Classification Paragraph

Sleeping Disorders
Common sleep disorders that rob many people from a good night's sleep fall into
four categories. The most common sleeping disorder is insomnia. Insomnia is a general
term for conditions in which a person feels tired during the day due to difficulties falling
asleep or staying asleep at night. Occasional stress causes some temporary insomnia;
however, longer lasting insomnia may be linked to depression or anxiety disorders. A
second category of sleeping disorders is hypersomnia. With this disorder people sleep
longer than normal. They often feel the need to take additional naps during the day,
despite the excessive hours spent sleeping. Hypersomnia sufferers continue to feel tired
and fatigued. A third sleeping disorder is narcolepsy, which occurs during the daytime.
Narcoleptics switch abruptly and without warning from an active, emotional waking state
into several minutes of REM sleep. The decreased muscle tone causes them to collapse
on the spot and remain briefly immobilized even after awakening. Another common
sleeping disorder is sleep apnea. People with this sleeping disorder briefly stop breathing
while they are asleep. They abruptly jolt themselves awake to resume breathing. Because
apnea episodes can occur hundreds of times per night, sufferers do not feel rested in the
morning. Each of these four common sleeping disorders has one thing in common: the
sufferers lack stamina during the day due to their lack of sleep.

1) Topic Sentence:

2) First Category:

examples/details:

3) Second Category:

examples/details:

4) Third Category:

examples/details:

5) Fourth Category:

examples/details:

6) Conclusion:
 The Hindu Population of India

The whole Hindu population of India can be divided into four castes or varna. The
highest of these castes is that of the Brahmans or priests. The next highest is the varna of
the warriors, known as the Kshatriya, or sometimes the Rajput caste. Below this comes
the Vaishya or merchant caste and the lowest caste is known as the Sudra caste. While
castes are traditionally associated with a type of occupation, in modern India, occupations
are not a reliable guide to caste.

Topic Sentence:

First Classification:

Second Classification:

Third Classification:

Fourth Classification:

Conclusion:

When writing a classification paragraph, you group things or ideas into specific
categories.
The following words can help you to write a good classification paragraph:

1) is a kind of = Coal is a kind of non-renewable resource.

2) can be divided into = Energy resources can be divided into two types.
3) is a type of = Coal is a type of non-renewable resource.
4) falls under = Coal falls under the category of non-renewable resources.
5) belongs to = Coal belongs to the category of non-renewable resources.
6) is a part of = Coal is a part of the category of non-renewable resources.
7) fits into = Coal fits into the category of non-renewable resources.
8) is grouped with = Coal is grouped with non-renewable resources.
9) is related to = Coal is related to other non-renewable resources.
10) is associated with = Coal is associated with other non-renewable resources.

Spatial order definition

…How would we define spatial order?

It’s a principle of descriptive writing when items are arranged in the
order of their physical location or correlation.

This structural order in descriptive paragraphs determines the readers’

perspective and how details are perceived. Focus is on location; time is

ignored.

How may this organizational arrangement be used?

 In fiction, it is used for descriptions of objects and places; in

nonfiction – for describing physical or social phenomena.
 Technical writers can use this method for explaining how a
mechanism works or how parts of a machine fit together.
 Food critics apply this pattern when they review a new
restaurant for a description of the dining area.
 Architects utilize this order to describe designs of buildings.
What is the spatial order?

…What does spatial order mean?

If talking about descriptions, this method means that the writer explains

or describes objects as they are arranged in space. It creates a picture

for readers, and the audience’s perspective is the viewpoint from which the

writer describes what’s around.

First, the writer has to choose a specific starting point and then create

an orderly logical progression by providing readers with directional

signals they should follow from place to place.

When describing a room, f.e., the writer may start from creating a
picture of what is seen as one enters the door, then tell about what
they see in the middle of the room, and conclude by describing the far
side.

If the description is complicated, you can use a simple chart or diagram

to help your readers understand it quickly.

Spatial writing: the details

A spatial organization of information in paragraphs is also

called descriptive writing. It is often used when a narrator wants to

describe how something looks. For example, you can use this approach

in descriptive essays about a person when you describe someone’s

appearance, starting from the feet and moving up to the head.

Take a look at spatial order example which describes various layers of a

volcano.

A volcano is a beautiful and dangerous natural phenomenon. The

magma chamber, an extremely hot part which people rarely see, is

under the Earth surface beneath the bed’s rock. The conduit is

running from the volcano’s magma chamber to the crater which is at

the top of the volcano.

Logical order of location in space can be used in some narrations,

classifications, comparisons, and other forms of expository writings.

