Posted: June 30th, 2015

Classification Essay

Classification Essay

 

CLASSIFICATION

You will do a five paragraph minimum 1,000 word essay in the classification style. 

Classification is a simple process we do every day. We sort out the laundry by grouping all the dark clothes, the white clothes, and the “medium” clothes. When we fill out a government form, occasionally we are asked whether we are Caucasian, Asian, or African-American. When we go to a restaurant, the waiter might ask whether we want a red wine, white, or rosé. These are all “types” or classifications of a larger group. Mathematically, we might call them subsets. In essay writing, we write about these classifications, sometimes called divisions. It is a scientific form of writing that takes an ability to outline before jumping into the drafting stages.

First, you select the main topic, such as CARS. Next, you pick a way to categorize cars, such as PRICE. Then, you divide the big topic into three categories, such as what KIND of cars could there be? Then, we begin to name specific kinds of cars within each category. Let’s do a diagram to show you how to go about this.

I. CARS—Way we are categorizing: PRICE

A. Paragraph 1 of Body: Expensive

§ Specific examples: Mercedes, Porsche, Rolls Royce.

§ Give information on each one and discuss expensive features that each one has, such as the type of expensive engine, comfort features, such as electric seat adjustments and temperature controls, and fine stereos

B. Paragraph 2 of Body: Moderate

§ Specific examples: Camry, Accord, Mazda 626.

§ Give details on the kinds of features these cars have in comparison to the expensive ones. What type of engine, seats, stereos, “extras” do they offer?

C. Paragraph 3 of Body: Cheap

§ Specific examples: Hyundai, Yugo, Honda Civic.

§ Give information on the inexpensive features. What is their stereo like, their seats, their engine, and so on.

Then, you construct your introduction and conclusion, and you are ready to start the refining process to finish up and hand it in!

REMEMBER: There must be the following parts to your essay:

1. Overall large category

2. Way of breaking down into three subcategories, such as Price

3. Three categories

4. Three examples for each category

5. Information that is similar for each example to the other categories.

You can do this in many ways. You can take the same category of CARS and do it another way:

I. CARS—Way we are categorizing: FUNCTION

A. Sports

§ Specific examples: Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar.

§ Main features of this category: speed, “feel” of the car, engine features

B. Outdoor Activities

§ Specific Examples: Recreational vehicles such as Suburbans, Ford Expedition, Chevrolet Blazers.

§ Main feature of this group: hauling capacity, space inside of the car to put equipment, children, camping gear, sports gear, Items for driving long distance: built-in televisions and VCRs, ice chests, and so forth.

C. Luxury

§ Specific Examples: Lexus, Mercedes (top models), Lincoln Towncar.

§ Main features: luxuries such as electric seat adjustment, memorized presets for each driver, temperature controls for each passenger, leather interiors, deluxe stereos, and so on.

There are many other ways to break down a car classification. Just look up cars in a search on the Internet, and you’ll see many categories to choose from. The same can be done for almost any large category, even people. There are many types of people aside from ethnic groups. You can categorize people by personality, work habits, professions, styles of dress, and so forth. Pick a topic that interests you, and if you have a question as to how to organize it, let me know, and I’ll help steer you in the right direction.
Choose a topic and write your own classification essay. Email me if you are not sure your idea is on the right track.

Suggestions: For all papers, give a minimum of two examples within each category and discuss their characteristics as they fit in the category. Do not just describe the category in general.

*** Please do NOT select Breakfast Foods as a topic. It is so overdone on the Internet.

1) Types of stores
2) Types of restaurants or bars
3) Types of movies, tv shows, or books. Could be broken down into categories such as dramas, cop shows, detective shows, news programs, dramas, children’s shows, sports shows, reality shows and so on
4) Types of animals (dogs, cats, birds, fish, and so on)
5) Types of sports (water sports, ball sports, field sports, and so on)
7) Types of clothing (work, dressy, casual, athletic…)
8) Types of food
9) Types of recreation
10) Types of attractions (zoos, museums, parks, amusement parks…)

11) Others? Ask to make sure you are on the right track.

Classification Examples #1

 

Cajun, Creole, and Soul Cooking by Nadine Anthony

Southern Louisiana is one of the most bountiful seafood areas in the world, rivaling Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy.New Orleans, in fact, has become the most cosmopolitan and sophisticated seafood center in the world today.Tourists and visitors from all over the world stream to the New Orleans Gulf state by the millions. As far back as 1856, William Thackeray wrote: “In New Orleans you can eat a bouillabaisse than which a better was never eaten in Marseilles.”The heights to which the Cajun, Creole, and Soul food cooks have brought the art of preparing these gifts of the sea are unsurpassed by any single country’s cuisine. A recipe is a poor dead thing.It’s the cook who takes the cold dead formula and twists and shapes it who is the true culinary artist, measuring in a palm or with a pinch rather than a teaspoon or tablespoon.No two of these cooks ever do any one thing just alike, or, for that matter, exactly the same way twice. Vague quantities are “a little, some more, enough.” If asking how long to cook it:”till it’s done.”Although many of these three cultures and cooking systems have become so intermingled, visitors find it difficult to tell them apart.However, native Louisianians will beg to differ.It is this diversity, along with their cultural differences, which culminate the backbone of Cajun, Creole, and Soul specialties.

