticed watching him last year, though, is that this is less true than it once was.

As with everything about Trump, what was once revolutionary has become institutionalized. The insult-comic riffs and winding tours through the headlines are more constrained and repetitive now, his performer’s instincts duller than they once were. The brutalist building blocks of the prepared speech, its stock-photo celebrations of national triumphs (“We stand on the shoulders of American heroes who crossed the ocean, settled the continent, tamed the wilderness, laid down the railroads, raised up those great beautiful skyscrapers … ”) and lamentations of national decline, now stand out in clearer relief.

They build to a rhetorical climax that is echoed from one speech to the next. In Claremont, N.H., in November, he said:

2024 is our final battle.

With you at my side — and you’ve been at my side from the beginning — we will demolish the deep state. We’ll expel, we’re going to expel, those horrible, horrible warmongers from our government. They want to fight everybody. They want to kill people all over the place. Places we’ve never heard about before. Places that want to be left alone.

We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake-news media until they become real. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will finish the job that we started better than anybody has ever started a job before.

The great silent majority is rising like never before. And under our leadership, the forgotten man and woman will be forgotten no longer. You’re going to be forgotten no longer. With your help, your love and your vote, we will put America first.

And today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.

The real threat is not from the radical right. The real threat is from the radical left. And it is growing every day. Every single day.

The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.

Our threat is from within.

No major American presidential candidate has talked like this — not Richard Nixon, not George Wallace, not even Trump himself. Before November 2020, his speeches, for all their boundary crossings, stopped short of the language of “vermin” and “enemies within.”

When I asked the political historian Federico Finchelstein what he made of the speech, he replied bluntly: “This is how fascists campaign.”

For roughly the entirety of Trump’s political career, his detractors have debated, exhaustively and exhaustingly, whether the “f” word is reasonably applied to him. Finchelstein, the chairman of the history department at the New School for Social Research, was for years among those who argued it was not. In his 2017 book, “From Fascism to Populism in History,” he contended that the most useful historical point of reference for the newly elected American president was the postwar populism of Juan Perón, the president of Finchelstein’s native Argentina in the 1940s and ’50s and again in the 1970s.

An alumnus of a military dictatorship who served as an attaché in Mussolini’s Italy, Perón admired the fascist regimes of interwar Europe. But he also understood that repeating them was both undesirable and probably impossible following the defeat of the Axis powers. If authoritarianism had a future, it was not in openly overturning democratic systems but in working inside them.

The result was what Finchelstein called a series of “authoritarian experiments in democracy.” Perón won elections fairly within a democratic system and never tried to overturn it, as Mussolini and Hitler did. At the same time, he often acted autocratically in office, exiling opponents, removing unfriendly judges from the bench and shuttering hostile newspapers.

Like the fascists, Perón redefined “the people” as an exclusive, not inclusive, category: an us defined against a them . Where he differed, crucially, was in claiming the mantle of democracy — and presenting himself as its perfection. In populism, the leader had arrived to beat back a threat to the will of the people that came from within the country’s democratic system — and that, absent the leader’s vigilant rule, would return to cause worse destruction. Perón’s enemies were not just Perón’s enemies; they were the enemies of democracy.

Before Trump, no American populist had enjoyed the stature and structural conditions necessary to succeed at populism’s essential act of mashing a democracy into the shape of his own face: of winning a presidential election. His 2017 Inaugural Address, which came to be known as his “American carnage” speech, was a Perónist speech, Finchelstein argued at the time. It presented Trump’s inauguration as a total break with American history. It announced the defeat of a threat that came from within the system and the perfection of American democracy, now contained within the form of Donald Trump.

The worldview the speech presented was unapologetically us against them , but like Perón’s, it was decidedly heavier on the us . “Jan. 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again,” Trump told his admirers on the National Mall. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now.”

