Definitions

Lesson 7: Definitions
Oct. 7-9, 2002

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to do each of the following without consulting notes or other resources:

Construct a definition.
Define relevant terms.

Assignments

Please complete the following assignment before coming to class on Tuesday:

Read “Arguments of Definition” in Everything’s an Argument and excerpts from J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur’s “What Is an American?” (473-479).

Activities

Our class activities this week include the following:

Think Fast: Drawing on Crevecoeur’s essay, set up a list of criteria for defining an “American.”

Presentation: Definitions (Professor Canada)

Cooperative Learning: Share your definition with other members of your group. Use what you hear from your classmates to adjust your own definition.

Discussion: During this time, we will discuss the insights and questions that have emerged during our reading, “Think Fast” exercise, presentation, and cooperative learning.

Think Again: Using what you have learned in this lesson and previous lessons, draft a working claim for your definition.

Conferences: While the rest of you are working on the “Think Again” exercise, I will meet with two of you in one-on-one conferences. During this time, I will review some of your writing, orally quiz you on lesson objectives, and field your questions.

Announcements: We will wrap up this lesson with announcements regarding upcoming lessons, as well as other relevant subjects.

Terms

Make sure you know the meaning and significance of the following term:

definition

Resources

You can find more information about the subject covered in this lesson by consulting the resource listed below:

Everything’s an Argument provides step-by-step instructions for writing a definition.

Introduction

Having written an evaluation and a proposal, we turn now to a third kind of argument, the definition. On Tuesday, we will begin looking at definitions, and you will have a chance to write a claim for your own definition. We will not meet on Thursday because of fall break.

Discussion

Definitions

Although you probably have encountered numerous definitions in your life, you may not have thought of them as being the subjects or results of argument. When you look up a word, such as “table,” in a dictionary, you find a neat definition right there. So where’s the argument? Did you ever stop to wonder, though, where that definition came from? The English language did not come to us with a glossary attached. Someone had to come up with that definition, and that someone conducted painstaking research to create it. He or she probably examined numerous instances in which writers, speakers, or both used that word and, from those instances, drew a conclusion about the word’s meaning. The resulting definition is, then, open to argument, though most speakers will probably agree on the basic outlines of the definition. Imagine, however, how much more contestable might be definitions of other things. For example, many people define a fetus as a human being, while others define it as something slightly different. When you write an argument of definition, you argue that something has particular features or belongs to a particular category. Often you will use a set of criteria in making your argument. As always, you will want to address counterarguments and to present plenty of evidence to support your claim.

Conclusion

Now that you have a handle on the nature and structure of arguments of definition, you will spend the next few weeks writing a definition of your own. Along the way, you will learn how to conduct library and Internet research.