First, the “melting pot” of Creoles resides mostly inner city surrounding the Gulf and Mississippi River.The Spanish word, Criollo, was transformed by the French into Creole.This came to signify just about everything that came from Louisiana, white, black, and mixed blood Creoles, “free people of color.” Creoles of New Orleans and their Creole cuisine stem from the French, Spanish, Indians, African-Americans, Germans, Irish, Italian, and a variety of descendants from the islands of the West Indies and Caribbean.Broken or slain French is commonly spoken among elderly Creoles.The visual architecture ranges from a French city of cottages, wooden houses, and plantation homes, to a Spanish city of heavily walled brick houses, tiled roofs, wide arches, and spacious patios and courtyards.The focal center of Creole existence is la famille.All of life rotates around the family. Their social lives include continuous celebrations, banquets, balls, parades, and displays of pomp and circumstance. Most are deeply religious within the Catholic Church and strong believers in higher education.Skilled in masonry, carpentry, or prominent as doctors, lawyers, dentists, artists, writers, and musicians.Creole dishes are plentiful in freshly chopped herbs including onion, green onion, bell pepper, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and on occasion, sassafras (filé). Creole dishes primarily offer seafood in some form – shrimp, crabs, oysters, crawfish, and saltwater fishes.The most famous dish is a pot of gumbo.The aforementioned seafood along with a variety of bite-size pork, beef, and chicken portions, combine with a dark brown roux to create one hell of a stew. Second to gumbo, is jambalaya.Contents mirror that of gumbo, with the replacement of a tomato sauce in a smaller quantity than the roux, thus creating a hearty “fried-rice” type dish. My favorite is any dish containing crawfish: crawfish bisque (red gravy), étouffée (brown gravy), boiled, fried, or stuffed in green peppers.Since New Orleans does everything with flair and gusto, it earned the distinctive title and commonly referred to as “The City That Care Forgot.” Whether it’s the sounds of smooth relaxing jazz or down-home dirty blues, an old Creole proverb aptly applies:”C’est bon comme la vie” – It’s as good as life itself.

Also important were the Acadians of Nova Scotia whom we commonly refer to as the Cajuns of Louisiana.The name Akkad is derived from an Algonquin Indian word, the name of a small river on the peninsula. The Acadians were strongly French, Catholic, and proud. Cajun cuisine stems from the French and Spanish settlers who contributed hot peppers and vibrant spices.Cajuns can be found predominantly down in the bayou country, along the southernmost Mississippi and “Acadian Coast”, and along the swampy marshland parishes. Cajuns carved pirogues out of cypress logs to travel up and down a-visiting their “cousines down de bayou.”Although mostly isolated, the Cajuns call everybody cousin.Skilled as hunters, trappers, and fishermen, their rural cottages and shacks were among the fresh and saltwater fishes, plus turtles, frogs, rabbits, deer, raccoons, alligator, wild turkey, duck and geese.Creative in their husky country cooking, Cajuns are both rich and rambunctious. Less inhibited and more daring and inventive, Cajuns use more!More variety of meat selections, more spices, more herbs, more hot peppers, more rice, and more gusto.Some of the greatest dishes of Cajun origin include frog legs piquante, turtle soup, turtle stew, barbecued deer and alligator, and rice sausage.  Cajun zydeco musicians provide music for dance. Their melodic, hard-driven beat bounces, jumps, swings and sways, laughs and cries, making even conventional jazz bands seem slow.

Equally important are the Soul and foods contributed by African-Americans.  These free people of color are descendants of slaves. These African-Americans sharecroppers cleared the plantations, worked them, made the bricks, forged and cast the wrought iron and cast iron balconies, and built the mansions in the French Quarter.The women were cooks in private homes, in restaurants, on plantations, as well as in their own homes.To the herbs and spices of Cajuns and Creoles, they added a big dash of Love, what is known today as “soul.” In some old Creole families, the black cook was considered a member of la famille.When she died, she was buried in the family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery.Like the Creoles, African-Americans held the family first.They lived in quarters on plantations or on the outskirts of town in small flats. Although African-Americans also hunted, they grew most of what they ate.Crops included mostly vegetables and grains.The inexpensive but tasty soul foods provided by the African-Americans include hominy grits, cornbread, chitterlings, black-eye peas, and a variety of prepared beans, including red-beans and rice. Frying is the preference of preparation for seafood and meats.The African-American music combines the Creole and Cajun melodies for a more rounded, and often a spiritual sound.

While many may believe southern cooking and southern people are all the same, they are all quite different.Culturally and physically, they certainly bear their own identities.Visiting Louisiana can be quite an experience.Selecting food is easy – seafood.Selecting which type is a matter of preference, whether its Creole, Cajun, or Soul food.They are all deliciously wonderful!Sit back, relax and do as they say in New Orleans, “Let the good times roll.”