But populism, when it attains power, is unstable. In the leader’s story, they have a tendency to swell in number and significance as the impossible promises and prophecies the leader has offered us inevitably fail to materialize; us moves from a triumphant majority to an unjustly embattled one, surrounded on all sides by enemies. This was of course the story that Trump told, from his early grievances against the “deep state” through his first impeachment trial and then the 2020 election and beyond.

And populism is in a sense a retroactive label, because the true test of a government is how it ends. Some prominent historians of authoritarianism who resisted describing Trump as a fascist throughout his presidency publicly changed their minds after Jan. 6. Finchelstein was among them — almost. His current preferred term for Trump and like-minded figures like Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, and the title of his forthcoming book about them, is “wannabe fascists.”

The term implied directional movement more than classification. “Perón was a fascist who wanted to reformulate himself in democratic terms,” Finchelstein told me, “whereas Trump seems to be doing the opposite.”

But its equivocation also suggested the continuing difficulty of describing Trump. How do you think about a politician who openly veers into fascist tropes but, in four years in office, did not generally govern like one? Who — sworn testimony before the Jan. 6 committee clearly showed — did try by several means to overturn his electoral defeat, but in the end left the White House as his opponent was sworn into office?

On one level, the answer hinged on how the people — his people — heard what he said. His long pattern of self-contradiction and denial, of jokes that might or might not be jokes, meant that “he can talk in different layers to different people,” Finchelstein said. “There are people who take what he says literally. There are people who don’t take it literally. And people who ignore it as rhetoric. He’s talking to all these people.” The question was what they heard.

The first time I went to see Trump on the 2024 campaign trail was in Derry, N.H., in late October. A disorienting aspect of Trump’s new, harsher campaign rhetoric is that in every other way, his campaign is far more routine than his previous rally tours. The old pirate-ship energy and unpredictability that used to define these events, even during his presidency, has mostly dissipated, replaced by clean-cut staff members in personalized vests and windbreakers.

The crowds, too, are different. The serious Trump Train lifers, the parking-lot characters I met at rallies past, are still there, but in Derry, they were far outnumbered by the stock extras of New Hampshire in primary season: prim New England town-meeting types, wild-eyed libertarians, performatively uncommitted voters adding to their collection of candidate sightings.

The woman standing next to me had brought her daughter, who looked about 11. Somewhere on the far side of the crowd, some young men started a chant of “Let’s go Brandon,” a ubiquitous MAGA meme originating with a TV sports reporter’s mishearing of a crowd at a NASCAR race chanting “[expletive] Joe Biden!”

The girl asked her mother what it meant. “It was a name flub,” the mother said quickly. “Biden called someone Brandon by accident.”

After Trump took the stage, his speech eventually turned, as Trump speeches now always did, to his indictments. “When they start playing with your elections and trying to arrest their political opponent — I can do that, too!” Trump said. “If I win — which I hope we do, because we’re not going to have a country — but if I win, I could then say, I don’t know: ‘This guy, this Democrat’s doing great. I don’t like the poll numbers. Attorney General, come down, arrest that guy, will you, please? Give him a subpoena! Indict him!’ That’s the end of him.”

It had not been the end of Trump. “This is the first time in history that somebody’s been indicted and his poll numbers have gone up!” he crowed.

This was true — and it was a key to understanding Trump’s campaign. When a grand jury began preparing to indict Trump in New York in March 2023, over payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign, Trump was polling ahead of his primary rivals, but with the support of less than half of Republicans. This reflected the deceptively complicated nature of Trump’s relationship with the Republican Party, which had been remolded entirely in his image but was not yet fully in his control.

The Republican narrative of the last several years was Trump’s narrative. It began with the serial efforts by congressional Democrats and agency bureaucrats to hamstring his presidency — efforts that he was on the brink of defeating in 2020, when the pandemic hit. Democrats, again with the quiet but essential support of bureaucrats, had exploited the pandemic to many ends — not least expanding and making clever use of mail-in balloting in the November election, which, depending on whom you asked, had been stolen legally or stolen outright from Trump.

