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During Week 2, there are a few tasks you must accomplish--most of which involve using the quiz module in WebCT.  First, be sure you've read all the hyperlinked pages off of the WebCT Central page.  Once you have completed those readings, continue with the following tasks:

Terms to know:

In this exemplification essay, you will employ a little narrative writing in your introductory paragraph of the exemplification essay by composing a brief anecdote as a hook, an attention-grabber that is intended to draw in the reader.  Also this assignment will reflect the essay structure that we discussed a couple weeks ago, namely that it contains a declarative thesis statement.

The Expository Mode (view PowerPoint lecture presentation above)

Exemplification, or exposition, is actually a rhetorical mode of writing--just like narratives (where the writer primarily tells a story) or description (were the writer is concerned about "painting" a word picture for the reader).  Remember, a rhetorical mode just means the method a writer employs to get her information across to her audience.  Throughout the semester you will use different rhetorical modes to express your thoughts.  The expository mode is a general category under which we can lump more specific modes like comparison and contrast, process and analysis, classification, definition, classification, exemplification, and others.  Notice that your textbook is organized around these different rhetorical modes and the essays within these sections are meant to represent that method of arranging ideas.  The term expository mainly means that you are exposing information; that's why all these other modes can fit nicely under the term expository: they are all different methods of explaining or exposing information.

The exemplification mode derives from the word example, so in this assignment you are working on the skill of offering examples to back up your claims.  This essay uses a structure that is basic to all well-written essays, and if you can master this essay type quickly, you will have an easy time working in the other essay modes.  If you were merely to make a claim without providing some evidence or support or something concrete to illustrate what you mean, then readers will not take you seriously.  They're going to write you off as someone who generalizes (that's never a good reputation to get in life), so you have to come up with specifics to back-up your claims.  Generalizations are never convincing by themselves, and they are a sign that the writer lacks critical thinking skills or may be a lazy thinker at the very least or poorly educated in the extreme.

Organization (order of importance)

Another fundamental skill you will be practicing in this essay is that of organization.  I will evaluate this skill at both the paragraph level and the sentence level.

At the paragraph level, you will need to consider the order in which you present your sub-claims that support your thesis statement.  Writers call this the order of importance, and 3 basic methods exist: chronological, ascending, descending.

Chronological order of importance is mainly used in narration because events have to be told from beginning to end.  It also is used in process-analysis essays because the sequence of steps is crucial to the understanding of your message.  Chronological order also is employed in the cause and effect rhetorical mode since one thing leads to another.

With ascending and descending order of importance chronology or time sequence does not matter.  What's more important is the degree of the sub-claims.  In the ascending order of importance organizational method, you arrange the paragraphs from least significant to most significant so that the reader is left with the strongest point you have to make.  Your points gradually build up to a powerful, loud crescendo at the end of your essay.  On the other hand descending order of importance organization works in the opposite direction.  The main body paragraphs begin with the most compelling reason or point and gradually work down to the least important point.  Above all, do not just randomly toss your reasons or examples into the main body section.  Careful readers will detect that this is a sloppy arrangement and give up reading if they have to struggle with your lack of organization.

To help convey to your audience the significance of your sub-claims, use transitional words such as "One of the most important reasons..."  or "Another compelling example is..." or "Although faulty street lights contribute to neighborhood car thefts, pure forgetfulness gives thieves a prime opportunity to steal cars effortlessly." 

Notice that this last sentence in blue functions as a transitional sentence as well.  It bridges the main point of the previous paragraph to the main point of the current paragraph.  If this sentence were in an essay on the reasons cars get stolen, it is plain to see that "driver forgetfulness" could be the biggest reason cars get stolen.  Under this claim, you could list several concrete examples or illustrations to make your point clear:

1. drivers who leave their door unlocked
2. drivers who leave the keys in the seat while they dash into the 7-11 store for a quick candy bar
3. drivers who leave the keys in the ignition with the engine running

In these 3 internal examples for this paragraph, each is an example of an increasingly more stupid mistake.  The unlocked car is an invitation to steal a car, but the thief has to hotwire the vehicle.  In the most severe case of forgetfulness (i.e. stupidity), the driver has practically handed the car over to the thief because the driver would never hear the sound of the engine turning over.  Hence, I have internally used ascending order of importance at the sentence level to illustrate my examples of forgetfulness.

Finally, understand the difference between a generalization and a detail.  The topic of this paragraph is on driver forgetfulness.  But such a claim as the blue topic sentence above is not sufficient on its own.  The writer must back it up with evidence.  That's were the details come in.  The unlocked door, the keys in the seat, and the keys in the ignition are all examples of forgetfulness (and stupidity, some people might argue).  And there is a third level: the explanation.  Each of these examples or details need some explaining, so the writer should elaborate on what she means.  Consider the following diagram to help you visualize what a well developed paragraph can look like.  Keep in mind, though, paragraphs are not formulaic; however this diagram is just meant as an example:

Taken together all of these skills will help you be more conscientious about your prose as you work on this and future essay assignments.