Guidelines to

Writing an
Illustrated Essay
What is an illustrated essay
• An Illustration Essay is an essay designed to describe
and explain a problem with examples.
• You will be required to use examples to reveal details
about the subject you are discussing.
Choosing a topic and
medium
• Choosing a need or an issue that will help you develop a
rhetorical appeal to inform and convince your audience.
• EXAMPLE:
Although world hunger is an important issue and may not
be a bad example, consider choosing problems that you
encounter locally, even in your everyday life.
• The closer you are to the issue, the more easily you will be
able to develop rhetorical appeals.
• As you compose your project, consider the best modes and
methods to communicate your ideas. Consider how to add
and combine different modalities to increase audience
impact without overdoing it.
Is it an advocacy essay?

• An advocacy essay find ways to connect directly to those whom the issue most closely
affects. Ensure that your proposed advocacy provides pragmatic and helpful solutions
to the problem for the targeted audience.
• PROBLEM SOLVING EXAMPLE
If you choose to create an essay based on the need for education opportunities for
young mothers who have children suffering from malnutrition, advocating for meals
at schools?
• TIP: open yourself to information from research, interviews, or informal conversation.
If possible, try to speak with someone whom your project will affect.
Step 2

• The first step is to identify the purpose, or reason, for your essay. Your goal is what you want to accomplish
with it.
• Do you intend to inform people about an issue they are likely to know little about, or do you want to
inspire people around you to take action in creating a sustainable solution that addresses the issue at hand?
• Example: Improve the access to clean water for students in San Cristobal, Galapagos.
• Articulate your claim about the issue you have chosen. Your claim is equivalent to a thesis. Identifying your
claim will help you decide which media and modes to employ.
• Consider also your audience. You already have learned and discussed the importance of understanding your
audience’s perspective, including social, cultural, or linguistic factors that could affect your communication.
• Understanding what your audience knows, their lived experiences, and what is important to them will help
you shape your narrative.
• Define the situation.
• My essay focuses on ________, which is a problem because
________.
• Define your purpose.
• The purpose of my essay is to ________, which will be
accomplished by ________.
• Write a thesis, or line of inquiry.
• The issue I’m addressing is ________.
• My position on the issue is ________.
• Write your thesis as a declarative sentence.
______________________________________________________
_____.
• Define your goals and objectives.
• I will try to ________ by ________.
• Define your audience.
• The intended audience for my essay is ________. They are
________ (familiar/unfamiliar) with the issue. I will reach them by
________.
Step 3: Gathering Information

• For this topic, you will need to explore relevant

research, data, and literature that already address your
topic.

• The following questions are a good place to start:

• What do you already know about the issue you
have chosen to address?
• What do you need to learn, and where can you
find that information?
Planning chart

Information and
What I already Source(s) of that Where I can find
data that I need to
know information information
collect
Step 4: Determine
Modes and Media

• Once your research is complete (or,

at least, once you have a good
enough foundation to get started),
determine which modes and media
you will employ to address your
audience.
• A good way to make this decision
is to create a mockup or
storyboard, which is a visual
representation.
Let´s start writing
Introduction For An Illustration Essay

Topic: illustrate the various ways young people use social media in their everyday lives.

“Social media has many impacts on young people. Social media is quite new, with the
most famous social media site Facebook only being introduced to the world in 2004.
This illustrative essay will explain how many ways young people engage with social
media every day and provide examples of its negative outcomes. The essay will begin
with an explanation of what social media is, followed by several illustrative points with
examples to give details about what new media is and how it has changed young
people’s lives for the worse.”
How To Write An Illustration
Paragraph (Body)

• Paragraphs in the body of an illustration essay have two purposes:

• Describe and Define: You need to clearly describe and define your subject to
the reader. The reader should be left with the impression that you have a deep
knowledge of the topic.
• Explain and Exemplify: You need to provide many examples to illustrate your
points.
• I recommend that you do this in order. Your first few paragraphs should describe
and define the subject. Your following paragraphs should give a lot of quality
examples.
Examples Of Illustrative Paragraphs

• I’ll keep using the example topic: Illustrate the various ways young people use social media in their everyday
lives.

Example of a Describe and Define Paragraph:

“Social media is a form of media that emerged during the Web 2.0 era of the internet. It is unique because it
gives people the ability to create personal profiles and communicate back-and-forth with one another. It is
generally known to have emerged in the early 2000s with websites like MySpace and Facebook, and has
changed recently to be heavily mobile responsive with the emergence of smartphones in the 2010s.”
Examples Of Illustrative
Paragraphs
Example of an Explain and Exemplify Paragraph:

“One unique consequence of social media is that it

has meant young people are in constant contact with
their friends. Whereas in the past young people
would have to hang out in person to be in contact,
now they can message each other from their homes.
For example, young people get home from school and
can log into their web forums like Facebook
messenger. From here, they can stay in touch and chat
about issues that happened at school. While this may
be enjoyable, some people also believe that it means
young people can continue to be bullied even from
within their own bedrooms.”
Visual mode

• Visual communication relies on images, symbols, colors, and other

visual elements to convey meaning. It can include photographs,
illustrations, graphs, charts, infographs, etc.
• Visual mode helps in presenting complex information in an easily
digestible format, evoking emotions, and supporting the understanding
of the topic.
How To Write A Conclusion For An
Illustration Essay

1. Close the loop: refer to a statement you made in your

introduction to tie the beginning and end together.
2. Conclude: Show your final conclusion on the issue.
3. Clarify: Show how you have answered the essay
question
4. Concern: Show who would be concerned about the
issue.
5. Consequences: Show what the consequences of the
issue are for real life.
Examples Of Illustrative
Conclusion
Here’s an example conclusion for an illustrative essay on the topic:
Illustrate the various ways young people use social media in their
everyday lives.

“The beginning of this essay pointed out that social media is quite a new
phenomenon. Nonetheless, it appears to have had a significant negative
impact on young people’s everyday lives. This essay has illustrated this
fact with examples including points on how many young people use
social media at home every night, how it has impact how bullying
occurs, and helped them to stay in touch with friends who live long ways
away. Parents and teachers should be concerned with this issue in order
to help children know when to switch off social media or use it
responsibly. This essay provided 7 steps to help children who are
suffering from bullying. Social media is not going anywhere and will
continue to impact the ways young people interact with one another on
a daily basis.”
Introduction (1 paragraph)

Describe and Define: clearly describe and define your subject to the reader (2-3 paragraphs).

Explain and Exemplify: provide supporting arguments with examples to illustrate your points (3 paragraphs)

Visual mode with written analysis (1 paragraph)

Conclusion (1-2 paragraphs)

Bibliography APA formatting

The required length is 1,000-1,200 words, excluding bibliography.