One of my favorite lessons: Definitions in writing

 I've done this lesson for a number of years with Writing 115 (Introduction to Composition) and 121 (Composition 1). The lesson emphasizes the importance of defining terms for a reader in a college essay. But it also illustrates how definitions can be tricky--and how they can be used for good or for ill.

Here is the basic outline for the definitions in writing lesson. It's divided up over two class sessions, and each segment takes about 30-45 minutes. I've also done it in one class session.

I've indicated the texts I use, which could easily be substituted. I've also indicated texts I use in Writing 115 and Writing 121.  

Definitions in writing

1. In your notebook, write down one of these words and what you think it means:  need or neglect. (We discuss these terms, and I point out that definitions are really helped by concrete examples. I use the examples, “I need water/food/clothing/shelter/a red Miata” and “I forgot to feed my dog this morning/neglect.”)

2. Class: Watch this video about how and why to create definitions. 

3. With your workshop team, define one of the following terms. Use a concrete example to illustrate your definition. You can do this with words, pictures, colors, fonts, layout, or something else. (Students sometimes do this on paper and sometimes with tech, like a Google Doc.)
   

• Justice

• Ignorance

• Education

• Hatred

• Progress

• Discrimination
  

4. Look at another team’s (page or paper) and discuss their definition and example. What do you think of it? Leave the team one comment from your team. (This could be done on paper or with tech. This can also be done as a gallery walk with a “docent” from each team.)

5. Look at John Gast’s painting, “American Progress.”  What do you notice (details)?  What is the message of this painting? (We discuss the details and what the students think is the message. I sometimes write these on a whiteboard.)

6. Read “High on Progress” by Derrick Jensen for Writing 121 or “You say Latino” and “You say Latinx” by Terry Blas for Writing 115. (I usually start reading during class, sometimes on a document camera to annotate, and ask them to finish reading at home. You could substitute any text which is based on an extended definition.) 

7. Read Oregon Writes “Definition” (Part 4). (This reading reiterates and reinforces what was covered about definitions. I don’t usually give a quiz, but I do reference it on Day 2. You could substitute any reading on definitions.)

Directions for Day 2

8. Watch this clip from Babylon 5 episode, “Voices of Authority.” What point does it make about definitions? (While this episode is from 1995, it could easily have been written in more recent years.)

9. What does the Oregon Writes reading say about definitions? (If students don’t know, which they may not because they haven’t read it, we look it up together. You could give some sort of a reading quiz or a short writing prompt–a one-minute paper, for example.)

10. Writing 121: With your workshop team, answer the following questions. (These could be done using paper or using tech. You could add other questions if you like. The teams could debrief as well.) 

1. What is the rhetorical situation of “High on Progress”?

• Creator/writer

• Message

• Audience

• Purpose

• Context

2. What do you think of the message of “High on Progress”? Why?

11. Writing 115: With your workshop team, answer the following questions.

1. Why does Blas define the terms Latino, Hispanic, Latinx, and Latine?

2. What is Blas’s point or message? Do you buy it? Why?

3. What’s the big deal about definitions anyway? Why do they matter?