Definition Essay English 9 Honors Extra Credit: 20 points possible.

Instructions

Prompt: What is Love? Register: Formal Audience: Your teacher Supporting Material: You will use as your chief support Romeo and Juliet. You will backup your claims with evidence from Shakespeare’s play. You may also use as support any other outside source such as a novel, a film, a television show or a song. Even the sagacious words of your parents will count as substantiation. Format: MLA (you must use the in-text citation form for plays to get credit). You must include a Works Cited. Due Date: Anytime between now and the last day of school.

How to Write a Definition Essay

Definition essays aren’t difficult to write. By a definition essay, we mean an essay that defines what a term means. This could be a concrete term, such as “Egg” or “Water”, or abstract, like “Honor” or “Friendship” and, of course, the ever-popular subject of “Love.” The topic is usually general, and since it’s so broad, the approach is completely up to you, the writer; whether you wish the tone to appear serious or humorous, general or specific. There a few basic guidelines that will aid you in writing a good definition essay.

1) Know what term is being defined, and explain it clearly to the reader. BUT dictionary definitions will only sound esoteric and uninteresting. Define the term in your own words, and adding a bit of a personal touch is always welcome to the reader. Therefore, first person is acceptable.

2) Present understandable information. Hazy and uneven details and abstract ramblings will not make the essay readable or comprehensible.

3) Add personality to your essay. Put in anecdotes, personal bits of information (not necessarily the skeletons in your closet, Buck) and other memorabilia. If you enjoy writing the essay, the reader will certainly enjoy reading it.

There are different ways you can go about defining a term. Again, the simple Webster’s definition is not only hackneyed, it is enormously insipid, and in many cases, the definition is less understandable than the term itself. Sometimes the word sparks emotions you can play on. The different methods to make the topic more understandable are listed and explained below:

1 Analysis: The subject may be separated into different parts and those parts could be described separately. For example, if the topic is love then the many types of love could be explained individually. The writer may start with platonic love, then romantic love, unrequited love, and first love. And if you are just focusing on say, romantic love, you may describe how it is revealed in different cultures, or by different age groups, or in different time periods.

Comparison: By comparing the subject to something else, it might make it more lucid to the reader. If the topic is Communism, then comparing it to capitalism or socialism, may make the concept of communism much clearer. the topic is Love, then comparing it to say euphoria my engage the reader’s tactile sensibilities. Or if you’ve been a fool for love comparing it to an outbreak of the N1 virus will certainly give the reader a sense of your position on the subject.

Details: providing the reader with the physical and internal attributes, conceptual background and traditional thoughts of the subject is another way of making it more apparent to the reader.

Negation: Pointing out what the subject is not, may make what it is clearer to the reader. An essay on Hinduism started by stating that Hinduism was NOT Christianity, and then began pointing out the dissimilarities between the two religions. This was a very effective beginning. Stating what love is not can also serve the purposes of reality and clarity.

Examples and Anecdotes: when explaining a very abstract concept, the best way to make your meaning clear is by giving examples. When defining “truth” for instance, a well placed story highlighting the truthfulness of a person may make a greater impact than a theoretical rambling on what truth could or could not mean. When citing models of love, go to the iconic love story of the ages, Romeo and Juliet, for your evidence.

Origins and Causes: discussing the background of a topic may also help. If you are writing about “fire” such as, then theorizing on how fire may have been discovered will add interest to your essay.

Results, effects, and causes: topics such as “Racism” or “Poverty” cannot be truly discussed without describing the effects that they render on the human psyche. Similarly topics such as “Pollution” and “Global warming” lack poignancy if the results and causes are not mentioned. Love also has both positive and negative results, it can make the world go round or only love can break your heart.

Definition essays are the perfect opportunity to let your wit and imagination run wild. Remember to make your essay amusing, poignant, personal and thus memorable to the reader

2 Melancholy

You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth And our lives are forever changed We will never be the same The more you change the less you feel --Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins

Friends often ask me why I like rock music so much, and I tell them it’s what I’ve always listened to. The sensuous sound of rock music with a loud bass guitar and someone raging on the microphone can put me in a jovial mood, or depending on the familiarity of the song, it can cause me to feel melancholy. It’s hard to explain this feeling of melancholy, but the definition, according to the Encarta Dictionary, is the

“feeling or cause of pensive sadness: feeling or making somebody feel thoughtful or gentle sadness.” Melancholy is how I feel when the weather turns cold in Florida, or when I’m watching a group of friends share a moment of belly laughs. Melancholy isn’t the same as depression, but it’s more a sense of remembrance. Depression is feeling sad or gloomy without any redeeming qualities of true tragedy; melancholy is, as the Encarta definition says, “pensive . . . gentle sadness.” Oftentimes, melancholy is dreamlike and eventually brings about good thoughts of the past, even when a past event was painful at the time.

