BHSU
Lorna Richey
ILLUSTRATION ESSAY
Pointers for Writing good Illustration Essays
1. Make a point. Illustration compositions contain examples to illustrate an idea.
Examples make abstract ideas more concrete, down to earth, and easier to understand.
Examples will make your writing more interesting and attention-grabbing. Whenever
you introduce an idea, you should ideally provide your readers with a number of
examples to clarify that idea.
2. Give specific and detailed examples to show, explain, and illustrate your point.
Specific examples can be taken from your own life or the lives of people you know.
These examples may be unique and shared by no other people. For example, if you
want to explain a vague and abstract concept such as loyalty, kindness, generosity,
embarrassment, fear, courage, joy, curiosity, or industriousness, you can provide a
unique, illustrative incident from your own life to explain the concept. You can write
a narrative or one longer example, or you can provide different examples from your
life—one paragraph for each illustration.
3. Use examples the reader will understand. You should use typical examples in your
paper as well. These are examples of events that are common in the lives and
experiences of most people. For example, if you wanted to illustrate the concept of
bravery in one paragraph, you could mention a series of typical examples that
everyone would be familiar with: firemen saving children from a house fire, rescue
teams saving skiers trapped by an avalanche, American soldiers protecting a U.S.
embassy when it is under attack, overcoming one’s fear when skydiving for the first
time, receiving an injection without complaint although you know it is going to hurt,
protecting the weak by fighting people who are bigger and more powerful, etc. These
examples are not unique to one person’s experiences.
4. Use hypothetical examples in your essays if you can think of no specific or typical
examples or if those examples are not powerful enough to illustrate the point. If you
want to give an example of a tragedy, for instance, you may with to exercise your
imagination and come up with a horrendous tragedy. However, make it clear to your
readers that this is a hypothetical or make-up example by saying something like:
“Let’s imagine a forty-one-year-old woman named Louise standing on the window
ledge of an office building some twenty stories up. She has lost her job as an
executive assistant.” Such a beginning will set up a fictional scenario that can hold a
reader’s interest and provide you with a perfect example that you may not otherwise
have at your disposal.
5. Use enough examples to get your point across. Each paragraph should focus on just
one idea; however, you may support each idea with more than one example. Use as
many examples as you feel it takes to really get your point across and be as detailed as
you can be! A general rule of thumb is to have at least 3 to 5 specific examples per
paragraph. Do not assume that your reader will understand what you are thinking;
show them what you are thinking in your writing.
6. Do not trivialize your essay by using examples that are too trite, too obvious, or too
commonplace. Of the hundreds of examples you could possibly use, choose only those
that are most fitting and most interesting. If you wish to illustrate the idea of pain,
telling me how you struck your thumb with a hammer accidentally is not significant
enough for a meaningful essay. Telling me how you were forced to give up your child
for adoption and the mental pain it caused you is a much better topic for an illustrative
composition.
7. Use strong clear language.
8. Use transitional words to guide your reader from idea to idea within your paragraphs.
Common transitions in Illustration Essays are:
Also
Another
Finally
For Instance
For example For one thing
In addition
One example
9. Conclusion: your conclusion should not introduce any new ideas, nor should it simply
restate the examples you have given to support your decision. Instead, you might
restate your decision in different terms or reflect on a more global level about how this
decision is important to your life or to others’ lives in the world around you.
10. Editing: Check your essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Once your
first essay has been returned, you will have a better idea whether you need extra care
in avoiding sentence fragments, run-on sentences, or comma splices. Essays which
include these errors are not up to college-level writing.
11. Organization: Organize your paper using order of importance saving the most vivid
and convincing example for last. A typical plan for an illustration essay might look
like this:
I.
Introduction
(Your thesis should be the last sentence of the introduction.)
A. First example
1. supporting detail to explain first example
2. another supporting detail
3. specific example
B. Second example
1. supporting detail to explain first example
2. another supporting detail
3. specific example
C. Third example
1. supporting detail to explain first example
2. another supporting detail
II.
3. specific example
Conclusion
(Refers back to your main point and makes an observation)