Prewrite on Exemplification

 
According to the dictionary, exemplification is “the act of exemplifying”.  Can anybody say redundant?  Digging a little deeper we find another definition, “that which exemplifies”.  Still not a lot of help there, is it?  You would think that the dictionary would offer better examples for a word meaning “to serve as an example” or to “illustrate an example” wouldn’t you?

After poking around in “exemplify” and “exemplary” and “exemplificative” we finally get down to the core of the word:  Examples. You can either serve as one, or use one to illustrate another point.

Since our reading assignment was a rather pleasant little story about all of the useless junk that piles up in the bottom drawer of our kitchens, I’m assuming that the latter definition, examples to illustrate a point, will be the focus of our next paper.  That means we’ll need a point.  After all, according to the dictionary, a paper without a point is pointless. And let’s face it, pointless papers just aren’t much fun to read.

We’ll also need some examples to prove our point, or, at the very least, to illustrate it.

So, what will be a fun point to write about?  Not easy.  In fact, for me, that has got to be the most difficult part of writing a structured paper.  I’ve spent years refining a writing style that specifically ignores the point.  I don’t like pointy papers.  Pointy papers hurt.  And, for the most part, pointy papers tend to miss the point entirely.  When someone sits down and starts to differentiate between “good” and “evil” or “hot” and “cold” they’ve usually missed the point.

For example, I spent a lot of years working in a freezer.  Obviously, my definition of “cold” is going to be a lot different from someone who spent a lot of years working in a furnace.  Here’s another example:  I spent an equal number of years rounding up millions of fish and brutally murdering them so that somebody else could have lunch.  Is that “good” or “evil”?  The people eating all those tasty fish probably think that that is a pretty nifty thing.  But how do you think the fish feel about it?