Clarifying Terms
Writing Definition
Most definitions are short; they consist of a synonym (a word or phrase that has about the same meaning as the term to be defined), a phrase, or a sentence. For example, we might say that a hypocrite is a person "professing beliefs or virtues he or she does not possess." Terms can also be defined by etymology, or word history. Hypocrite once meant "actor" (hypocrites) in Greek because an actor was pretending to be someone else. We may find this information interesting and revealing, but the history of a word may be of no use because the meaning has changed drastically over the years. Sometimes definitions occupy a paragraph or an entire essay. The short definition is called a simple definition; the longer one is known as an extended definition.
Techniques for Writing Simple Definitions
If you want to define a term without being abrupt and mechanical, you have several alternatives. All of the following techniques allow you to blend the definition into your developing thought.
- Basic dictionary meaning.
- Synonyms.
- Direct explanation.
- Indirect explanation.
- Analytical or formal definition.
- Techniques for Writing Extended Definitions
Techniques for Writing Extended Definitions
Each of the following questions takes a pattern of writing and directs it toward definition:
- Narration: Can I tell an anecdote or a story to define this subject (such as jerk, humanitarian, or citizen)? This form may overlap with description and exemplification.
- Description: Can I describe this subject (such as a whale or the moon)?
- Exemplification: Can I give examples of this subject (such as naming individual, to provide examples of actors, diplomats, or satirists)?
- Analysis by division: Can I divided this subject into parts (for example, the parts of a heart, a cell, or a carburetor)?
- Process analysis: Can I define this subject (such as lasagna, tornado, hurricane, blood pressure, or any number of scientific processes) by describing how to make it or how it occurs? (Common to the methodology of communicating in science, this approach is sometimes called the "operational definition.")
- Cause and effect: Can I define this subject (such as a flood, a drought, a riot, or a cancer) by its causes and effects?
- Classification: Can I group this subject (such as kinds of families, cultures, religions, or governments) into classes?
- Comparison and contrast: Can I define this subject (such as extremist or patriot) by explaining what it is similar to and different from? If you are defining orangutan to a person who has never heard of one but if familiar with the gorilla, then you could make comparison-and-contrast statements. If you want to define patriot, then you might want to stress what it is not (the contrast) before you explain what it is: A patriot is not a one-dimensional flag waver, not someone who hates "foreigners" because America is always right and always best.
Order
The organization of your extended definition is likely to be one of emphasis, but it may be space or time, depending on the subject material, you may use just one pattern of development for the overall sequence. If so, you would use the principles of organization discussed in previous chapters.Introduction and development.
Introduction and Development
Consider these ways of introducing definition: with a question, with a statement of what it is not, with a statement of what it originally meant, or with a discussion of why a clear definition is important. You may use a combination of these ways or all of them before you continue with your definition.
Development is likely to represent one or more of patterns of narration, description, exposition (with its own subdivisions), and argumentation.
Whether you personalize a definition depends on your purpose and your audience. Your instructor may ask you to write about a word from a subjective or an objective viewpoint.
Notes:
Simple Definition
- No two words have exactly the same meaning
- Serveral forms of simple definitions can be blended into your discussion: basic dictionary, synonyms, direct explanations, indirect explanations, and analytical definitions.
- For a formal or an analytical defintion, specify the term, class, and characteristic(s).
- Avoid "is where" and "is when" definitions, circualr definition, and the use of words in the defintion than the word being defined.
- Use clustering to consider other patterns of development that may be used to define your term.
- The organization of your extended definition is likely to be one of emphasis, but it may be space or time, depending on the subject material. You may use just one pattern of development for theoverall organization.
- Consider these ways of introducing a definition: with a question, with a statement of what it is not, with a statement of what is originally meant, or with a discussiton of why a clear definition is important. You may use a combination of these ways before you continuse with your definition.
- Whether you personalize a definition depends on your purpose and your audience. Your instructor may ask you to write about a word within the context of your own experience or to write about it from a detached, clinical viewpoint.
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