Have a look at this description paragraph.

According to annual weather patterns, there are 6 major climate

regions. In the extreme northern latitudes, the climate is polar without

any plant life. Next to it, there is cold tundra in the extremes of the
north of Asia and North America where we can find shrubs and

grasses. In the adjacent temperate regions, there are forests with a

rich diversity of plants.

What are spatial order signal words?

Here is a short list of spatial order signal words which might indicate that
a speaker or a writer is following a spatial organization pattern.

Many of these words are prepositions that are placed at the beginning

of sentences to connect them with the ideas expressed in the preceding

sentences.

 Into
 Above
 Opposite
 Against
 Between
 On the left hand
 On the right hand
 Through
 Below
 Beneath
 Attached to
 Across
 Beside
 Next to
 Nearby
 At the top of
 To the side of
 Behind
 In front of
 Alongside
 Let us see how spatial order is used
while writing.
 ► The writer decides what needs to be described first in a story. He then decides
to put that scene first. Mostly, that’s one of the most important scenes/situations
of the story and is of use in setting the right mood.

 ► The writer then works on the details of the scene and describes its elements in
a logical order.

 ► When using the spatial order, he chooses to describe them from right to left or
top to bottom. Starting from the left-most element in the scene, he moves to the
right. Or he may go top-down. He may start from a point far from the main
character through whose eyes the readers are viewing the scene.

 ► To form a logical relationship between the details, the writer needs to use
transitions. They are words or phrases that are placed in the beginning of a
sentence to connect it with the idea expressed in the preceding sentence.
  Transitional words/phrases

Above
Through
Across
To the side of
Between
On the top of
Against
At that point
Here
Nearby
Next to
Beside
Beneath
Below
On the other hand
Attached to
On the right hand
On the left hand
Opposite
Into


 Transitional words like these, some of which are prepositions, help the writer give
the positional details of the elements in a scene.

 Let’s take an example. In the image given below, a character, say, John, is
viewing what one sees in the image. The writer describes the details of the scene,
as seen by John, who sees from the eyes of the reader. The description proceeds
from top to bottom and left to right. The writing uses spatial order.

 ► John locked the door and stood for a minute or two on a sidewalk taking the
scene in. The morning walk was calm and quiet. Across the street from him was a
block-patterned wall of another building, stretching end to end. The white wall
had yellowed through the years, but looked quite strong. The sun had cast
shadows on it. A gray stone sidewalk that run along the wall seemed hushed. On
the sidewalk, on the left, was an old black streetlamp. This old rusty lamp, like the
wall, had withstood many seasons. Today, the lamp wasn’t alone on the street. On
the right, John could see a policeman standing, reading a newspaper. He didn’t
even look up to see him on the other side of the street. He was standing near a
newsstand, whose owner was nowhere in sight. The colorful magazines,
newspapers, a stand, and a chair looked orphaned without their owner. John
decided to cross the road and ask the inspector about the newsstand owner.

 ► In the above section, the wall has been described first. It is the farthest from
the reader. Then, the sidewalk has been described. Then the elements have been
described from left to right; the order in which they are physically located. The
use of spatial order helps the reader visualize the scene just through words (even
without looking at the image).

 Let us take another example from Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947).

 ► Far to his left, in the northeast, beyond the valley and the terraced foothills
of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl,
rose clear and magnificent into the sunset. Nearer, perhaps ten miles distant,
and on a lower level than the main valley, he made out the village of Tomalín,
nestling behind the jungle, from which rose a thin blue scarf of illegal smoke,
someone burning wood for carbon. Before him, on the other side of the
American highway, spread fields and groves, through which meandered a river,
and the Alcapancingo road.
 ► In this paragraph, the narrator describes a particular scene as seen by the
protagonist of the novel. The description starts with two volcanoes which are at a
distance. The narrator uses the transitional word “nearer” to give the location of
the village. He uses other transitions “on the other side” and “through” to describe
a space on the other side of the highway. Lowry has used spatial order as a tool to
organize the details of the scene.

 Let us discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using spatial order in writing.

 Advantages
 ➥ The elements of a scene or ideas are arranged in the order of their physical
location.
➥ The descriptions follow a logical order, thus helping the reader visualize a
scene in a better way.
➥ With the use of transitional words, the scene can be made easier to understand.

 Disadvantages
 ➥ The use of spatial order in long texts can make the reading monotonous.
➥ Since the elements of a scene are described in a certain order, all the elements
get equal weight. With this, it becomes difficult to emphasize one particular
aspect of the scene.