How to Write an Exemplification Essay?
What Is an Exemplification Essay?
An exemplification essay is a kind of paper in which the writer tries to prove their argument with the help of multiple examples. In normal argumentative essays, writers have to prove their points with the help of evidence that they extract from reliable sources. But, in an exemplification essay, the writer has to prove their argument using examples as support material. Now, these examples cannot be vague, fake, or irrelevant. They have to be relevant to the topic of the essay and should help the writer prove their point.
Providing examples is the best way to explain a certain concept. For example, if you are a research student who does not know how to write a literature review, you can look at some examples to have an idea of the structure and format. You can also use accurate anecdotes, facts, and findings in your exemplification essay to better explain its purpose and main idea.
How to Write an Exemplification Essay?
So, here’s how to write an exemplification essay that would score well:
Choosing a Topic
First, the writer has to choose a topic according to their exemplification essay’s main idea or theme. If your course instructor or professor has already provided you with a topic, skip this step. After choosing a topic, you can make a list of examples that you can use to support the main purpose or argument of your exemplification essay.
Writing the Introduction and Thesis Statement
After choosing a topic, you have to write an introduction paragraph. Here, you have to discuss the background of your topic. In the end, you must include your essay’s thesis statement. It is a 1-2 sentence long statement in which the writer must state the exemplification essay’s main idea, purpose, or argument. It should be absolutely clear and concise.
Writing Body Paragraphs
Here, you have to support every sub-argument of yours with the help of examples. Each body paragraph should have a topic sentence that states the sub-argument. Apart from including examples, you can also mention accurate facts and figures to support your argument.
Conclusion
Summarise all arguments and points of your essay concisely. You can also restate some important facts. Lastly, end this section with a conclusive statement.
Proofreading
A good writer always prepares multiple drafts of their work. Proofread your essay frequently and edit it accordingly.
Exemplification Essay Introduction
The introduction of your exemplification essay should instantly grab the reader’s attention. Thus, it should be written based on the interests of your target audience. Hook your reader with the very first sentence of your introduction paragraph. Use a very interesting fact or a thought provoking question to make that happen. In other words, how well you hook your target audience depends on how creative you can be.
Next, disclose the background information about the topic of your exemplification essay. This will help the readers better understand the examples, which you’ll discuss later in the body paragraphs. You can also add some interesting facts and statistics to give users better insight into the topic. They will help you explain the background of the topic a lot better.
Last but not the least, you’ll have to include the thesis statement of your exemplification essay at the end of your introduction paragraph.
Exemplification Essay Thesis Statement
The thesis statement of your exemplification essay should just be one sentence long. You are only allowed to exceed the length of your thesis statement to two sentences if your essay topic is very long and complicated. Your thesis statement sets the foundation on which you’ll build your exemplification essay. It also reflects the entire structure of your write-up.
Every example you intend to include in your essay should relate to your thesis statement. Examples can be in the form of a question, personal opinion, statement, or observation. However, you must discuss each properly.
But there sure are a few things you have to consider before writing a thesis statement. You should begin by determining the type of niche you’re working on. Also, if you are writing a lengthy exemplification essay with a lot of information and topics, then its thesis statement should be detailed as well. Your thesis, too, should cover more arguments and facts as concisely as possible. If your exemplification essay is not that extensive, you can shorten the thesis statement to just one sentence.
A thesis statement helps readers dissect and understand your exemplification essay. It explains the outline and purpose of the essay to the readers in a concise manner. Make sure you keep track of all the sources and examples used to make your research and argument more relevant.
Many students place the thesis statement anywhere in the introductory section of their exemplification essay. However, our academic writing experts recommend including the thesis at the end of the introduction. This helps the reader understand the main idea of your essay right before they read the body paragraphs.
Exemplification Essay Body
These are the paragraphs where you will explain multiple arguments with the help of facts, statistics, and examples. To write well-detailed and accurate body paragraphs, make sure you’re using the right sources to extract information. Only use reliable and highly ranked scholarly papers and journals to extract facts, figures, and findings for your exemplification essay. Otherwise, your professor won’t rate your paper highly, as the information might be incorrect. The credibility and quality of your essay will improve significantly if you include authentic research materials. This is why professors love exemplification essays written by our academic experts.
You should mention a maximum of two examples in every paragraph. Also, those examples should be accurate and relevant to the argument. Otherwise, it will be really hard for readers to understand the message you’re trying to deliver.
Moreover, students often forget to add topic sentences in every paragraph of their exemplification essay. This is a huge mistake because topic sentences are as important as the thesis statement. They increase students’ understanding of the examples and information mentioned in your exemplification essay.
