Do you remember how the system sorts you mails into various categories: incoming, outcoming, processed, completed, delivered, spam and others? In other words, it classifies it into different categories. This exactly what you need to do in your classification essay. Classifying seems like a simple activity for pupils of middle school, but in reality, it requires the skills of structuring, generalizing, analyzing and presenting information in an appropriate way.
The discipline of Healthcare is vital for every student as it gives him or her ‘right’ information about taking care of their body as nowadays people are obsessed with inventing almost ridiculous ways to lose weight, cure disease and improve their overall health condition.
How to Write a Classification Essay In Healthcare – Pre-writing Tips
- Use a single principle to categorize. This is just like a child puts different figures into groups by their shapes or colors. Do not allow the other principle to pop up unexpectedly.
- Use examples. It is important to use an equal number of examples in each paragraph. Otherwise, one of the paragraphs will not be proved enough to consider it a full-fledged category.
- Use literary figures. There is an impressively long list of literary figures to help make your writing process more exciting and your reader a lot more engaged in your piece of writing.
Allegory, alliteration, allusion, analogy, imagery, hyperbole, foreshadowing, oxymoron, onomatopoeia, metaphor, satire, simile, and others – all of these rhetorical terms can help make your text more eye-catching and vibrant. By the way, to master the reasonable and logical usage of literary figures to not make the text confusing, you have to simply read different genres. Reading helps learn about the world in general, understand different worldviews and get more successful in writing. When you read a book you notice and memorize the usage of certain expressive means of language. Here is an article with all kinds of literary devices, their examples and advice on how to use them properly. - It is interesting to see that a huge number of obese people and the growth of healthy lifestyle followers exist side by side. Therefore, to improve the factual base of your classification essay, include facts and statistics. Here are some examples:
- Approximately 30% of the world population are obese people.
- Less than 1% of Americans go to work by bike.
- Between 2008 and 2018, gym membership has grown by 37.1%, while the total number of club-goers has increased by 34%.
- 60% to 90% of school children worldwide have dental cavities.
- 30% of people aged 65-74 have no natural teeth.
- 35% of teenage girls have an eating disorder. 10% of all teens suffering from an eating disorder are male.
- 1 in 5 US children and teens have diagnosable psychiatric disorders.
- Binge eating is the most common disorder and affects 1-2 million Americans.
The Writing Process
Step 1. Choose a topic. Choose neither a very wide topic nor a narrow one. This common mistake can lead to your essay being too dragged and boring at times or your categories being not very distinctive. Thus, chose a topic that is familiar and presents a great interest to you. Here are some examples of quality topics:
- Types of eating disorders.
- Strategies for the prevention of heart diseases.
- Common mental disorders in the USA.
- Threats to the health of a modern person.
- Types of healthcare jobs.
- Types of depressive disorders.
- Types of physical exercise and their effect on the individual’s health.
Step 2. Brainstorm ideas. The most effective methods of brainstorming are:
- Listing ideas. Wrote down even the craziest ideas that come to mind. Do let grammar, spelling, and punctuation stop your flow of thoughts.
- Cluster diagram. Circle the most eligible ideas and make branches from them. Draw lies to related ideas.
- Freewrite. Again – write down everything, but in the form of structured text. Do not try to create a precise outline. Just set a time limit and write continuously everything that comes to your mind.
Besides, using a brainstorming method is especially effective with Healthcare discipline as we already know a lot about it from our daily life.
Step 3. Select a purpose and outline. Watch at your ideas with a loom of Sherlock Holmes and circle those which fit the purpose. The outline of the classification essay looks like this:
- Introduction.
- The description of the first category.
- The description of the second category.
- The description of the third category.
- Conclusion.
Step 4. Write the first draft. Pay attention to the fact that it is not obligatory to start writing the essay with an introduction. Some writers prefer to write several paragraphs at the same time. Do not limit yourself by that writing order ‘Because this is how it is accepted to do’.
Step 5. Get feedback. Ask your peers to read your draft and provide constructive critic on it.
Step 6. Reread, rethink, rewrite. As you revise your first draft, incorporate feedback from others and add new ideas as well.
Step 7. Write and proofread the final variant. Always read all your compositions aloud. As you revise your essay, see if you can improve the clarity and quality of your writing by adding transition words and phrases. Without them, the text is arid, has no relationships between ideas. These words make the text run smoothly, improve the flow and coherence of your essay.
The Introductory Paragraph
An effective introduction also has a structure. It is efficient to start it with a hook sentence. What can it be? Rhetorical questions, facts, and statistics, poetry quotes, famous people quote, joke or an anecdote. Know the limits with jokes as not all people can understand them.
Thesis – this is just one sentence but how powerful it is. Here are the rules of a perfect thesis:
- It is never a question or list,
- it is never vague, combative, confrontational,
- it has a defiable arguable claim,
- it is clear and specific.
