Definition is a challenging rhetorical mode.  Writing definitions, one might be asked to challenge a widely accepted definition, create a controversial definition, or try to figure out if something fits an existing definition.  For this assignment, I will require you to apply research, but here is the catch: You may not use any cited definition in your introduction paragraph.

Using at least three sources other than reference works or dictionaries, write a 3-4-page (not counting the Works Cited) definition of a term or phrase in one of the following topics:

1. A) What significant changes—in politics, priorities, and preoccupations—do you think have affected the meanings of basic English words, especially since 9/11? Citing Nunberg’s examples and others, write an essay explaining and defining some of those new meanings.

1. B) Pinker’s scholarly essay “The Logic of Indirect Speech” makes an academic argument redefining how we should look at indirect speech. Write an essay making your own argument defining indirect speech.  You may use Pinker for support.

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/3/833.full

1. C) Using several examples, define the ideal video game protagonist (hero or heroine). You may not reuse any sources, ideas, or examples from Essay 1.

1. D) How does Charles Pierce define the salient features of 2005 America as “Idiot America” in his essay “Greetings From Idiot America”? Available at: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rac039/Personal_Site/Thoughts/Articles/idiots.htm

–You can locate this article elsewhere if this link isn’t working well.

Narrow your focus so your definition is more specific than “defining chefs.”  Include a thesis claim about the word being defined.

Purpose

Write to argue, since you’re redefining a term readers believe they know.  Convince us that your claims about the definition are valid.  Your readers have a familiarity with the essays.  Do not retell them.  We’re not “proving” how DNA works, either!  Avoid the pitfall of writing an editorial or summarizing blandly.  What does the word argue?

Audience

Your instructor and classmates are your audience, as with Essay 1.

Additional Information

You may not use dictionary.com definitions in your introduction.  (Also, any cited definitions need quotes around used words—something a lot of writers neglect.)  No wikis are allowed.

Decide whether your essay will expand, reduce, or alter the meaning of a term.  You can adopt a surprising number of strategies for an argument of definition.  You will argue that your definition is the most valid one.  This means you are competing with other definitions.  Some writers try and expand our accepted definition while others attempt to limit a definition’s applications.

Here are some techniques you might use:

1. Illustration
2. Comparison and contrast
3. Negation (saying what something is not)
4. Analysis
5. Explanations of a process (how something is measured or works)
6. Identifications of causes or effects
7. Simile, metaphor, or analogy
8. Reference to authority
9. Reference to the writer’s or others’ personal experience or observation
10. Etymology (word origins)

Don’t Forget. . .

• Avoid the overuse of I or you.
• Only papers in MLA format are accepted. Arial and Times are accepted fonts.
• Anticipate problems when you narrow the topic. Sharpen your focus so that you can do a three-page paper on the topic—it’s not a book or a one-page essay, either.  You cannot do much in such a short space.  A paper that floats around in a topic much too big for it will receive a poor grade.
• You know about rhetoric and character. Don’t get drawn into reacting to the writer here too much.  In this essay, we focus on the meanings a word has.
• Focus on connotations (readers would bring) and denotations (dictionary definitions). These often clash or reveal boundaries of definitions.
• Close non-examples are ways of bringing focus to an argument of definition.
• Relate the extent to which an example is typical or representative; we do not want to commit the fallacy of misleading vividness.