What Is It Custom Essay

Definition – What Is It?

Definition: One of the most common ways we make sense of our world is by defining and categorizing the people,

objects, and ideas we encounter within it. Our textbook describes this activity as one in which we ask “What

is it?” questions of the subject at hand. The answers to those questions define the subject, thus enhancing

our understanding or refining our interpretation of it. Learning to define one’s terms carefully is an

essential skill for the advanced writer, especially when the writing topic involves specialized vocabulary or

complex abstractions. Occasionally, defining an idea or issue will be the central purpose of an essay, as it

is for your second essay.

Assignment: Write an essay that employs definition as its main developmental technique. Use the textbook

guidelines (p. 160-163) to help you organize your draft. Your topic is listed below. You will be supporting

your definition through a series of examples (Rauch’s “In Defense of Prejudice” is a good model to follow). As

you consider how you will organize your definition essay, please focus on one—or more than one—of the

following techniques: definition by example, negative definition, figurative definition, or operational

definition. The ideas in this essay should be your own – please do not engage in substantial additional

research or cite myriad outside sources beyond Dobbs’s article. I’m truly interested in what you have to say.

(You should feel free to clarify points of information or special terms as needed; cite accordingly.)

Topic: You will be using ideas from David Dobbs’s “The Science of Success” to write a definition essay of your

own. Dobbs reports on recent research into risk genes that suggests such genes may have protective properties

for some carriers, in particular when the carriers have been raised in a supportive environment. Dobbs calls

this idea the “orchid hypothesis” and, upon discovering that he is such an orchid, writes “my short/short

allele now seems to me less like a trapdoor through which I might fall than like a springboard – slippery and

somewhat fragile, perhaps, but a springboard all the same.” In your essay, define the “orchid hypothesis” as

you understand it from reading Dobbs’s essay. Then develop an argument based on this definition or another

related definition that you would like to explore. You might argue that the risk-taking gene is not as crucial

for success in contemporary society as it might have been 50,000 years ago. Or you might argue that it is more

critical today even if our risks look different from those of our ancestors. You might argue that the orchid

theory puts nurture ahead of nature in the age-old debate and suggests mothers play a key role in their

children’s success. You may prefer to take another angle and argue that the success of “dandelion children” is

overlooked by this “orchid” research; with this approach, you could redefine and even rename those

"dandelions." You might want to interrogate the problems inherent in dividing children into only two

categories — orchids and dandelions.

The topic is somewhat open as long as you engage with Dobbs’s ideas and practice the skill of definition.

Consider examples beyond the article –- yourself, people you know, celebrities, sports figures, etc. –- to

illustrate your thesis. (Obviously, you won’t have the luxury of genetic testing here, so suggesting whether a

particular person may be a dandelion or orchid will be speculative and based on observation.) Include a brief

summary of Dobbs’s article early on in your essay and then be sure to cite him properly whenever you refer to

his text after that.

(A Rhetoric of Argument, 3rd ed. Fahnestock & Secor (McGraw-Hill) )