When reading an essay, the reader can skip the whole introduction and go to the thesis statement. Hence, it is usually placed at the end of the introduction.
Here is an example of the introductory paragraph of the classification essay on the topic ‘Types of Eating Disorders’:
Do you know what it is like to have your mind occupied by thoughts about food, weight and body image? People with eating disorders are accounted for 70 million of the world population, but very little of them reveal the truth and share their problems with others. People suffering from these mental disorders can spend days exercising, starving or throwing up. Eating disorders can be classified as restrictive eating, overeating, and purging.
Body Paragraphs
Every paragraph must include: criteria explanation, discussing the strength and weaknesses or just characterizing the category and including practical examples. Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that presents the category. Arrange them in a logical order. For instance, you can start with the most recognizable feature of your group and then move to the least recognizable one. Or if you describe the approaches you take to examine the group, start with the most effective one. The fact to remember is that the paragraphs should give information in the order that corresponds to your thesis statement, included in the introductory paragraph.
Here is an example of the main part of the essay on the topic of eating disorders:
Restrictive eating is a type of eating behavior that is characterized by complete or partial refusal to consume food even though the patient’s appetite is preserved. In typical cases of such behavior, patients use incredible willpower to force themselves to give up food despite a strong famine. Another aspect is extreme weight loss and the disgust of food. It is believed that the total number of patients in recent decades has increased – they call it ‘an anorexic population explosion’. When the changes in the patient’s body are irreversible, weight loss becomes so significant that it is impossible to eat due to not only psychological but also physical reasons. The volume of the stomach is dramatically decreased, the digestion slows down, hunger strikes disappear. The examples of restrictive eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, orthorexia Nervosa.
Overeating can be caused both by external and internal factors. The external ones are the window case at the grocery store, a table covered with delicious food, a person eating, food advertisement and others. Such behavior can be also caused by emotional discomfort. Food for people with emotional eating behavior is a kind of medicine because it brings them not only nourishment but also satisfaction, relaxation and helps them relieve emotional tension. It is widely accepted that such disordered behavior is caused by emotional stress or childhood trauma. Kathryn Hansen in her book ‘Brain over binge’ explains that there is basically an animal part of the human brain that prevents the person from starvation. This category can be divided into two other subcategories: compulsive overeating and bingeing. Overeating is when a person can not stop eating food and gaining weight and is tied to his or her addiction. These kinds of patients are usually stared in the reality shows about people who strive to change their lives and lose weight but cannot do it without professional help. Binge eating is when a person struggles with periodic urge attacks that make him or her feel extremely guilty.
Another type of eating disorder is purging. The incentive to eat is not hunger but emotional discomfort. Foods for people with this eating behavior are a kind of medicine because they really bring them not only nourishment but also pleasure, relaxation, helps relieve emotional stress. However, the main distinctive feature of these types of disorders is that the patient tries to take measures to undo the negative consequences food can bring. To avoid gaining weight they use laxatives, excessive exercise, and vomiting. Their behavior is usually secretive so it is hard to determine even an approximate number of people suffering from such eating disorders. They are ashamed to eat in front of other people, always chased by a feeling of guilt. The examples are bulimia nervosa, purging disorder, diabulimia.
Conclusion
The conclusion allows the author to combine all approaches used for examination. You can include your own observations and reveal similarities and differences from others. If there is something that you could not examine, suggest further research and new types of approaching this data.
It is reasonable to connect the introduction with the conclusion by stating information from the intro. This is done in order to create a sense of completeness. Take the reader back to what the essay is about. It is more like a rewinding of what had been discussed previously.
What is more, many guides state that it is imperative to reread the essay before submitting. It is not completely right. Of course, it is necessary to proofread it one more time a day before submitting but if you reread it right before the deadline point you can add another mistake.
Here is an example of conclusion for the classification essay:
Eating disorders are the reality of modern society. Anorexic people are extremely underweight and are fearful of gaining a single gram of fat. Bingers are secretive and always feel guilty for overeating. Bulimic is similar to overeaters and bingers but they also purge by throwing up and overexercising. They seem to be so different, but in actual fact, they are extremely similar. Their similarity lies in distorted body image, self-unacceptance and reluctance to share their obsessive thoughts. Thus, whatever type of eating disorder a person has, it definitely causes him or her a lot of mental pain.
Summary
Classification essay in Healthcare does not bite. Obviously, with this guide you can increase the quality of your essay, but if you are not good at generalizing and analyzing information, then the only way to correct that is to have a lot of practice. Even if you got an unsatisfying mark for your paper, do not give up. You can practice writing separate parts of the essay. Ask the teacher to give your constructive critic on your essay and tell which aspects of your essay writing need to be improved. But the most effective advice remains the same – read!