Definition Introduction

Assignment

Read Assignment Sheet

• Botticelli :
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• Janet Jackson:
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Criteria

Definition is about creating a list of criteria that describes an item or delineates a class of items. List of characteristics. Important to think about what defines something but also what makes it not something else

Sometimes can use definition by example, but use the example to illustrate your criteria. “From my example we see that x is an important component of y”.

Cautionary Notes

Don’t just describe.

• A definition essay fails if it merely gives a bunch of description, that is, if it only tells you a whole heap of unrelated facts about the topic.
  • In other words, you cannot have one paragraph about a teacher’s intelligence, another about his/her kindness, another about his/her love for children, and another about his/her creativity. Doing so will only give a description of a teacher, not a definition.
• You know that your definition is only a description if you can write your thesis statement (that is, your one- or two-sentence definition) in the form of a LIST of qualities.
• Description makes your audience trust you as an authority on the topic, so you need it. However, description should prove and support your thesis, not constitute the thesis!
• What if you accidentally have a description paper or thesis?
  • You must hierarchize your descriptive details: you must decide which ones are more important and which are less important.
  • List them all out on a sheet of paper.
  • Next, limit the principal characteristics or traits of your career to the bare minimum. Brainstorm a list of the traits you want your definition to include. Eliminate the unimportant ones. Find out if some of your words are really just synonyms.
  • When you have only a few left, figure out how they work together to create one sentence that explains the perfect teacher. Now you have your thesis.

Pay special attention to structure.

• Definitional arguments are notoriously difficult to organize, but don’t worry: each thesis suggests its own special structure.
• In the next few days, I will explain a few basic models of structuring your essay, but you should understand that you will have to adapt these models and change them around so they fit your specific topic.

Acknowledge counterarguments and create rebuttals for them.

• Counterarguments consist of whatever your opponent thinks. When your audience thinks, “But what about ….?” they’re making a counterargument.
• You must identify the major possible counterarguments to your definition, explain them in an appropriate place in your essay, and then give a rebuttal (that is, tell your audience why your argument is still correct despite the counterargument).
• Avoid “to be” verbs, as well as the phrases “it is” and “there are.”

Some Points To Think About

Basics

• Why do we define?
  • Definition as boundary-making (�to create a limit or barrier�)
    • You�re making a map of your word, where it begins and ends
    • What counts, what doesn’t?
    • Keep your word safe from imposters and fakes!
    • Show the scholarship committee that you do not compromise.
  • Definition as construction
    • Creating new meaning!
    • Show the scholarship committee that you will innovate.
  • Definition to make sure you�re on the same page
    • Community forming
    • Show the scholarship committee that you understand their mindset.
  • Definition as elucidating values
    • What matters to my audience?
    • Show the scholarship committee that you share their morals.
• Limitations to definitions
  • Fluidity of definition
    • They change over time
    • Different communities may have different definitions for the same term
    • They might even change depending on whom you talk to (for example, the word “liberal” might have a positive meaning in some circles and a negative one in others)
  • All definitions are leaky
    • You can’t possible cover everything in four to five pages
    • You have to admit the weakness of your argument, but stay confident that you have something worthwhile to say
    • “Of course, many good teachers have other positive qualities that contribute to their success, such as patience, generosity, and resourcefulness, but these qualities do not matter as much as ….”
    • “Naturally, my definition of this type of teacher only applies to the math teacher. Because other disciplines demand different types of skill, they will each require different types of teachers.”

Two Significant Points

• A thesis must be debatable, not obvious. (Someone must be able to disagree with you.)
• A definition is not just a list of characteristics: it is a RULE.
  • You need to explain PRINCIPLES, not list DESCRIPTIONS.
  • Instead of saying, “A good counselor has tact, sympathy, experience, and good advice,” say, “Good high school counselors use their considerable experience with teenage psychology to determine what type of advice will tactfully address each individual student’s needs and problems.”

Possible Brainstorming Methods

• 1. Find a list of examples that DO conform to your idea of the word.
  • Start with the most obvious objects that DO count
  • Then, list the ones that obviously DON’T count
  • Then get closer and closer to middle ground,until you find contested area (debatable ground, where you must make difficult decisions), where you want to draw line: where it�s debatable
• 2. Make a long list of characteristics.
  • Cross out the unimportant ones
  • Circle the important ones
  • Try to group some of them under the same characteristic
  • Choose two to four of them
  • Find the relationships
• 3. Think about one perfect example of your word.
  • List its attributes
  • Ask yourself, what do these characteristics do for society?
  • Find out one specific social goal that these characteristics all achieve for society (or one social problem that this profession solves)
• 4. Put yourself into the mind of a perfect teacher/counselor/nurse
  • Think about how you would experience this work, both feelings and thoughts
  • How does this mindset differ significantly from your present mindset as a student or a “regular” member of society?
  • What special knowledge does this mindset yield? Or, what unique emotion (or what unique combination of emotions) does this mindset yield?
    • For example, a math teacher might understand complex mathematical laws and principles as a combination of simpler rules and guidelines that a young student will easily understand, or a nurse might have a complex mixture of professionalism and sympathy (that is, both “close” to a patient to be sympathetic and kind, and “far” from the patient in order to understand the patient’s disease objectively and scientifically)