Similar to the Smashing Pumpkins’ song, “Blue Skies bring tears,” windy, falllike days bring tears to my eyes. The combination of weather and holidays is a sardonic reminder of experiences from the past. I think of Indiana and the reasons why I’m not there anymore. The freakish ways of nature, or I guess some people call it the natural ways of life, such as the loss of my mother and my grandmother, brought me to Florida.

It’s ironic how I always used to say I wanted to live in Florida one day, and here I am,

3 unwillingly. On a windy, fall day here in Florida, I remember my old friends and the way boredom in a small town drove us to rebellion and committing senseless acts of juvenile delinquency because of lack of entertainment and for the fun of it. Sometimes I think I lose myself in moments of memory, and suddenly I remember I’m the same girl, here and now in Florida, who has no friends except one, who bums rides off of me.

Reading Gary Soto’s essay, “One Last Time,” I hear melancholy, a mixed tone of resentment and humility, of disdain and respect, one that surrounds the reader with melancholy: “. . . boredom was a terror almost as awful as the work itself,” Soto writes about his childhood of growing up in the fields working hard for little pay (15). He also refers to the lazy moments in life when he and a friend window-shopped, “bought popcorn, and sat at the tier of outdoor fountains to talk about girls” (15 ). Soto’s prosperity and ultimate success as a writer seem haunted by the beginnings of his life and the reminder that he was close to becoming just a “stoop[ing] Mexican” that he never wanted to be (16). Similar to Soto, we all have moments in our pasts that we both hated and loved, and certain things remind us of them, whether it’s the feel of soft cotton sheets or a sharp wind stinging our faces. If we take time to be with the feeling of melancholy, like Gary Soto we hear new stories about our past.

Sometimes a sound or a smell or jotted-down notes bring past moments of melancholy that make us feel sad or lonesome. The essay, “My World Now,” recounts the depressing details of notes, left behind by an elderly woman in a nursing home and later discovered by her son. The notes provide a grim record of her life in a nursing home where she measures time by the short visits from family and pairs of new slippers she receives: “I’ve got 8 pair,” she writes (Seaver 566). Comparing this present to her past

4 life of having a degree in music and being a teacher, she says, “I’d love to go out for a meal, to travel again. . . . I’d love to visit my friends” (567). For her, feelings of melancholy in remembering a lively past help her endure and accept the conditions of her present confinement, “This is my world” (568).

Unlike Seaver, who wanted to remember her past life experiences to hold onto them, in “Dog Lab,” Claire McCarthy writes about a past experience as a medical student that she would rather forget—operating on a dog that eventually died: “The drizzle was becoming rain, the rain felt good. A couple of people walking past me put their umbrellas up. I let the rain fall on me. I wanted to get wet. I was suddenly very tired” (713). Walking home from the lab that night, the weather had matched her mood, she had wanted to wash away the troubling images of the dog lab. For McCarthy, melancholy comes later that evening, in the quiet of her own room when she chooses to make the best of a past that she cannot undo: “It was time to make some changes, some changes back” (714). In this way, melancholy opens the door to positive change for

McCarthy.

Whether we welcome melancholy, it has a way of just showing up at times.

Melancholy can come suddenly like a sudden craving to smoke a cigarette or slowly like nightfall; it can stay for an hour or a day. What do we do when it settles over us? For me, melancholy is survival. It keeps me moving forward in my life; it helps me make it through times of sadness and keeps me from repeating mistakes. Sometimes, we have to let melancholy play its soft, sad tune.

5 An Extra-Large Editorial (Subjectively Speaking)

What does the word "large" mean these days? No, not that, ya pervert! I'm referring to the diminishing use of it in proper context. Ordered a large Coke lately? You probably wound up with the one that was one size smaller than the biggest they had. To me, large means if there are three sizes, it's the biggest one. Apparently there are those in the retail industry who disagree with me. Sometime, without my knowledge, small was renamed as

"regular," medium became "large," and large came to be considered "extra large."

