The Illustrative Essay

Topic:
Write an Essay in which you take a general truth (a "proverbial saying") or abstraction and "illustrate" it with an extended story or stories. You will write this essay with a specific audience and purpose in mind.

Essay Explanation:
For this essay, I want you to express a larger, general truth (what we will call your "illustrative truth") and illustrate that it is true (synonyms for "illustrate" are show, demonstrate, exemplify, prove). You will illustrate that this kernel proverb is true by developing a number of "illustrative stories"--the key to this paper is that you will back up you point with STORIES.

Whereas with the Family Story the purpose was to entertain and perhaps explain, and the audience was mostly unspecified, in the Illustrative Essay your purpose now is to make a point (to convince, persuade, and explain) and your audience may be much more specific. Determining your audience and your desired effect upon your audience is one of the main tasks of this essay. You will want to be very clear about what is your purpose and who is your audience.

Your "proverb" or illustrative truth is your MESSAGE (your "thesis"). Who you send your message to can make a big difference in determining your purpose or desired affect. For example, let's say your illustrative truth is, "Tobacco is dangerous." If I were to send this message to teenagers, my purpose would be to prevent them from starting smoking. However, if my audience were 50 year old two-pack a day smokers, my purpose would be to get them to quit smoking before it is too late. Your audience will determine to a large extent what your purpose will be.

Developing Your Essay with Stories:
In the body of your essay, you will want to back up your thesis (your illustrative truth). For this essay, I want you to support and develop your thesis with stories. Each story should have its own section or paragraph, and each story should be tailored to fit the audience and purpose of the essay. Since you are using stories, you also can incorporate the Techniques of Description as you allies in making your stories more effective. For example, with our "Smoking is dangerous" example above, you might develop the body of the essay with three stories: 1) the story of Great-uncle Joe who had lung cancer, 2) the story of Aunt Mabel who had lip cancer from dip chewing, and 3) your Dad who had a stroke at 54. You will want to use REAL stories that you know of from your experience. You will want to make your stories specific!-specific place, specific person(s), specific time. It is ok to generalize, but follow with a specific example.
Example Illustrative Essay

Getting Started: Doing the Illustrative Essay Invention Exercise

To be done in The Write Place in the Illustrative Invent forum.

1.  Write down a number of things you know a good deal about. You don't have to be an expert, but you know about it from first hand knowledge.  (Example: football, SAC, parking at SAC, smoking.) 

2.  Pick one of the items you are knowledgeable about, and make a couple of general statements about it  that you consider to be true.  Find one statement of truth that you think is best. Use this statement as your "illustrative truth" (it is your kernal proverb-also called you "point" or "main idea" or "thesis."

3.  State your "illustrative truth" in a clear, declarative proverb-like sentence.  Perhaps you will use an actual proverb or come up with your own. It is a general statement  that you consider to be true.

4. Consider your "illustrative truth" to be your MESSAGE. WHO do you want to send this message to? You need to be specific (perhaps at the level of a group within a group or even to an individual).  Describe your audience. Be specific as you can and as detailed as you can.

5.  What does this audience already know about your subject? What is their attitude toward your "illustrative truth"? Why would it be important for them to hear or accept this "truth."

6.  Why do you want to send your audience this message (illustrative truth)? What desired effect do you want to have on them as and after they read your essay?

7. What is the circumstance (or "exigence") surrounding your communication of you message to your audience? What are the circumstances that necessitate this communication?

8. Briefly LIST the stories you will use to ILLUSTRATE your point. In what ways will these stories help to achieve your desired effect you wish to have on this audience?

Write Using Essay Form:
Essays are their own unique types of writing. Here are some of its features:

  • An essay by definition is about one thing-it develops a single point.
  • Typically, this point or thesis is expressed at the end of the introduction in a clear statement.
  • An essay has a clear introduction, body and conclusion.
  • Introductions start generally and narrow down to the specific point of the essay.
  • In the Body of the essay, the write "divides up the proof"-which means that the writer will put only one main support per body paragraph (in our case, one main supporting story per body paragraph)
  • The conclusion will restate the main point of the paper as well as make general concluding statements.

Writing to the Rhetorical Situation
from Rhetorical Situation and Kairos

Some elements of the rhetorical situation include:

  1. Exigence: What happens or fails to happen? Why is one compelled to speak out?
  2. Persons: Who is involved in the exigence and what roles do they play?
  3. Relations: What are the relationships, especially the differences in power, between the persons involved?
  4. Location: Where is the site of discourse? e.g. a podium, newspaper, web page, etc.
  5. Speaker: Who is compelled to speak or write?
  6. Audience: Who does the speaker address and why?
  7. Method: How does the speaker choose to address the audience?
  8. Institutions: What are the rules of the game surrounding/constraining numbers 1 through 7.


Resources

Writing Guide on Essay Form
Writing Guide on Essay Organization
Writing Guide on Description
Writing Guide on Introductions
More on the Rhetorical Situation
Example Illustrative Essay

Guide for Writing the First Draft of the Illustrative Essay

  1. Review your invention to see if it is really what you want to write about. Fill in any gaps or changes by responding to your initial post in the forum.
  2. IF you are not satisfied with this topic, pick another topic and complete a new invention exercise (replying to the questions in the Illustrative Invention forum just as we did in class.
  3. Recommended: Try freewriting for ten minutes on your topic. Consider it to be a dialogue with yourself on the topic.
  4. With a copy of your invention exercise by your side, write your first draft. Write without worrying about grammar or having the essay fully developed, but write with some sense of form and purpose.

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