Transcript Exemplification: Writing Essays With Vivid Examples and

Exemplification: Writing Essays With
Vivid Examples and Illustrations
Why We Use Examples
To persuade skeptical readers
who are reluctant to accept
your viewpoint
To show a causal relationship
To be more interesting and
take the reader beyond a
telling statement
Help to explain or clarify an
abstraction
To avoid unintended ambiguity
Forms of Examples
Specific names (people, places, products)
Anecdotes
Personal observations
Expert opinions (from outside sources, interviews)
Facts
Statistics
Case studies via research
Example Types
Personal-case examples
Typical-case examples
Hypothetical examples
Generalized examples
Extended examples
1. Personal-experience
Examples
From your own life
Lend personal authority
Create drama
2. Typical-case Examples
Objective in nature: can be especially
convincing
About an actual event/situation, but you
didn’t directly experience it.
Source could be newspapers,
magazines, television
3. Hypothetical Examples
Speculative, but be sure it’s conceivable
Might ask the reader to imagine a
scenario
Be sure to acknowledge that your
example is invented

“suppose that…” or “let’s for a
moment assume that…”
Ex:
4. Generalized Examples
Composite of the typical
and usual


Ex: “all of us, at one time
or another, have been
driven to distraction by a
trivial annoyance like the
buzzing of a fly or the
sting of a paper cut.”
Ex: “when most people
get a compliment, they
perk up, preen, and think
the praise-giver is
blessed with astute
power of observation.”
5. Extended Examples
Employ many details
and specifics
Last an entire
paragraph
Sometimes can
encompass the entire
essay, but must be
significant to stand
alone as the only
example
Effective Examples Should:
Be relevant; Have direct
bearing on the subject
Be dramatic
Be accurate (esp. When
using facts, figures,
statistics)
Be non-contradictory
Avoid sweeping
generalizations at all costs,
for they do not convince
readers
Effective Examples Should:
Be representative: avoid oddball or onein-a-million types of examples; They
distort and are not honest

Ex: if writing a paper on the difficulties of
getting through college and you use the
example of a student who works 35 hours
a week and still gets straight A’s, that’s not
typical or representative. It does not
exemplify what MOST students experience.
Effective Examples Should:
Use an organizational approach:




Chronological
Spatial
Simple to complex
Emphatic sequence
Recognize & Use Key Words
For example,
For instance,
First, second, third
Next, in addition