I guess sooner or later the word "regular" will be abandoned by the wayside for its mediocre overtones and substituted in its place will be the word "large." Of course, since there has to be a distinction between sizes, the next size up will become "Big 'Un," and the biggest of all will don the name "Behemoth."

Try this--go to a fast food restaurant of your choice and ask for a "large" order of fries.

Take notice of what size container is used. I'd just about be willing to bet that the biggest container they have isn't the one they reach for. More than likely, you'll get what's really the mid-size carton of fries. This works with pizza, too. Try and order a medium pizza from Papa John's. The response I get is "we don't have medium, only small, large, and extra large." What's this nonsense? Is it supposed to make me feel better about my purchase of a large as opposed to a medium? I just want a pizza that's not too big, but isn't going to leave me hungry either. To me, that falls under the category of "medium."

That's marketing for you. Just gimme a medium-sized pizza, as in, not the smallest, but not one that occupies its own zip code either.

Every restaurant has a different qualifier. Hardee's refers to their combo as a "Jumbo

Size." At the Huddle House, it's a "Hearty Helping," and McDonald's calls it "Super

6 Size." How many synonyms for large can we come up with? The English language contains a finite number of words. Sooner or later when every company has trade-marked a variation of big or large, words will start being made up. Wendy's has already started the trend. Last time I checked, "Biggie" isn't in the unabridged dictionary.

I wonder when the trend will stretch to other industries as well. Will the automotive industry start calling the Miata a "regular-sized" car? Does that make everything else

"large?" That means the Escort would be called a "large" car, and sport-utilities like

Ford's Excursion and the Chevy Suburban will be reclassified as "Extra Extra Extra

Large" cars.

Thank God this trend seems to be limited to the commercial sector. I've never heard of anyone calling the direction "extra south." Or maybe "southest." Picture someone giving you these directions: "Turn extra-left at the first fork, then go the southest you possibly can for about 3 miles. Turn mega-north and then make an extra-small right."

Maybe that's the trend--everything from here on out will be classified as a grade of large. The terms "small" and "regular" will be phased out, since no one wants to own anything that's small or regular. We can do away with the whole "good, better, best" identification, too, since good is merely average, and better implies that it's inferior to at least one other product. John Wayne-style toilet paper (rough, tough, and, er, you know the rest) will be the "best"; standard Charmin won't be able to handle just being "better," so they'll have to start calling it "more best," or maybe "extra best." Maybe even "galacta- mundo" for the really good stuff. Yeah, I just made that word up, but relax. I'll give you an example so you can be sure you use it correctly: "After that night of drinking Tabasco

7 sauce and eating jalapenos, the extra-best toilet paper wasn't cutting it, so I reached for the galacta-mundo Charmin. That did the trick."

Here are some more usage examples of the upcoming classification system. For instance, a trip to the movies:

"I'd like a large Coke, please"

"Would you like the large or our Bladder-Cup?"

"Umm, bladder-what?"

"It's called a Bladder-Cup sir, we named it that because it's not possible to drink the whole thing without exploding your bladder."

"Just gimme a slightly-larger-than-average-sized Coke. I'm not really big on doing myself bodily harm when consuming beverages."

Or maybe the purchase of a new television set:

"Hi, I'm looking for something in a big screen."

"Big as in 'barn door,' or big as in 'side of a Buick?' "

"I'd say more to the effect of 'side of a Honda.' "

"Right this way, sir, are our assortment of 'bigger' televisions. The big screens are anything up to 36 inches. Bigger screens are 36 to 48 inches, and the eyeball-burners are anything over 48 inches."

I consider myself to be a medium-sized guy. My 165-pound frame fits nicely in medium-sized chairs, cars, and other objects still subjectively classified correctly. But when I buy a T-shirt, I wear an extra large. Not because I like baggy clothes, that just happens to be the size that I fit in without looking like a skinny version of James Dean trying to wear a T-shirt one size too small for me and show off muscles I don't have. I

8 can't imagine why the clothing industry would classify people as being "large" inadvertently. Large by what standard? Is it supposed to make me and other scrawny weaklings feel better about ourselves since we fill out "large" shirts? Ever intimidated anyone by showing them your shirt label? "Hey man, don't mess with me! See this

Haynes Beefy Tee? Extra Large, baby! You don't want none of this!" Somehow I doubt they teach that in self-defense class.

