Essay 3: Definition (750 points)

Writing Assignment

Definition is a challenging rhetorical mode.  Arguing definitions, one might be asked to challenge a widely accepted definition, create a controversial definition, or try to figure the extent to which examples fit an existing definition.  Using Olson’s essay “The End of Race: Hawaii and the Mixing of Peoples” and at least three sources other than reference works or dictionaries, write a 4-5-page definition argument on the following topic: Can there be an end to race?  Engage Olson’s essay by writing a paper in which you examine the possibility of an end to race.  Why does race persist?  Can or should we move beyond concepts of race?  Would something replace the idea of race or has something replaced it already?

You may want to draw on responses to the Questions for Critical Reading after Olson’s essay, as well as your examination of the census from Question 1 of Exploring Context in making your argument.  Also consider your work on human dignity and race from other discussions in the course.

At least two of the sources must be scholarly sources from our databases.  Show how the definition functions in this essay, as well as how it should be viewed by educated Americans.  (Writers need not use you or I to do so.)

Again, this is a paper about how the term should be defined as well as how Olson uses it.  You will need to narrow your focus so your definition is more specific than “defining race.”  Include a thesis claim about the word being defined.  Writers can only argue this if they gauge how readers or the public would understand the term.

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 are familiar with the essays.  Do not retell them.  We’re not “proving” how DNA works, either!  Avoid the pitfall of writing an editorial or summarizing.  What does the word/phrase argue?

Audience

The instructor and classmates are the audience.  They know the essay.

Additional Information

Use no dictionary.com or reference work definitions in your introduction, please!  (And any cited definitions need quotes around used words.)  Avoid clichés and clichéd moves such as beginning the conclusion with “In conclusion”!

I do expect that, other than Olson, all sources will come from the library databases.

Decide whether your essay will expand, reduce, or alter the meaning of a term.  Writers adopt a surprising number of strategies for an argument of definition.  Argue that your definition is the most valid one among competitors.  Some writers argue to expand our accepted definition while others attempt to narrow a definition’s applications or the conditions where it applies.

Here are some rhetorical modes and techniques you might employ:

1. Illustration: These have to be typical and representative of ____.
2. Comparison and contrast: We often learn what Y is by seeing something completely different. It shows us the qualities why something differs.
3. Analysis: these are abstract terms, so break them into their parts and build back to the big ideas. Use the concrete to get to the abstract.
4. Explanations of a process (how something is measured or works)
5. Identifications of causes or effects that spin out of the term. What’s at stake?
6. Simile, metaphor, or analogy (without committing fallacies of misleading vividness, either/or, etc.)
7. Reference to past authority and discussion of how and why the meaning shifted
8. Reference to the writer’s or others’ personal experience or observation
9. Etymology (word origins) and how these impact our understanding of the word

Don’t Forget. . .

• Avoid overuse of I or you.
• Only papers using MLA format are accepted.
• Anticipate problems when you narrow the topic. Sharpen your focus so that you can do a developed 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.
• Secure enough sources of the right type.  You would be surprised how many people don’t meet the terms of the assignment due to failing to count sources properly.