Definition 01

General- Specific

• First organizational structure: General- Specific. • GS texts are quite common in graduate student writing, • and they are comparatively straightforward. • The GS pattern can be used at the paragraph level as well as for larger

units of discourse, such as a series of paragraphs in a section or even the text as a whole.

• GS organization is often used to structure an introduction for a longer piece of writing.

• A GS pattern can help you produce • a. an answer to an examination question • b. a course paper • c. an opening paragraph of an assignment • d. background (or scene-setting) to an analysis or discussion

• GS texts typically begin with one of the following: a short or extended definition, a generalization or purpose statement, a statement of fact, or some interesting statistics

● See task 12 page 79

Topic sentences should:

Identify the main idea of the paragraph Not be too general or too specific Be supported by details or explanation in the other sentences of the paragraph

Example

Your Turn! Write a topic sentence for this paragraph:

__________________________________________. It is estimated that within the next fifty years, there will be a one in three chance that the Pacific Northwest will experience between an 8.0 and 8.6 earthquake, and a one in ten chance that the earthquake will range between 8.7 and 9.2 (Schulz, 2015). Historically, a massive earthquake has hit the Pacific Northwest on an average of every 244 years. We are now over 300 years past the last major earthquake, meaning that it could occur at any moment (Schulz, 2015).

Definitions

• Sentence Definition usually starts an extended definition: • Term = class + distinguishing detail

• be careful of circular definitions: • An electron microscope is a microscope that looks at electrons.

• An electron microscope is a type of microscope with high magnification and resolution, employing electron beams in place of light and using electron lenses.

Audience:

Knowing who your readers are, what they understand about the subject, how well they speak English, and how they will use the document will help you determine the kind of document to make.

Definitions:

This is due to the fact that Python and C fundamentally handle and represent data differently. The C language is procedural, statically typed, and enables explicit access to memory via the use of pointers, whereas Python is an object oriented language, dynamically typed, and does not allow explicit access to memory. • What does this tell us about the background of the reader?

Strategies for definitions:

Examples Examples are particularly useful in making an abstract term easier to understand. Where is this concept used in the real world? Where would your audience have seen this? Who uses it? Partition Partitioning is the process of dividing a thing or an idea into smaller parts so that readers can understand it more easily

Strategies cont.

Principle of Operation Describing the principle of operation—the way something works— is an effective way to develop an extended definition, especially for an object or a process.

Comparison and Contrast Using comparison and contrast, a writer discusses the similarities or differences between the item being defined and an item with which readers are more familiar.

Negation:

A special kind of contrast is negation, sometimes called negative statement. Negation clarifies a term by distinguishing it from a different term with which readers might confuse it.

Analogy An analogy is a specialized kind of comparison. In a traditional comparison, the writer compares one item to another, similar item: an electron microscope to a light microscope, for example. In an analogy, however, the item being defined is compared to an item that is in some ways completely different but that shares some essential characteristic. For instance, the central processing unit of a computer is often compared to a brain.

• Examples -- https://gcn.com/Articles/2014/01/10/NSA-data-center-wastewater- cooling.aspx?admgarea=TC_DataCenter&Page=1

http://www.electronics-cooling.com/2013/12/cooling-cloud-energy- efficient-warm-water-cooling-servers/

One definition- Five audiences

Biologist explains CRISPR to five audiences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sweN8d4_MUg

● Using our knowledge of audience and general specific texts, write two definitions of the same term from your field.

● Audience 1: high school level

● Audience 2: someone in your same field ● Use different levels of style/tone/vocabulary in your writing ● Start with a sentence definition. ● Use general specific structure ● Use strategies for definitions such as exapmples and metaphors