Illustration or examples

The paragraph of illustration may be like the old saying, “One picture is worth a thousand words”. Illustration presents material to the reader in the form of action, expressed or implied. The quality of action makes illustration or example particularly different from detail and reason as basic material for building better paragraphs. A paragraph may have one or more illustrations or examples. It depends on the complexity of the thought expressed in the controlling idea. One long, well-constructed, vivid illustration may be persuasive. But the more difficult your central idea is, the more illustrations or examples you may need, each varying slightly in subject matter but effectively support the topic sentence.

If the illustration is composed of several sentences that make up only one anecdote, you do not test for unity in the paragraph by checking each sentence with the controlling idea, as you do with detail and reason. The illustration as a whole – as one single unit must support the controlling idea. If you use a number of illustrations, then each as a unit goes directly back to the controlling idea of the paragraph.

For instance, you may tell a story of how an apple you gave to a girl started a friendship. On the other hand, you may give several illustrations of how an apple influenced the lives of people at different times in history.

Study the paragraph of illustration.

Diamonds have lured many people into trouble. The famous Nikolas Verden stole the Khybar stone from a shop in Amsterdam, Holland, fled to Naples, and died trying to escape from the police. Thomas Bright, a jewelry salesman, swallowed the Van Noos diamond in order to smuggle it out of South Africa and was arrested after it was found during an operation for appendicitis. Five members of the Burton family died trying to hide the Courtney stone from the authorities.

Combination of basic materials.

Although many topics you will be writing about can be developed by means of details, reasons, or illustrations, others will require a combination of these basic materials. In writing about complex subjects, you may find that the clearest presentation calls for dividing the subject into its parts, that is, into details. One or more of the details might be illustrated, and followed up with an opinion. The pattern of combining detail, illustration and reason will depend on the material you have available and your organizational strategy.

In the same paragraph you might use detail, reason and illustration in an appropriate pattern of development. If so, the details or the reasons will probably serve as the major supporting statements of the controlling idea and the illustrations will be used as minor supports. In paragraphs using a combination of materials, you will follow no prescribed order; instead you should seek the best combination of materials to provide the reader with the most effective defense of your topic sentence with its controlling idea. The well-written paragraph like a poem or short story, takes time and great care.