Call a spade a spade, for crying out loud! The purpose of having words that distinguish relative size is to be able to have something at the extremes to set the standard. If it's the smallest you make, call it "SMALL." If it's the one that fits the majority, call it "MEDIUM," and if it's the biggest that is possibly available, call it

LARGE. I see no need in qualifying things that are the biggest, best, or longest with words like "Extra" or "Mega."

Now if you'll excuse me, my Extra-Grande-Size Mega Coffee Pot is done brewing.

9 Taboo Words and Forms to Avoid

To ensure a lovely grade and your teacher’s affection, know and avoid the taboo words. They are grade killers. NEVER use these words in formal writing such as book reports, essays, and research papers.

1. thing, things 2. stuff 3. a lot of 4. okay, ok 5. common adjectives (good, bad, happy, sad, mad) choose more precise language 6. wanna 7. gonna 8. kid 9. guy 10. kind of/sort of 11. Common modifiers such as very, extremely, incredibly (chose a precise word) 12. could of, would of, should of (could have, would have) 13. & instead of and 14. Contractions (won’t = will not) 15. Text messaging terms: lol = hilarious, 2 = to, 4 = for, GF = death 16. First person in academic writing except personal narratives: I, we, us, our, me 17. Second person: you, 18. numbers ten and under should be spelled out unless part of a date, street numbers or proper names. Numbers over ten are spelled out if they start a sentence. 19. slang (my bad, emo, fugly, peeps, dawgs, homies, sup, rad) 20. anything obscene 21. jargon (“technical talk” example: Bilateral probital hematoma (jargon) for a black eye, or “shiner” (SLANG) 22. The fact that = that 23. In order to = to 24. The author is able to show (this makes you a critic of the author) 25. Enlisting the word should as part of your argument.

Additionally avoid 1. Avoid using “one” when referring to an anonymous person – reword the sentence. 2. Being that 3. “Talks about” when referencing a writer’s statement in a novel 4. Being and all its forms (as much as possible) (is, are, were = recast) 5. There is (are) (there is a woman I know who is insane about her dog = A woman I know is insane about her dog) 6. Gerunds or verbs ending in “ing.” Paul is reflecting on the war = Paul reflects on the war 7. The author wants to show that (assumes)

10 8. Do not refer to the reader (the reader will see that....) 9. Passive voice. The review will be performed by Ms. Miller = Ms. Miller will perform the review. 10. “The reader” 11. “What people don’t know/realize is” (assumes) 12. Proves (to argue) 13. Rhetorical questions except in intro and conclusion 14. Saying “the quote” within the paper 15. true identity (unless you are willing to define that identity)

11 Transitional Words and Phrases

Using transitional words and phrases helps papers read more smoothly by providing coherence

A coherent paper allows the reader to flow from the first supporting point to the last.

Transitions indicate relations, whether from sentence to sentence, or from paragraph to paragraph. This is a list of "relationships" that supporting ideas may have, followed by a list of "transitional" words and phrases that can connect those ideas:

Addition: also, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, again

Consequence: accordingly, as a result, consequently, hence, otherwise, so then, therefore, thus, thereupon

Summarizing: after all, all in all, all things considered, briefly, by and large, in any case, in any event, in brief, in conclusion, on the whole, in short, in summary, in the final analysis, in the long run, on balance, to sum up, to summarize, finally

Generalizing: as a rule, as usual, for the most part, generally, generally speaking, ordinarily, usually

Restatement: in essence, in other words, namely, that is, that is to say, in short, in brief, to put it differently

Contrast and Comparison: contrast, by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise, on one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, rather, similarly, yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, in contrast

Sequence: at first, first of all, to begin with, in the first place, at the same time, for now, for the time being, the next step, in time, in turn, later on,

12 meanwhile, next, then, soon, the meantime, later, while, earlier, simultaneously, afterward, in conclusion

Diversion: by the way, incidentally

Illustration: for example, for instance, for one thing

Similarity: likewise, similar, moreover

Direction: here, there, over there, beyond, nearly, opposite, under, above, to the left, to the right, in the distance

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