But the fact that Trump was undeniably central to this story of the recent past that most Republican officials and voters espoused did not necessarily mean he was essential to their vision of the path forward. Reporting around the margins of the post-presidential MAGA movement in 2021 and 2022, attending anti-vaccine protests and “patriot” assemblies and campaign rallies for right-wing candidates still bent on overturning the 2020 election, I met many people who loved and admired Trump and shared his grievances but were also beginning to consider a future without him. Some complained that he was too focused on his own petty resentments, holed up at Mar-a-Lago licking his wounds while they continued to fight the movement’s battles. Others simply feared he would lose if he ran again.

This was the opening that Ron DeSantis, in particular, so clearly aimed to exploit. No serious Republican candidate could campaign directly against Trump or question his claims about the 2020 election. But they could argue for moving on from him.

What Trump had to offer in this context, and really his only hope, was not moving on. He could remind us just how dangerous they were, reiterate the crimes and desecrations they had committed that had not yet been avenged.

“In these movements, you have to take the moral high ground first,” said Bannon, who remains in Trump’s orbit — and received a presidential pardon from him — and serves as a sort of in-house philosopher-strategist of MAGA on his “War Room” podcast. The aim of Trump’s early campaign speeches, he explained, was “to reinforce to his core followers: ‘We know what happened. We’re united. I’ve got it. I’m all in.’ And put the enemy” — his rivals and antagonists in the party — “on notice.”

Bannon pointed me to a speech Trump gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023, shortly before the first of his indictments. “In 2016,” Trump told the audience, which included Bolsonaro, “I declared, I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

He repeated it for emphasis: “I am your retribution.”

“You’re not selling ‘Morning in America’ from Mar-a-Lago,” Bannon said. “You need a different tempo. He needed to reiterate to his followers, ‘This is [expletive] revenge.’”

In this context, Trump’s many criminal prosecutions — the New York indictment and the state and federal charges that followed in three other jurisdictions for mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election — were an extraordinary gift. They were a real-time story reinforcing the message of his campaign, weekly evidence of their terrible power, the power they would unleash on the people in this room if Trump ever stepped back from public life, relinquished his place as the protective barrier — the big, beautiful wall — standing between us and them . And by supporting him amid these tribulations, the people — his people — were sending a message to them . “Because the people understand,” Trump told us in Derry, “it’s bullshit !”

“Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!” the crowd chanted.

There was something incantatory about the word, stretched out by the chant into a two-syllable seesaw of tension and release. It was at once an eruption of visceral disgust and an exhilarating collective transgression — and a lesson in how quickly the former could become the latter.

“I went to Washington,” Keekee Hunt told me.

She said it quietly, almost under her breath, and at first, I didn’t catch her meaning. “When he was inaugurated?” I asked.

“You know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “When we ‘breached the Capitol.’”

“I can’t believe you did that,” her friend said.

We were waiting in a line outside an arena in Rock Hill, S.C., where Trump would soon be speaking. Hunt, a 49-year-old local bail bondswoman and hairstylist, was dressed in a TRUMP GIRL T-shirt and distressed jeans, her blond hair spilling out from under a red MAGA-style cap proclaiming her support for the Second Amendment.

In 2015, Hunt was living in Myrtle Beach, which happened to be the site of one of Trump’s earliest proto-campaign appearances, at a local Tea Party gathering several months before he declared his candidacy. Friends of hers were early converts.

I asked when she started paying attention to politics herself. “When Obama became president,” she told me. “That’s when everything started changing.”

“What bothered you about what was happening?”

“Well, for one, I didn’t think he was an American.”

She had thought long and hard about going to Washington on Jan. 6, she said. On her phone, she showed me a video she took at 4:07 p.m. that day. Rioters were clashing with police officers at the foot of the Capitol steps, with plumes of tear gas drifting overhead. “They were fighting over here, fighting over there,” she said. Before she made it too close herself, she said, the tear gas got in her eyes, and she turned back.

