A classification-division essay presents an analysis by separating items: if you are classifying, you are placing different items into a set of categories. Each member of each category must be logically related. For example, you can classify people by age category: child, teen, and adult. If you are dividing, you are taking a single item and breaking it down into its smaller parts. Each part must represent a logical division of the larger unit. For example, you can divide a single car into a brake system, transmission, exhaust system, and so forth.
I. Writing a Classification Division Essay
A. Selecting a Topic
When deciding on a topic for this essay, you must first decide whether you want to write a classification or a division essay.
If you select a classification topic, then you are going to place different items into logically related categories. When considering different topics, you want to be sure that there are enough logical categories for your topic to meet the essay length requirements. Beds, for example, probably wouldn’t be a good topic since there aren’t that many categories of beds.
Second, you want to think about the categories: on what basis are you going to place the different items into each category?
If you select a division topic, then you are going to divide a single unit into smaller systems. When considering different topics for division, be sure that you are going to stay with a single unit—it can be easy to begin classifying when you should be dividing. For example, you can divide a single human body into a circulatory system, nervous system, digestive system, etc. However, if you then include developing circulatory systems along with an adult’s developed circulatory system, then you are beginning to classify systems into developing and developed. This is an easy trap to fall into.
B. Writing the Classification Division Essay
i. Writing the Introduction
As with any academic