Ending each paragraph by connecting it with the upcoming argument is also important. Disjointed paragraphs affect the overall readability of your exemplification essay. Also, make sure the examples are mentioned in the right order.
How do you End an Exemplification essay? Conclusion
Many students miss out on the importance of a good conclusion section. Often, they are unable to summarise the content of their essay properly and instead add unnecessary information, which can confuse the readers. You wouldn’t want to ruin your efforts to write a great introduction and well-detailed body paragraphs with a substandard conclusion.
If you want to write a good conclusion, you should summarise the content of your exemplification essay. This section does not need extra information, facts, or statistics. You should also avoid adding more examples here.
Instead, paraphrase and restate the thesis statement and link it to a conclusive statement. This should help you tell the readers what you’ve achieved through your research. Lastly, briefly restate and connect all the examples mentioned in your exemplification essay and connect them to the thesis and conclusive statement. You have to make sure that not even a single doubt is left in the readers’ minds after reading your exemplification essay.
Things to Keep in Mind While Writing Exemplification Essay
1: Start your exemplification essay with a generalised statement about the topic
2: After writing a generalised statement, elaborate on it with the help of facts, figures, and examples. Remember, though, that the material you’re using to expand the generalisation should be relevant to the main idea or argument of the essay
3: Organise the examples according to the arguments
4: Add a topic sentence to each body paragraph. All such sentences should support the main thesis statement of your essay
5: Research a lot and extract information from trustworthy sources. Use Google Scholar to find sources relevant to the topic of your exemplification essay
Example of an Informal Exemplification Essay
Introduction – Thesis Statement: Caffeine artificially affects blood circulation and pressure in your body, so you can improve physical and mental health by avoiding coffee.
Example 1: Let’s say you have a very important exam coming up, and you are staying up all night to study. Well, by doing this, you’ll make things worse. You will feel sleepy and stressed throughout the exam.
Example 2: Excessive caffeine intake can also ruin memory retrieval. Students who compromise their sleep to study for their exams or presentation often forget something important.
Example 3: Caffeine is also dangerous for your heart. This is why heart diseases are becoming more common in young individuals.
Conclusion: Instead of relying on caffeine, you can consume different types of food to help you stay energetic and active all day. Get sufficient sleep instead of trying to stay up all night.
Steps for Writing an Exemplification Essay
1. Pick a Topic
If your professor has assigned you a subject or topic on which to write an exemplification essay, you might already have a set of generalisations in place. You can just build your essay by using those as the foundation and support it with the help of relevant and clear examples. But, if your professor has just provided you with a theme, then you will have to come up with both a topic and its generalisations. Then, you’ll also have to defend those generalisations with the help of well-explained examples.
2. Determine the Purpose of Your Essay
To keep your audience interested, you should discuss the purpose of your generalisation first. If your essay’s purpose is unclear, why would anyone want to read it? It would help to determine the angle of the generalisation you want to present to your target audience. If you don’t have a crystal-clear purpose for your exemplification essay, you won’t be able to find the right examples, either. Also, you’ll be able to write a much better thesis statement when you are aware of the purpose of writing it.
3. Consider Your Target Audience
Depending upon the theme or topic, you should determine the target audience of your essay. You should write and structure the content of your essay according to the perceptions, beliefs, and feelings of your target audience. While supporting your generalisation with the help of examples, you should always consider how the reader would feel while reading your essay. You also have to see whether the audience will understand and relate to the examples in your essay.
4. List Examples According to Your Generalisation
You’ll be supporting your generalisation with the help of a certain number of examples in the body paragraphs of your exemplification essay. Don’t add too many, or just skimp and go ahead with too few. Initially, you should find out many examples to support the generalisation. Create a list of examples that are relevant to the theme and purpose of your exemplification essay. Also include facts, statistics, and anecdotes like short stories or case studies. Then weed out the weakest ones. Obviously, you should avoid using information that goes against the theme or purpose of your essay.
5. Pick Examples from the List According to Your Purpose
The amount of examples in your exemplification essay depends upon the length suggested by your professor in the requirements. However, you will have to select a few examples from the list you made in the previous step. Make sure that the examples support your generalisation in the best way possible. Also, relevancy and accuracy are key. If your example contradicts reality or if it isn’t relevant to the purpose of your essay, the reader won’t rate your work highly.
6. Write a Thesis Statement
The thesis statement is the heart of every type of essay. It is a one- or two-sentence long statement containing the main idea or argument of your exemplification essay. It lays the foundation for your sub-arguments. However, it’s extremely crucial for the thesis statement to be absolutely precise. You cannot add unnecessary content to it. Once you have mentioned your essay’s main idea or purpose, you can start working on the body paragraphs.