She swiped through more videos and pictures, eventually arriving at a group photo of her and her friends with the Capitol in the distance, shortly before they marched, holding American flags and Trump banners on long poles. A woman on the edge of the group was smiling and holding up a sign that said “STOP THE STEAL — Save Our Republic”: a local parents rights activist, Hunt said, who was coming to the rally today. She had gotten one of the coveted seats in the section right behind Trump.

“She’s going to be V.I.P.,” Hunt said.

Inside, a low rumble of synthesizer, playing a vaguely liturgical suspended chord, filled the arena. A mass of men’s voices came in, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The recording was poor quality, far-away-sounding and distorted around the edges, and the voices had a hauntingly flat and gray affect as they sang of the twilight’s last gleaming. Then the voice of the former president, clearer, rose above them: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America .

The crowd listened respectfully. It was a recording called “Justice for All,” released early last year, credited to “Donald J. Trump & J6 Prison Choir”: a group of men among those currently serving prison sentences related to the Jan. 6 riot — a majority for assaulting police officers — who were recorded singing over the phone from the D.C. jail. As the prisoners reached the end of the anthem, they broke into a chant: “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” The crowd joined in, unified in the new resistance.

The recording’s producers included Kash Patel, a former Trump administration intelligence staff member who is involved in Trump’s 2024 campaign. It opened Trump’s first proper rally of this campaign, in March 2023 in Waco, Texas, and the rallies since. It offered a compressed version of one of the campaign’s central arguments: that Trump’s prosecutions were an extension of the dispossession of the Trump faithful in 2020, and that the weight of the state would fall not only on Trump but on anyone patriotic enough to dare to stand with him.

“Joe Biden and the fascists that control him are really the true threat to democracy,” Trump told us that afternoon. “They use the D.O.J., the F.B.I., our election systems. They rigged our elections and attacked free speech. It is amazing all the people that go get investigated, all of them, all of them — they don’t go after the people that rigged the election. They go after the people that want to find out who it was that rigged it.”

As the speech neared its conclusion, the room once again filled with music, a stately cinematic swell of synthesized strings. This recording, an instrumental composition called “Mirrors,” was also thick with subtextual information. Several years ago it was appropriated, seemingly at random, by devotees of QAnon, the conspiracist cosmology that holds Trump to be the central figure in a world-historical battle against a cabal of Democrats, business leaders and celebrities trafficking and torturing children. In 2022, Trump appropriated it, too, using the song for a video he released on social media, and later at a rally in Ohio, as a soundtrack for the rousing finale of his speech. Although a spokesman denied that it was a wink at the QAnon faithful, supporters at the rally responded by raising their hands in a familiar QAnon gesture.

As was so often the case with Trump, what had at first been scandalous had quickly become standard. “Mirrors” now closed out every Trump rally, a bookend to “Justice for All.” As the song played in Rock Hill, he told the crowd: “Together we are taking on some of the most menacing forces and vicious opponents our people have ever seen. But no matter how hateful and corrupt the communists and criminals we are fighting are, you must never forget this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you. This is your home. This is your heritage. And our American liberty is your God-given right.”

The crowd was on its feet as he recited his benediction:

Together we will make America powerful again!

We will make America wealthy again!

We will make America strong again!

We will make America proud again!

We will make America safe again!

And we will make America great again!

The people — his people — roared. Trump did a little dance. Then he descended the stage in the direction of the barricade. A wave of excitement rippled through the crowd. The four-on-the-floor backbeat of “Y.M.C.A.” thumped through our close-packed bodies like a shared pulse.

He was brandishing his permanent marker like a conductor’s baton, briskly autographing campaign signs and MAGA merchandise. Sweat was beading around the edges of his makeup. “Don’t reach out to him!” a rally veteran advised us. “Just yell at him!”

As Trump passed, my view was momentarily obstructed by a woman’s wide-brimmed hat, glittering with sequined stars and stripes and covered in buttons. The largest featured a grinning Trump framed by the words: “ONE LAST TIME GOD SENDS AMERICA A LEADER.” Another read: “Trust is an expression of love.”

