length: 600 words.
points: 20 (10 for step one, 10 for step two)

Step one:

Narrative, as we've seen, forges connections. As we resequenced and rearranged our narratives we also indulged in "thick description" of the time and place of our tales' unfoldments. The art of description is contingent on a sense of audience, and when we use concrete imagery, precising adverbs and adjectives, and colorful tropes to invoke the particular and even singular nature of a certain scene and circumstance, we actually block and forestall some otherwise available connections. If we continue to tune in to the very idea of audience via description, we create the conditions for composing definitions. Blogging towards our second major assignment (mission statements)we will compose more than a few definitional arguments. Definition is one of the most useful strategies for finding/inventing relevant, exigent technical writing solutions.

What is the definition of definition? Although it is commonplace to think of definitions as stable dictionary "entries," and therefore certainties; definitions in fact work through contentious probabilities. For example, go to the OED or Webster's, sort through an entry.

Here's the entry for "demos":

[a. Gr. {delta}{ghfrown}{mu}{omicron}{fsigma} district, people.]

1. One of the divisions of ancient Attica; = DEME2 1.
1776 R. CHANDLER Trav. Greece 19 (Stanford) A demos or borough-town. Ibid. 36 Hipparchus erected them in the demi or borough-towns.

2. The people or commons of an ancient Greek state, esp. of a democratic state, such as Athens; hence, the populace, the common people: often personified.
1831 Westm. Rev. Jan. 245 The aristocracy have had their long and disastrous day; it is now the time of the Demos. 1847 GROTE Greece II. xxxvi, The self-acting Dêmos assembled in the Pnyx. 1886 TENNYSON Locksley Hall 60 Yrs. After 90 Celtic Demos rose a Demon, shriek'd and slaked the light with blood.

The second entry relies on language ("commons") that has different effects, according to timing and placement. Without a particular context, dictionary definitions don't do much work.

In practice, however, definitions are "leaky." Not to say that we should try to "seal" definitions; rather we can write arguments that plug leaks in ways that channel and even redirect attention: in other words, definitions build provisionally helpful boundaries, and create "limit functions" that organize and focus collective inquiry.

Practice: try and define "diversity." Or "noise." Or "victim." Make an argument: start with the "rule of three." Find three aspects of diversity, and frame: for example, race, class, education. Sequence and resequence the words you compose, determine which aspect has more "weight." Ask why, and for whom.

Remember, CounterArgument is your friend. Tuning definitions towards the needs of specific audiences will help us work through the the "caesuras" and cognitive dissonance we feel at the onset of controversy. "Getting proleptic" with different perspectives helps us find limit cases, which make for useful and persuasive definitional arguments. Search for examples that run "counter to" the claim you're testing. Test the stakes of the claim: who is "invested" in the argument? The counterargument?

In sum: definition is an argument that can 1. tune into a refined sense of audience, where audience itself is a network of differential connections as much as it is a collection of individuals 2. clarify controversy 3. create a heirarchy of criteria to guide further inquiry and gather forces of collective action. By answering "what matters?," definition arguments anticipate and prepare grounds for evaluation arguments.

blog generators:
- transform narratives into definitions: look for "is" statements, both tacit and explicit.

a) select a term, find three things....
b) introduce counterargument
c) test: for novelty, for controversy (the stakes), for further definition arguments

more fun 'n' games
consider aslo : "negative" definitions
the example of wikitorial. "Wikitorial is not...."

Step Two:

Next, we will use definitional strategy to compose MissionStatements

Resources

figures of definition

Trish's Definitional Template

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