Definition: Clarifying Terms
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Four Questions:
1. What is the term to be defined?
2. Who is the intended audience for the writing?
3. What is the purpose for the intended definition?
4. What is the sentence definition of this term?(Term, Class, and Distinguishing Characteristics)
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Three Techniques for Defining Terms:
1. Definition By Synonym – using a word or phrase that has the same meaning.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
1. Definition By Synonym – using a word or phrase that has the same meaning.
Example:
He is a polymath, which means he is a person of great learning in several fields of study.
Term
synonym
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Three Techniques for Defining Terms:
2. Definition By Category – determine a larger group to which the term belongs.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
2. Definition by Category - determine a larger group to which the term belongs.
Example:
A savant is an educated person who is well versed in literature or science.
Detail
CategoryTerm
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Three Techniques for Defining Terms:
3. Definition by Negation – explain what the term does not mean. You can then include a sentence explaining what it does mean.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Three Techniques for Defining Terms:3. Definition by Negation
Example:
“Minnesota Nice” is not the act of being neighborly; it is acting of being friendly while harboring passive aggressive contempt for others.
TermWhat it is not
What it is
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Basic Dictionary Meaning: quoting a dictionary’s definition, this also includes the word’s history (i.e. its etymology)
Example:Marriage:1. the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision
to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
[Middle English mariage, from Old French, from marier, to marry.]
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
American:
1. a native or inhabitant of the United States
2. the English language as used in the United States
3. a native or inhabitant of a North American or Central American or South American country
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Hunger (noun):1.a compelling need or desire for food. 2.the painful sensation or state of weakness caused by
the need of food: to collapse from hunger. 3.a shortage of food; famine. 4.a strong or compelling desire or craving: hunger for
power. –verb (used without object)
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Depending totally on
dictionary definitions
can be a trip down the
proverbial rabbit hole.
For instance. . .
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Obscene (noun):
1. offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Morality (noun):
1. conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral or virtuous conduct.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Decency (noun):
1. conformity to the recognized standard of propriety, good taste, modesty, etc. .
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Depraved (adj.):
1. corrupt, wicked, or perverted.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Right (adj.):
1. in accordance with what is good, proper, or just.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Moral (adj.):
1. of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Etymology: word history; origin
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Malarian. Infectious disease characterized by chills and fever and caused by the bite of an infected anopheles mosquito.
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Malaria
Medieval Italian: mal (=bad) + aria (=air)
Definition
Neologism
“New”
From the Greek word “logos,” which means “word”
A distinctive system
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Example:
Bonwifery (n)French : bon = good
Old English: wīf = woman
Definition: Clarifying Terms
Reading Assignment:
Read the essay “On Genius” in The Writer’s World, pgs. 169-170.