Early in his Rock Hill speech, Trump had paused to recognize one of the Republican politicians in attendance, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina. Wilson’s profile in national politics consisted mostly of a single moment, during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress in September 2009, when Wilson interrupted Obama by shouting, “You lie!”

Somewhat less remembered than Wilson’s outburst is its context. He was objecting to Obama’s assertion that the Affordable Care Act would not cover undocumented immigrants — a preoccupation of the ascendant Tea Party movement. As a candidate six years later, Trump adopted and further radicalized the Tea Party’s immigration politics, which cast migrants as the tip of the spear of a “globalist” effort to undermine the security and identity of the United States.

Wilson’s outburst was one of those moments in pre-Trump politics that seems exotically distant now, the genuine shock with which it was met in the political class — genuine enough that Wilson, at the urging of congressional leadership, called the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to apologize — an anachronism of a bygone age. The interruption now seems not just normal but seminal, a blueprint for the MAGA generation that came after Wilson. “He said, ‘You lie!’ You remember?” Trump told the crowd in Rock Hill. “I’m sure nobody remembers that, but I do. He is one of the most incredible people.”

Seated not far from Wilson at the rally was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the second-term Georgia congresswoman and Trump sidekick. Since the beginning of Biden’s presidency, Greene has become a serial interrupter of his speeches, refining and expanding on Wilson’s legacy. She arrived at the Capitol for Biden’s March 7 State of the Union address in a Make America Great Again hat and a matching red blazer festooned with buttons. One of them featured a photo of a smiling young woman: a 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley, who had been murdered the month before while she was jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia.

The day after Riley disappeared, around the time Trump took the stage in Rock Hill, the campus police arrested a suspect in the case, an undocumented 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant named Jose Antonio Ibarra . It soon emerged that Ibarra had previously been arrested after crossing the border near El Paso in September 2022, requested asylum and was later released while his case awaited adjudication. Since then, he had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and released again.

As Biden glad-handed his way down the aisle on his way to the dais, Greene attracted his attention and managed to hand him a button that said: “SAY HER NAME: LAKEN RILEY.” It was a phrase slyly borrowed from the emotional appeals of the racial-justice movement.

“Say her name!” Greene shouted repeatedly at Biden during the speech, until he finally veered off-script. “Lincoln Riley,” Biden said, garbling her first name: “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.” He held up the button Greene had given him.

This was, by any measure, the greatest coup of the many that Greene had pulled off in her short time in office. And it happened just two days before Trump was scheduled to hold a rally in Greene’s hometown, Rome, Ga.

In Rome that afternoon, I saw two women standing outside the arena, one of them holding up a large placard with Riley’s picture on it and “SAY HER NAME!” printed below. They were being interviewed by Vanessa Broussard, an anchor for Right Side Broadcasting Network, an online streaming outlet that serves as a kind of house organ of Trump’s government in exile. (Greene is dating one of the network’s anchors.)

“Laken Riley — tragic story,” Broussard was saying. “Let’s talk about that and how, you know, this hit home. Not just because this was a beautiful American college student, but also right there in your backyard here in Georgia.”

“It’s very concerning with us who have kids and grandkids, you know, and families and friends that’s got younger kids,” said the woman with the sign, a 56-year-old rental-property manager from Elijay, Ga., named Deanna Foley. “It’s tragic. It’s embarrassing that Joe Biden’s not even acknowledging her.”

“Absolutely,” Broussard said. “It’s disgusting.”

When Broussard moved on, I asked the women how they had heard about Riley’s murder.

“Fox News,” Foley replied. “That’s the only news I watch.”

Illegal immigration, she told me, was the most important issue for her in the election. “I’m very concerned, you know, with the human trafficking, child trafficking and the crime that goes along with it, fueled by illegal aliens and the cartels,” she said. And then there were the tens of thousands of children who had gone missing in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, she added: “That’s just nothing but a human-trafficking thing right there.”

