Exemplification

Exemplification is the use of examples to illustrate an idea,

an opinion, or a generalization.

While all essays use examples to give specific details and clarify points, an exemplification or illustration essay relies primarily on examples.

Exemplification can be used for a variety of purposes.

To entertain To share feelings

To inform To persuade

Types of Examples Examples that illustrate - use

concrete examples to illustrate an idea.

Examples that explain – give an explanation to illustrate a concept.

Examples that tell a story - use a short story to illustrate a point.

Examples that describe - use examples to make help the reader visualize a scene or a thing.

Examples that Illustrate

. . . Muslim women are active, assertive and engaged in society. In Qatar, women make up the majority of graduate-school students. The Iranian parliament has more women members than the U.S. Senate. Throughout the world, many Muslim women are educated and professionally trained; they participate in public debates, are often catalysts for reform and champions for their own rights.

Examples that explain

But I came to realize that those husbands who helped very little at home were often just as deeply affected as their wives—through the resentment their wives felt toward them and through their own need to steel themselves against that resentment.

Examples that tell a story

One day, rushing into the office

of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. The office manager called security and, with an ad hoc posse, pursued me through the labyrinthine halls, nearly to me editor’s door.

Examples that describe

In Berkeley, there are wheelchair users on ever corner. Propped in sagging hospital-issue chairs. Space-age sports chairs. Motor-driven dreadnoughts.

Length of Examples Brief Examples – often several of

these are used together to illustrate one point.

Extended Examples – the longer the example, the fewer examples you need. One extended narrative example may illustrate your point adequately.

Brief Examples

There are simply some things that fat people must never do.

Like: riding a bike (“Hey lady, where’s the seat?”), eating in a public place (“No dessert for me, I don’t want to look like her”). And the most unforgivable crime: wearing a bathingsuit in public (“Whale on the beach!”).

Extended Example

Worst of all, the problem was not corrected. At one of my check ups, I told the doctor that my implants were getting hard again. He said, “Vogues aren’t supposed to do that.” I said, “They’re not Vogues, they’re the Meme.” He told me he had put in a Vogue [another polyurethane-coated silicone implant] instead because he thought it would be better for me. . . .

Examples come from a variety of sources:

Personal experience

Observation

General Knowledge

Reading or Research

Personal experience:

When producer Julia Chasman and I wanted to film Christine Bell’s The Perez Family, a studio head told us bluntly, “Who wants to see a movie about a bunch of Cubans?”

Observation:

Girls’ clothing is available in two styles: “gangsta” or “whore,” always with those two distinctive hallmarks of teen clothing—cheap fabric, poor workmanship.

General Knowledge:

Teenagers are under daily assault, all right—by us, the grown-ups. We design their clothes, manufacture and sell them their guns, produce the music that functions as the soundtrack for their lives, and control every aspect of their sprawling mega-high schools.

Reading or research:

Between 1940 and 1990, the number of elementary and secondary public schools nationwide plummeted 69 percent, despite a 70 percent rise in U.S. population.

Hypothetical Examples

In addition to facts and observations, examples can be hypothetical, that is made-up based on probability or made-up to make a point.

Hypothetical Examples

One is hard-pressed to find an article, book or film about women in Islam that doesn’t have “veil” in the title: “Behind the Veil,” “Beyond the Veil,” “At the Drop of a Veil” and more. The use of the term borders on the absurd: perhaps next will come “What Color is Your Veil?’ or “Rebel Without a Veil” or “Whose Veil Is It, Anyway?”

Common Transitions to Show an Example

For example

Such as

For instance

Similarly

Logical Order

In an exemplification essay, the most common order is emphatic order: Least to most.

Exemplification is used in all disciplines.

Political Science: define a republic and give examples

Literature: analyze a symbol giving examples from a text to support your analysis

Art: Describe a movement in art history and give examples of specific works to illustrate the movement

The End