7. Write the Introductory Section
The introduction paragraph of your essay should instantly grab the reader’s attention. Otherwise, your target audience won’t be interested enough to read your essay. These days, people have a very short attention span. This is why you have to hook your audience’s attention in the first sentence of your introduction paragraph. At the end of the introduction, add the thesis statement. A good introduction keeps the reader engaged and motivated to read your entire essay.
8. Write Properly Structured and Well Detailed Paragraphs
No matter how well-researched your exemplification essay might be, your professor won’t rate your work highly if its body paragraphs are not structured properly. At the beginning of every paragraph, write the topic sentence, where you have to state the sub-argument you’re explaining and supporting in the paragraph.
You should discuss a different sub-argument or point in each paragraph. Then, support them with examples, anecdotes, facts, and statistics. Then, add a transitional statement at the end of the paragraph.
9. Organise Your Examples
The organisation is extremely important in any academic paper. You have to arrange your arguments, examples, facts, and findings in such a way that your message gets delivered to your target audience with clarity. You need to categorise your examples and arrange them in a proper order to avoid any confusion on the readers’ end. Exemplification essays help the reader understand a topic clearly with the help of examples. So, make sure you’re ensuring clarity in your essay’s content.
10. Use Transitional Words Where Necessary
One mistake that many students make while writing their exemplification essay is that they don’t use enough transitional words in their content. This disrupts the continuity of the content and affects readability as well. So, we recommend you use transitional words like “however”, “moreover”, and “therefore” to improve the continuity and readability of the content of your exemplification essay. At the end of each body paragraph, you should also add transitional phrases to connect one paragraph to another.
11. Conclude Your Essay Perfectly
You cannot afford to mess up the conclusion of your exemplification essay. This is a section where you have to summarise all of your arguments and points. Do not add any new information in the conclusion paragraph of your essay, or you’ll end up confusing the reader. If necessary, you can restate some pivotal facts and figures here. Finally, you should conclude this section with a statement. The conclusion section should be very precise, and there should be no room for unnecessary information. ‘
Exemplification Essay Examples
Introduction
Comparing this year to 2020, we see there were more than 600,000 fewer students enrolled in colleges. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) states that the number of students enrolled in college lowered to 16.9 million–a decrease of around 3.5 percent and the biggest decline in the past decade. There are different factors behind this decline. However, the increase in tuition fees and other educational expenses yearly is probably the biggest reason for this decline.
At this moment, the inflation rate is extremely high, which makes it difficult for students to afford college.
So, is this decline a temporary issue, or do students not consider degrees important anymore? While the impact of these degrees can be felt in most places, companies nowadays look for employees with more practical experience. Considering how important hands-on experience and practical skills are these days, college degrees could be losing importance.
Body Paragraph 1
Let’s consider the following example. For instance, you are pursuing a career in Artificial Intelligence. First, you’ll need to spend at least 3-4 years in college and get a Bachelor’s degree. You will learn fundamental concepts about the field and gain basic practical skills. Then, you will go for a Master’s degree program to learn more about the field and develop a more advanced skillset. This career path can take around 6 years, while technology keeps advancing from the day you started college till now. Sadly, most universities are unable to keep up with technological trends.
So, it’s possible that most of the concepts you’ve learnt in college might be outdated in the professional world. This is why students drop out of college and learn skills separately, i.e., because they want to possess better practical skills. After all, that’s who most companies would prefer to hire.
Body Paragraph 2
According to the previous example, we can establish that university degrees are not evolving fast enough to deal with the requirements of IT firms. Also, considering how much students have to spend on tuition fees, it’s quite clear that, with time, getting a degree won’t be a viable option. Instead, they opt for more convenient and affordable alternatives like specialisations and professional certifications.
While you have to spend thousands of dollars on your degree, you just have to spend a few hundred bucks to get a certification. Also, you can complete a professional certificate or specialisation within a year. It means you could become a certified expert and be job-ready in a year. Thus, keep opting for more certifications to progress in your career. Websites like Udacity, Udemy, and Coursera offer many courses and certificate programs through which you can develop in-demand skills.
Body Paragraph 3
Another reason why we don’t recommend students to opt for long and expensive degree programs is that most companies don’t even require a degree these days. They would happily hire individuals without a college degree but with multiple professional certificates for different skills. For example, let’s say you have a Computer Science degree from a random university in the UK. You have applied for a job in one of the leading IT firms in the country.