Many children, perhaps thousands, were indeed abducted from Ukraine by Russian soldiers in the early days of the war; journalistic and legal investigations have found that many are being held in Russia, where they have been subjected to re-education and used occasionally for propaganda purposes. But this did not seem to be what Foley was talking about.

“What do you think is happening to all those kids?” I asked.

“Pedophiles,” Foley replied. “The Illuminati.”

“Definitely pedos,” her friend, Tina Murray, interjected.

“Pedophiles,” Foley said again. “Hunter Biden. Joe Biden. Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton.”

“Hollywood,” Murray said.

This sounded like the QAnon theory of the world, in which practically any event could be explained and connected by a great liberal child-trafficking conspiracy. When I mentioned QAnon, Foley nodded. “I like Q,” she said. “They give people hope in very sad and low times.”

“You’ve got to use your discernment online,” Foley went on. “But you don’t use your discernment on the Democrats, because, I mean, they’re just” — she paused, looking for the word — “against America.”

“So you think all the stuff about them is true that you see out there?” I asked.

“On the Democrats?”

“Absolutely. It’s worse than I could ever even dream of.”

The threat of violent migrant criminals has been a foundational element of Trump’s politics, and his rallies, since 2015, and by early this year it had assumed center stage in Trump’s speeches as he began to back away — not entirely, but noticeably — from last year’s talk of vermin and internal enemies. This reflected an actual worsening of the situation along the Southern border, which remains one of Biden’s great political vulnerabilities — enough so that Trump leaned on Republican lawmakers to kill a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate in January, reportedly because he hoped to continue campaigning on the issue. But it also seemed possible that Trump was aware he had perhaps pushed things a little far in the revenge department.

Talking to voters in Iowa, away from the bubbles of the presidential campaigns, over the course of several weeks leading up to the January caucuses there, I had been surprised to hear a number of longtime Republicans and Trump supporters expressing wariness about Trump and, for the first time I could remember, openly worrying about what he might do if he won. “I voted for Trump twice,” Bob Meyer, 75, a retired bar and gas-station owner in the town Lake City, told me. “I still like the man. I like what he says. But I wouldn’t vote for him again, because that’s how dictators take over.”

Enough similar misgivings seemed to have reached Trump that he revised himself in a Fox News town hall in Des Moines in January: “We’re going to make this country so successful again,” he said, “I’m not going to have time for retribution.”

At the same time, Trump’s denunciations of migrants “poisoning the blood” of America — a phrase that immediately drew Hitler comparisons, which drew Trump’s loud insistence at a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, that “I never read ‘Mein Kampf’” — was a reminder that his immigration rhetoric was the same song in a different key. If immigration was Trump’s clearest link to the Tea Party, it was also his clearest link to an emerging class of European leaders in countries like Poland and Hungary who, at the time of his election, were infusing Perón-style postwar populism with right-wing xenophobia and nativism — a far darker parallel legacy of interwar fascism.

On March 8, the night before the Rome rally, Trump met with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, the most successful European practitioner of this strain of authoritarianism. Over the past several years, Orban has become a darling of American right-wing intellectuals for his unapologetic defense of an “illiberal state” and his hard-line immigration policy, framing each as part of the remaking of his country as a stronghold of traditional European culture and identity.

In his recent speeches, Trump, too, was grasping for a larger context for his denunciations of migrants — though with none of Orban’s deftness, instead unspooling increasingly extravagant and explosive conspiracy theories. The border crisis was a deliberate act on the part of the Biden administration, he told his crowds: the second part of a process of disenfranchising Americans and attaining permanent Democratic rule that began with the theft of the 2020 election.

“Biden’s conduct on our border is, by any definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America,” he said in Greensboro, N.C., a week before the Rome rally. “He is a danger to democracy. No.1, he goes after his political opponent, which nobody’s ever done in this country.” But beyond that, he warned, “Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations.”

