The Classification Paragraph

Read pages 21-22 in Jensen's Format Writing.

The course of exposition must be first to state the attributes common to whole groups of animals, and then to attempt to give their explanation. Many groups, as already noticed, present common attributes, that is to say, in some cases absolutely identical affections, and absolutely identical organs,-feet, feathers, scales, and the like-while in other groups the affections and organs are only so far identical as that they are analogous. For instance, some groups have lungs, others have no lung, but an organ analogous to a lung in its place; some have blood, others have no blood, but a fluid analogous to blood, and with the same office. To treat of the common attributes in connexion with each individual group would involve, as already suggested, useless iteration. For many groups have common attributes. So much for this topic. -- Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals

As you've seen in your Biology, a big part of science is classification. In fact, any "science" defined as "area of knowledge" seems to depend a lot on divisions and distinctions.

When we looked at the example format, we were looking at a variety of different things that fit under a category. In some ways, it is similar to inductive logic. The classification paragraph seems similar at first glance, but is in a way the opposite, in that you start with a set of categories and then show how the topic fits the categories. In some ways, this is similar to deductive logic. Or so it seems to me!

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