There’s another candidate with no degree but multiple professional certifications, allowing them to master multiple skills. If the company had to choose between the two of you, they would certainly pick the candidate with no degree but multiple professional certificates.
Conclusion
Opting for a student loan just to get a degree from college is not the right decision. You need to spend on things that give back the most value. Unfortunately, getting an undergraduate or postgraduate degree doesn’t result in better job opportunities these days. You can get enrolled in multiple professional certification programs offered by some of the leading firms in the world for the price you pay for studying in a college for one semester. You will also easily land a high-paying job because your expertise and practical knowledge will be significantly better than a college graduate.
How to Write an Exemplification Essay Outline
No matter how good an exemplification essay’s content might be, your professor may reject it immediately if it isn’t structured properly. So, here’s how to write an exemplification essay outline:
Introduction
Hook
Background
Thesis Statement
1st Body Paragraph
1st Example
2nd example
Transition
2nd Body Paragraph
1st Example
2nd example
Transition
3rd Body Paragraph
1st Example
2nd example
Transition
Conclusion
You should discuss the main purpose of the exemplification essay in its summary. Also include the findings and facts you mentioned in the body paragraphs.
When ending your essay, do so with a logical and clear concluding statement. You can also mention future research recommendations in this part.
Writing a Thesis for Exemplification Essay
To write the perfect thesis statement for an exemplification essay, you should be extremely clear and knowledgeable about the topic and purpose. Otherwise, your target audience won’t be interested in reading it. The thesis statement of your essay should be just 1 to 2 sentences long. It should explain the main idea of your essay briefly and concisely. Normally, academic writers add the thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph. You can do that. However, you’ll still have to support the thesis statement throughout the essay with the help of arguments, examples, and evidence. If your thesis statement is not well-written, your essay will fail to impact your target audience.
Exemplification Essay Topics
Don’t have a topic to write an exemplification essay on? Don’t worry about it! We have compiled an amazing list of topics for the exemplification essay. We have organised it on the basis of the theme of commonly given topics of exemplification essays:
Educational Topics (Exemplification)
1: What are the different types of literature?
2: Does music enhance learning for students?
3: Is it possible to succeed in your career without a college degree?
4: Should students evaluate their teachers?
5: Do students in schools with only one gender learn better?
6: Should the minimum admission requirements for all universities and colleges be the same?
7: Does gender discrimination exist at universities and colleges?
8: The effect of historical context on various types of creative writing
9: Are teachers addressing the issue of bullying in schools effectively enough?
10: What effect does bullying have on children?
Culture Topics (Exemplification)
1: How do companies use cultural norms to attract audiences from diverse regions?
2: Sexism and racism in different cultures and regions
3: Does the media portray Islamic culture accurately?
4: Is racism a part of British culture?
5: Why is Britain the most culturally diverse place to study?
6: How to use technology to improve cultural diversity
7: Which countries have the most unusual cultural norms?
8: Do we follow Christian scripture strictly?
9: Ethics and morals in various regions and cultures
10: Does your culture influence your personality?
Political Topics (Exemplification)
1:Why do different governments approach the spreading of COVID in different ways?
2: Presidents who are younger are more efficient than those who are older
3: Should voting in elections be done online?
4: Is there a link between immigration and terrorism?
5: Should citizens give up some of their privacy to get more security?
6: Why do political movements often fail to make an impact?
7: How crucial are effective communication skills for politicians these days?
8: Do election forecasts influence voters’ choices?
9: The First Lady’s role in modern politics
10: How should the government spend the annual budget to benefit citizens?
Social Topics (Exemplification)
1: Do children grow up too quickly due to technology?
2: Why is it always easier to apologise to someone who is aware of their mistakes?
3: Is it possible to live without making new friends?
4: Should children be punished physically?
5: The impact of frequent moving on children
6: Does bribing children to behave lead to any improvement in their personalities?
7: How do cell phones ruin relationships?
8: Is gender discrimination common in offices these days?
9: How to communicate confidently
10: How to manage your personal and job life
Technology Topics (Exemplification)
1: Should people under the age of 18 be barred from using social media sites?
2: Are internet reviews reliable?
3: Is it true that being more connected online makes people feel lonelier?
4: Can voice assistants influence our decisions in the future?
5: Can technology lead to the end of manual labour jobs?
6: Will self-driving cars make human drivers obsolete?
7: Is end-to-end encryption the best and safest method of securing private messages?
8: Do users care about cybersecurity threats?
9: Could installing hidden cameras in schools be a solution to stopping shootings and attacks?
10: Is it possible to tackle data protection issues?