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Definition

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Thin, frail, skinny, lean, wiry, trim. Examples. Discipline: to parents, to school officials, to military, to one's self ... Pedagogue: old meaning 'a teacher ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Definition


1
Definition
  • Connotation
  • Denotation
  • Whats the difference between the two?
  • Thin, frail, skinny, lean, wiry, trim

2
Examples
  • Discipline to parents, to school officials, to
    military, to ones self
  • Pedagogue old meaning a teacher or leader of
    children
  • More modern meaning a dogmatic, pedantic
    teacher
  • New words byte, nanosecond, cult, hazing,
    blackballing

3
Definition Essay
  • An extended definition
  • Allows an application of a personal
    interpretation to a word
  • Can make a case for a revisionist view of a
    commonly accepted meaning
  • Can analyze words representing complex or
    controversial issues

4
Definition Essay
  • Examples of possible topics
  • Pornography, gun control, secular humanism,
    right-to-life, junk food, anger, leadership,
    anxiety

5
Suggestions for Writing
  • 1. Stay focused on the essays purpose, audience,
    and tone.

6
Purpose
  • Your objective for writing an extended definition
    shapes the entire paper
  • Example Jazz (inform) origins of jazz,
    characteristic tonal patterns, some of the great
    jazz musicians of the past
  • Jazz (persuade) an argument that jazz is the
    only contemporary form of music worth considering
    seriously

7
Suggestions for Writing
  • 2. Formulate an effective definition.
  • Sometimes these essays begin with a formal essay
    (from a dictionary, textbook, or expert)

8
Formal Definition
  • Traditionally worded in three-part statements
    which consist of
  • 1. The term
  • 2. The class to which the term belongs
  • 3. The characteristics that distinguish the
    term from other members of its class

9
Example of formal definition
  • TERM
  • peregrine falcon
  • a bodice ripper
  • back to basics

CLASS an endangered bird a paperback book A
trend in education
CHARACTERISTICS Is the worlds fastest
flyer Usually read by women, deals with highly
charged romance in exotic places and faraway
times That emphasizes skill mastery through rote
learning
10
Definition guidelines
  • Will clarify what your subject is and is not
  • Establish boundaries of your definition, removing
    unlike items from consideration

11
AVOID
  • Tired openers like the dictionary says or
    according to Webster
  • Including very technical dictionary meanings
  • Stay clear of ungrammatical is when
    definitions Blind ambition is when you want to
    get ahead, no matter how much other people are
    hurt. should be Blind ambition is wanting to
    get ahead, no matter how much other people are
    hurt.

12
AVOID
  • Circularity (a common pitfall of politicians)
  • Saying the same thing twice and therefore
    defining nothing
  • Example A campus tribunal is a tribunal
    composed of various members of the university
    community.

13
Suggestions for Writing
  • 3. Develop the extended definition.

14
Develop the extended definition
  • You can also include a variety of other patterns
    of writing (description, narration, process
    analysis, and comparison-contrast)
  • Example robotics topic
  • Provide examples of robots used in research
  • Compare and contrast robots and human
    capabilities
  • Classify robots (most basic to most advanced or
    futuristic)

15
Patterns of Development
  • Question
  • How does X look, taste, smell, feel, and sound?
  • What does X do? When? Where?
  • What are some typical instances of X?
  • How does X work?
  • What is X like or unlike?
  • What leads to X? What are Xs consequences?
  • Pattern of Development
  • Description
  • Narration
  • Exemplification
  • process analysis
  • Compare-contrast
  • Cause-effect

16
Suggestions for Writing
  • 4. Organize the material that develops the
    definition.

17
Organize the material
  • Organize the material within each pattern
  • Example
  • fad -- process analysis
  • Organization of paragraphs might be according to
    the steps in the process

18
Organize the material
  • Example
  • relaxation -- using different patterns of
    development
  • Devote separate paragraphs to each pattern
  • Narration narrate a particularly relaxing day
  • Then, next paragraph describe several examples of
    people who find it difficult to unwind
  • End with a paragraph that explains a process for
    relaxing the mind and body

19
Suggestions for Writing
  • 5. Write an effective introduction.

20
Effective Introduction
  • A brief formal definition of the term youre
    going to develop in the rest of the paper
  • May include a number of other features
  • Might explain the origin of the term being
    defined
  • Acid rock is a term first coined in the 1960s
    to describe music that was written or listened to
    under the influence of the drug LSD.

21
Effective Introduction
  • Could explain the etymology, or linguistic
    origin, of the key word that focuses the paper
  • The term vigilantism is derived from the Latin
    word meaning to watch and be awake.

22
Effective Introduction
  • May clarify what the subject is not (called
    definition by negation)
  • The gorilla, far from being the vicious killer
    of jungle movies and popular imagination is a
    sedentary, gentle creature living in a closely
    knit family group.

23
Effective Introduction
  • May include a stipulative definition, one that
    puts special restrictions on a term
  • Strictly defined, a mall refers to a one- or
    two-story enclosed building containing a variety
    of retail shops and at least two large anchor
    stores. Highway-strip shopping centers or
    downtown centers cannot be considered true
    malls.

24
Effective Introduction
  • Intro. May end with a plan of development that
    indicates how the definition essay will unfold.
  • A student who returned to school after having
    raised a family decided to write a paper defining
    the midlife crisis that led to her enrollment in
    college. After providing a brief formal
    definition of midlife crisis, the student
    rounded off her introduction with this sentence
    Such a midlife crisis starts with vague
    misgivings, turns into depression, and ends with
    a significant change in lifestyle.

25
Assignment 1
  • Read student essay on pp. 506 - 508
  • Do a rhetorical analysis of this definition essay
    using the requirements of the definition essay as
    a checklist or criteria for evaluation. Do not
    look at the commentary on pp. 508 - 512.

26
Assignment 2
  • Read Entropy pp. 514 - 517
  • Type complete answers to the questions on pp. 517
    - 518
  • (Questions for Close Reading - p. 517
  • and Questions About the Writers Craft - pp.
    517-518)
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