7 Modes: Definition

1. 7 Modes: Definition

2. What is it? • Examples of definition tasks you may be asked to perform: • In literature: define a sonnet and identify its different forms • In astronomy: Explain what a dwarf white star is • In engineering: Write a proposal defining problems your company intends to solve, along with the proposed solution • In business: Write a brochure defining and describing a new product your business has developed • In writing: • Establish boundaries • Show the essential nature of something • To explain the special qualities that identify a purpose, place, concept or object and distinguish it from others that are similar • Often, writers use extended definition • Goes beyond the sort you find in a dictionary or encyclopedia • Expands on and examines essential qualities of a policy, an event, a group, or a trend • Sometimes becomes an entire book: • The “ideal mate” • The best kind of government • Living the “ideal life” (Ex: The Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren; Your Best Life Now – Joel Osteen)

3. Purpose • Many purposes for definition: • To point out the special nature of something • What makes San Francisco such a unique city • What makes a Mac different from other computers • To explain • What cross-country skiing is like, and why it is different from downhill skiing • What it means to be an American • To entertain • What it means to be a “good old boy” or a “super mom” • To inform • As in college papers when you are defining a specific topic, like Early American folk art or postmodern architecture • To establish a standard • Defining a good exercise program • The ideal pair of running shoes • The perfect mate • May also be defining to persuade, since you are, to some extent, convincing your reader of something • To define yourself • An autobiographical statement for college admissions or scholarships • A cover letter to apply for a job • Gives special information that will, hopefully, distinguish you from other candidates or individuals

4. Audience • Before writing, consider two basic questions your readers may have: • “What distinguishes what you are writing about?” • What is typical or different about your topic? • How do I know when I encounter the topic you are presenting? • Ex: In an essay about the Olympics, you may want to distinguish between the modern games and the original games • “What is the basic character or the essential nature of what you’re writing about?” • More likely to be important with complex topics • Ex: What do you mean when you say ‘alternative medicine’? • Ex: What do you mean when you talk about ‘white-collar crime’? • These questions can be more difficult to answer, but definition is necessary if you are going to use such terms in your essay. • Specific definitions can be strengthened with the use of examples for illustration.

5. STRATEGIES – to convey a distinct purpose and a clear focus: • Several strategies to choose from, and they can be used singly or in combination: • Giving examples • Describe a scene • Create a visual image • Cite a specific instance of something • Analyzing qualities – to emphasize what specific traits distinguish the person or thing you are defining • For people: • Focus on specific qualities or behaviors that reveal that individual’s personality and character • Describe what makes someone unique • For things: • Focus on specific characteristics, features, etc. that reveal the uniqueness of the item you are defining • Attributing characteristics • Define an person or entity by assigning certain attributes to that person or item • Ex: An essay on soldiers may begin by describing them as heroic and go on to attribute such characteristics to them as bravery, loyalty, etc. • Defining negatively • Instead of defining something by what it is, you define it by what it is not. • Ex: From Alice Walker’s Everyday Use: One’s heritage is not simply hanging on to relics from the past. • Using analogies • Comparing the item or idea that you are defining to a similar idea or item in order to clarify your definition. • Ex: an analogy between the painful initiation rites that young people undergo worldwide and the procedures women undergo in beauty parlors to enhance their appearance • Showing function • Defining an object, agency, or institution by describing what it does • Defining a tiger by a primary function: to kill for food – it is a predator

6. STRATEGIES – to convey a distinct purpose and a clear focus: • Combining strategies/modes: • The above strategies can be combined within a definition essay • Definition as a mode can be used in combination with other modes: • Ex: In “Shop Like a Man”, a compare and contrast essay, the author attributes defining characteristics to male shoppers. • Ex: In “The Mullet Girls”, a narrative essay, the girls are defined by their characteristic taste in clothes and mannerisms. • Ex: In “Stone Soup”, the author uses stories about children as a way of defining a strong family.

7. POINTS TO REMEMBER: • Remember that you are obligated to define key terms that you use in your writing – particularly if those terms are unique to the topic you are writing about. • Understand your purpose in defining: to explain, to entertain, to persuade, to set boundaries, or to establish a standard. • Understand how writers construct an argument from a definition. For example, by defining the good life or good government, they argue for that kind of life or government. • Know the several ways of defining: giving examples, analyzing negative qualities, attributing characteristics, defining negatively, using analogies, and showing function. • Learn to use definition in combination with other strategies, as a basis on which to build an argument, or as supporting evidence.

8. Original Essay #3 • SUBJECT: Your choosing (school appropriate) • PURPOSE: To “instruct”, “inform”, or “demonstrate” • ORGANIZATION: There must be a clear (to me & the readers) principle of organization • AUDIENCE: Your teacher and your classmates. What can you safely assume we know? • LENGTH: MINIMUM of 2 pages, typed (12 point type) and double-spaced. • Use the previous slides as your guide for writing: I will use the points to remember as a rubric when I grade your work • Due 12/4