6.2 Definition and Illustration

Erin Thomas, MFA

6.2 Definition and Illustration

Erin Thomas, MFA

Case in Point

Definition

A definition states the exact meaning of a word or phrase. Definitions explain how a particular term is being used and why it is being used that way. Sentence definitions, like the ones in a dictionary, typically have three parts: the term being defined, the category to which the term belongs, and the distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from other things in its category.

Cholera is a potentially lethal illness that is caused by the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, with symptoms of vomiting and watery diarrhea.

Term Category Distinguishing characteristics

An extended definition is longer than a sentence definition. An extended definition usually starts with a sentence definition and then continues to define the term further. You can extend a definition with one or more of the following techniques:

Word origin (etymology): Exploring the historical origin of a word can provide some interesting insights into its meaning.
- According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word escape comes from the Old French word “eschaper,” which literally means “to get out of one’s cape, leave a pursuer with just one’s cape.”
Examples: Giving examples can put a word’s meaning into context.
- For example, when someone says she “drank the Kool-Aid” for a political party, it means she became a mindless follower of its leaders’ values and ideas.
Negation: When using negation, you explain something by telling what it is not.
- St. John’s Wort is not a stimulant, and it won’t cure all kinds of depression. Instead, it is a mild sedative.
Division: You can divide the subject into parts, which are then defined separately.
- There are two kinds of fraternities. The first kind, a “social fraternity,” typically offers a dormitory-like place to live near a campus, as well as a social community. The second kind, an “honorary fraternity,” allows members who share common backgrounds to build networks and support fellow members.
Similarities and differences: When using similarities and differences, you can compare and contrast the item being defined to other similar items.
- African wild dogs are from the same biological family, Canidae, as domestic dogs, and they are about the same size as a Labrador. Their coats, however, tend to have random patterns of yellow, black, and white. Their bodies look like those of domestic dogs, but their heads look like those of hyenas.
Analogy: An analogy compares something unfamiliar to something that readers would find familiar.
- Your body’s circulatory system is similar to a modern city. Your arteries and veins are like roads for blood cells to travel on. These roadways contain white blood cells, which act like police officers patrolling for viruses and bacteria.

The chart below shows how definitions can be used in a variety of genres^[1].

**Figure 6.2.1** Genre Objectives and Definition Use

Table 6.2.1 Definition Words provides a list of transitions and expressions that signal a definition.

Table 6.2.1 Definition Transitions

Definition Transitions

First kind, second kind

can be defined as

is described as

which is a type

is called

which is to say

this means

refers to

similar to

**Figure 6.2.2**: Statue of Nero Pointing

Illustration

An illustration provides a short narrative or gives a list of examples to illustrate a specific point. Illustrations can help further define a topic or they can provide background. They are often used in argument to provide a human element to statistics or facts. It’s important when providing an illustration to keep the narrative short and to the point, as they are intended to back up a claim. Because it’s not “just a story,” it’s important that your illustration doesn’t distract from the main claim.

Consider the excerpts from “Isolationism vs. Interventionism,”^[2] which explains American sentiment surrounding participation in WWII. In this selection, the author lists types of activities that the interventionists sponsored to gain support: news articles, radio broadcasts, and large political gatherings. This is an example of an illustration through listed items.

U.S. citizens spanning political parties and social identities joined the America First Committee (AFC) to lobby for the U.S. to build up its defenses and avoid involvement. They argued that a policy of neutrality, a strong army, and the natural boundaries created by the Atlantic and Pacific would protect America from enemy fire. The AFC actively recruited citizens to its position through news articles, radio broadcasts, and large political gatherings.

In this next example, a longer illustration is used. A prominent member of the AFC is described and quoted to give the reader a better understanding of the people involved in this movement and how they felt about the U.S. being involved in international affairs.

Famous isolationists include Aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was one of the featured speakers. In 1941, he delivered this address: “We are assembled here tonight because we believe in an independent destiny for America. Such a destiny does not mean that we will build a wall around our country and isolate ourselves from contact with the rest of the world. But it does mean that the future of America will not be tied to these eternal wars in Europe. It means that American boys will not be sent across the ocean to die so that England or Germany or France or Spain may dominate the other nations.”

It is evident in both of these examples that an illustration can provide additional, important information about a subject to help the reader understand it more fully.

Table 6.2.2 Illustration Words provides a list of transitions and expressions that signal a definition.

Table 6.2.2 Illustration Transitions

Illustration Transitions

for example

specifically

as, like

for instance

such as

include the following

one of

case in point

to illustrate

Instructions

Read through the excerpts below.
Circle the transition words/signal phrases in each selection.
Explain what rhetorical pattern is being used to organize the text and how you know.

Excerpt 1

Read through excerpts from “Isolationism vs. Interventionism,”^[3] which explains American sentiment surrounding participation in WWII.

Another example of an isolationist was US Senator Burton K. Wheeler, a progressive and a pacifist for several reasons. He was raised by a Quaker mother and was deeply impacted by his experiences in Montana as an attorney in WWI when the state banned public demonstrations and restricted the free speech of citizens opposed to the war. He also felt concerned that America was pivoting to be the “world’s policeman.” Wheeler asserted that Britain could fight the war alone and openly voiced his support of their campaign to stop Hitler – just as long as the U.S. was not involved.

On the other hand, Interventionists argued that protecting Western European democracies, would ultimately protect American from Nazi Germany’s reach. If all of Europe fell, the entire continent would remain under the power of a Fascist dictator, who would control all commerce and negotiations with the U.S. Although America was protected by the oceans, it would be isolated from trade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt explained that it would be like “living at the point of a gun.” In counter to the AFC, interventionists created The Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, which focused at “awakening the people of this country to the perils which confront them.” In a rally in New York City, prominent interventionists Edgar Ansel Mowrer, a foreign reporter; Ferdinand Percora, a New York Supreme Court Justice, and Tallulah Bankkead, an actress, buried the heads of two stuffed ostriches at the beach to illustrate FDR’s claim that Wheeler and Lindbergh were sticking their heads in the sand.

Among the interventionists, were several pro-British groups, and the CDAAA was the most prominent. They advocated to repeal the Neutrality Acts in order to supply Britain with goods and military arms. Willian Allen White, a news editor and author, was the chair of the CDAA. During an interview with the Chicago Daily News, he asserted: “Here is a life and death struggle for every principle we cherish in America: For freedom of speech, of religion, of the ballot and of every freedom that upholds the dignity of the human spirit… Here all the rights that common man has fought for during a thousand years are menaced… The time has come when we must throw into the scales the entire moral and economic weight of the United States on the side of the free peoples of Western Europe who are fighting the battle for a civilized way of life.”

What kind of text is this? What rhetorical pattern is being used? How do you know?

Excerpt 2

Read the excerpt below from “Historical Basis of Modern Understanding”^[4], which explains how modern understanding of DNA was developed.

A half century later, British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith was perhaps the first person to show that hereditary information could be transferred from one cell to another “horizontally,” rather than by descent. In 1928, he reported the first demonstration of bacterial transformation, a process in which external DNA is taken up by a cell, thereby changing morphology and physiology. He was working with Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium that causes pneumonia. Griffith worked with two strains, rough (R) and smooth (S). The R strain is non-pathogenic (does not cause disease) and is called rough because its outer surface is a cell wall and lacks a capsule; as a result, the cell surface appears uneven under the microscope. The S strain is pathogenic (disease-causing) and has a capsule outside its cell wall. As a result, it has a smooth appearance under the microscope.