Now, in Rome, he gazed out at the arena as the crowd held up Laken Riley placards like the one Foley held outside. “You understand what’s happening here,” he told us. “Joe Biden has no remorse. He’s got no regret. He’s got no empathy, no compassion. Worst of all, he has no intention of stopping the deadly invasion that stole precious Laken’s beautiful American life.”

“What Joe Biden has done on our border is a crime against humanity and the people of this nation, for which he will never be forgiven,” he went on. “I will stop this invasion. I’m going to do it. I will stop the killing. I will stop the bloodshed. I will end the agony of our people, the plunder of our cities, the sacking of our towns, the violation of our citizens and the conquest of our country. They’re conquering our country. These people are conquering our country.”

When “Mirrors” came on toward the end, and Trump spoke of our final battle, a young man in the stands behind me bellowed the QAnon rallying cry at the top of his lungs: “Where we go one, we go all!”

“Who are these people that would do this to us?” Trump asked. “Who are these people who would destroy our country?”

“Democrats!” the people around me shouted. A woman behind me held her hands, prayerlike, against her lips.

He seemed reinvigorated that night, speaking for a half-hour longer than usual. He was improvising and digressing again, riffing with the crowd, moving beyond the stock bits that he shuffled around most nights. The crowd, too, seemed electrified in a way I had not seen for years. The lifting up of the martyr, the processing of her death into rage, the processing, through Trump, of the rage into joy — the old alchemy was working again.

On the arena floor, the last stragglers were dancing merrily to a final round of “Y.M.C.A.” and grinning for selfies. Scattered on the floor around their feet were discarded SAY HER NAME placards, Riley’s face limp and sticky with spilled soda. The tiny print near the bottom of her picture was scuffed, but I could still make it out: PAID FOR BY DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT 2024, INC.

Read by Robert Petkoff

Narration produced by Anna Diamond

Engineered by Ted Blaisdell

Charles Homans is a reporter for The Times and The Times Magazine, covering national politics. More about Charles Homans

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  1. How to Write a Division Classification Essay

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  1. Classification Division Essay 1

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  3. Analysis By Division Essay Example

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  5. Technical Writing Classification / Division Essays

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  1. Classification & Division Essay

    A classification and division essay combines two different techniques. First, you would divide a complex and difficult topic into subtopics for clarity and explanation purposes. Next, you would determine what categories are needed and what information fits into those categories. Think of a newspaper. All of the information is divided into ...

  2. How to Write a Classification Essay: Guide & Examples

    Division and classification essays are only slightly different. The items you choose for classification essays must belong to strict and certain categories. They cannot overlap or belong to two different groups. On the other hand, division essays allow the subjects to move from one group to another. They might be divided into different groups ...

  3. Classification and Division Essay ⇒ Writing Guide and Tips

    In classification essays, each body paragraph usually starts with the introduction of one of the categories of your classification. For division essays, it would be one of the parts of the whole. Each category should be accompanied by its characteristics and traits backed up by solid examples. 7. Write the conclusion.

  4. Classification & Division Essay

    In a classification and division essay, it is important that the introduction have three key elements, which are: (1) a thesis statement, (2) a description of the main topic, and (3) the first ...

  5. Classification and Division

    Division and classification thought is a way of organizing and dealing with complex and/or abundant information in order to provide additional understanding. Essays using a classification and division pattern have topic sentences and units of support for each group or class. The topic sentences themselves should have angles that relate back to ...

  6. PDF Classification and Division Guidelines

    essays may use both classification and division in order to make their points. For example, while classification might describe the several types of airplanes according to engine size or engine type or commercial purpose, division would analyze one airplane and discuss its parts: cockpit, wings, wheels, engines.

  7. PDF Division and Classification Essays

    Because division essays examine functionality, they frequently use process as a method. What distinguishes the division essay from the process essay is the focus on the interrelationship of processes both within subsystems and within the total system. Instructions for Developing Division / Classification Essay o Decide on a topic.

