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Classification Example

[Note: This essay reflects classification only; check with your instructor to determine whether you should include a division strategy as well.]

Clichés frequently enter into everyday conversations. Most are spoken casually without giving much thought. Often, they are a tongue in cheek way of commenting on another person's personality, behavior, or actions. Although humans are the species of highest intellect on earth, I find it quite amusing that a number of clichés compare people to animals, insects, and vegetation.

Very often, clichés referring to animals describe someone's personality or actions. For example, someone feels "healthy as a horse" one day, but then feels "sick as a dog" the next. A picky eater "eats like a bird," while a person with a hearty appetite "eats like a pig." The overt individual is "proud as a peacock," or thinks he or she is "the cat's meow." A person who is devious acts "as sly as a fox." "The eager beaver" does the job quickly, while the one "monkeying around" does not. An accomplished scholar is "as wise as an owl" with "a memory like an elephant." The security guard in the department store notices a suspicious individual and "watches him like a hawk."

Some clichés use insects to depict a person' s behavior. The nervous person seems to "have butterflies in her stomach." A child who cannot sit still is asked if there are "ants in his pants." "The busy bee" or "the bookworm" usually attains success, while the one "as slow as a snail" never finishes. The person with a "bee in her bonnet" is "as mad as a hornet." Either way, both are "bugged" by the situation.

Finally, clichés referring to vegetation also make their way into conversation. The developing child "grows like a weed." The slim basketball player is given the name "string bean." A person of little intelligence is labeled "a pea brain." The individual who stays at home watching television is referred to as "coach potato," while people who go out of town are "sowing their wild oats." One who does not join in the fun is called a "sour grape." That special someone is "the apple of our eye." The head of an organization receives the title of "top banana." Two people who share much of the same interests are classified as "two peas in a pod." A person who is in control and unperturbed acts "as cool as a cucumber." An extremely nervous person delivering a speech looks flushed or "red as a beet."

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