DEFINITION Points to Remember
- Remember that you are obligated to define key terms that you use in your writing— such as Marxism, alternative medicine, nontraditional student.
- 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 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.