  8. Classification Essay: Topics, Outline and Writing Tips

    Classification essay topics. There is a plethora of themes and subjects for division classification essays to choose from, but most of them are hard to think of straight away. That's why we've collected the list of the top used classification topics for you to facilitate the process of generating ideas or searching for ones elsewhere.

  9. Classification and Division Essay

    A classification and division essay combines two different techniques. First, you would divide a complex and difficult topic into subtopics for clarity and explanation purposes. Next, you would determine what categories are needed and what information fits into those categories. Think of a newspaper. All of the information is divided into ...

  10. 10.4 Classification

    Building on Note 10.43 "Exercise 1" and Note 10.46 "Exercise 2", write a five-paragraph classification essay about one of the four original topics. In your thesis, make sure to include the topic, subtopics, and rationale for your breakdown. And make sure that your essay is organized into paragraphs that each describes a subtopic.

  11. How to Develop and Organize a Classification Essay

    Updated on July 03, 2019. Classification is a method of developing an essay by arranging people, objects, or ideas with shared characteristics into particular classes or groups. After you have settled on a topic for a classification essay * and explored it through various prewriting strategies, you should be ready to attempt a first draft.

  12. Classification

    The Structure of a Division/Classification Essay. The classification essay opens with an introductory paragraph that introduces the broader topic. The thesis should then explain how that topic is divided into subgroups and why. Take the following introductory paragraph, for example:

  13. Rhetorical Patterns

    Most classification/division essays are written in the present tense, unless, that is, the principle of classification deals with historical analysis. Finally, the internal logic most readers expect from a classification/division essay results from adherence to three ideas: The principle of classification will produce all the classes and ...

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    Writing Modes and Essay Types: Division and Classification Essays. Classification & Division Essay. From the Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). Classification and Analysis. From the Guide to Grammar. Writing a Classification Paper. From Butte College. Contact library for help.

  15. Outline: Division Essay

    Division Part 1: Name - connect to the key word in your thesis statement. Explain - describe the traits of the subgroup. Illustrate - give a specific example of the subgroup relevant to your audience. Body Paragraph #2: Division Part 2: Name - connect to the key word in your thesis statement. Explain - describe the traits of the subgroup.

  16. 30 Creative Classification & Division Essay Topics

    Using classification essay topics helps you write a great persuasive or argumentative essay. Browse the 30 topics to find the one that interests you most.

  17. 125 Classification and Division Essay Topics

    How to Write a Classification and Division Essay. When it comes to essay writing, each type has its own set of rules and guidelines that need to be followed in order to produce a well-written piece. The same is true for a classification and division essay. Writing the Intro. Classification and division essays all start with an introduction.

  18. PDF The Classification and Division Essay

    Meet the needs of the POD - so for this sample, you would want to name your category, define the category, and then provide two examples. The final sentence of the paragraph is a summation (of the paragraph's topic) and a transition into the next idea. Word choice is "advanced" & reflects a mastery of the language. Voice is evident ...

  19. How To Write A Division Classification Essay

    The body paragraphs. The paragraphs that you write in your classification division essays must discuss your thesis statement exhaustively. To achieve this, every paragraph should have a topic sentence is discusses. The topic sentence is explained through the description and illustration using details.

  20. Peer Review: Classification/Division Essay

    Peer Review: Classification/Division Essay. VI. Writing a Problem-Solution Essay. VII. Writing a Problem-Solution Essay. VIII. Writing a Definition Essay. 25. Writing a Definition Essay. 26. Model Definition Essay. 27. Writing a Definition Essay - Option 2. 28. Student Definition Essays. 29. Handout for Essay Outline. 30. Peer Review Sheet.

  21. How Trump's Rhetoric at Rallies Has Escalated

    The man himself appeared at 10:14 p.m., strolling into the ballroom from somewhere in the private depths of the club. For a strange moment he stood there, alone and mostly unnoticed in the doorway ...