Extended Definition of Classification and Division

Classifying and diving a subject lets you analyze and explain a subject more in depth. It identifies the major discussion your topic is a member of, and shows in order of importance the different aspects of your topic in a research paper.

Beginning at the largest portion of a research paper, you select your topic. A topic, for example, could be food. Now that we have a subject, you can create a focused topic within that realm of. An example focused topic in the realm of food could be fruit. This is the actual topic you will be researching and it is the thing you will be further dividing and classifying.

After selecting a topic within the large subject, you can classify the different aspects of your topic. In our case, we are discussing fruit; so to classify different parts of "fruit", we can select different types of fruit (preferably your favorite), keeping in mind to classify the most important things first and the least important things last. For our example, it would be your most favorite fruit first leading to your least favorite (still probably a solidly delicious fruit). There can be many classifications, but we will list only three for the sake of this example: 1. Watermelon, 2. Raspberries, 3. Strawberries. (there are many other good fruits like peaches and apricots and apples, but there are just too many to really have a favorite)

Now that we have classified the subject of "fruit", we dive deeper, which leads to the divisions of each classification. The divisions examine the various elements of each major classification. For example:

1. Watermelon: Red on the inside, green on the outside. Crisp. Juicy. Seed spitting contests. Summer time. Things that remind you of watermelon.
2. Raspberries: Red, small, juicy. Sweet. Bees.
3. Strawberries: Red. Oh so sweet. The good ones are the small ones. Chocolate strawberries.

Following the pattern of classifying and dividing your topic will lead to a successful research paper and effectively analyze the discussion your topic is a part of. Congratulations!