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Definition

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 1 month ago

Definitional argumentation

 

Here's a basic template for composing with definitions:

 

X is/is not Y (criteria/match or "genus/species" technique). For example, you could argue: The Amazing Mr. Slug is a performance artist, not a stand-up comedian.

 

For example: how to define standup comedy? In this video, we find that a "border case" (here, the performances of The Amazing Mr. Slug) creates the conditions for a structured definition of this particular genre of comedy. "Border cases" and counterarguments actually help us define our terms and categories.

 

Now, this particular "controversy" may not matter to us, but in our own projects, occasions will arise when these rhetorical strategies can clarify key concepts, and establish what's important and what's not at a particular and important point in a document.

 

 

In an Expository Writing class (ENC 3310) USF student John Siewert composed this definition of sustainability. As you read John's essay, think about the audience you want to reach in your narrative/definition. How would you remix John's essay? Which ideas, paragraphs, etc would you select? How would you alter them, and make them appeal more precisely to your target audience?

 

It may be even more important to ask: which ideas would you leave out?

 

This is important because narrative and definition are both about what they leave out! In this way, story-telling and rhetoric, like the art of comics "is as subtractive an art as it is additive" (McCloud 85). In "Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutter," Scott McCloud takes us between the panels, where anything is possible. Anything at all! Here, readers create meaning, writers suddenly change directions, and all involved instantaneously travel vast distances in time and space. When comic artists experiment with between-panel transitions to make available what art historian E.H. Gombrich called "beholder's share," a rhythmic space of participation is made available at the level of perception itself. Texts become "animated," or come to life, when the readers, or "beholders," have their share of space to work and play. Here, if we really want to get to audience involvement and interactivity, we can think of call and response traditions. In a sense, call and response is always happening, even when we read silently. Although we might not want to call this space the "gutter," remembering the elastic space between the panels in comics can also help us find resonant transitions in our own compositions. As we invent, revisit and revise our definitions arguments, we can can find resonance if we get "between the panels": keeping our readers, and the limitless potential of their imaginations, in mind, will help us find the best transitions as we sequence our definitional arguments, and weave them into our narratives.

 

If you don't yet have your books, read: Understanding Comics pages 60-93

 

some background on the uses of definition in the West

 

Long ago, Cicero wrote that “when you have taken all the qualities of the thing you wish to define has in common with other things, you should pursue the analysis until you produce its own distinctive quality which can be transferred to no other thing” (Topics v, 28, cited in Crowley and Hawhee, 216). To illustrate this process, Cicero provided an example close to our course content. To define “inheritance,” he placed it in a class, “property.” Next, he added a vector of difference, stating that inheritance is a form of property “which comes to someone at the death of another” (vi, 29). Here, Cicero starts down a particular process of definition called “species/genus” definition: first he places the thing to be defined in a category, then he begins to list differences that distinguish the species from other members of the proposed genus. We could also call this process “defining as…,” and in this process, argumentation begins as soon as a writer sets limits on her definition by selecting a particular class or category, even before the procedure of selecting differences and distinctions. One group of writers may place intellectual property in a class with tangible property, and in this case, much of what we call fair use would in this case be defined as “free riding.” Of course, another series of arguments might place “free riding” in a different category, and argue that free-riding is part of creative, innovative work in markets. When competing definitions arise out of the same terrain, writers must select differences and points of distinction, but they may choose do so as a process of showing how one thing (say, free-riding) is NOT another thing (say, theft), as well. Some folks call this method “negative definition.” Furthermore, definition arguments are often more like “re-definition” arguments—re-definition processes radically displace the “it” in question into seemingly ill-suited categories, as a way of amplifying or tuning in on a specific aspect of the “it” to be defined, or leveraging a boundary-example as a means to shine a new light on an issue. For example, some readers may be unprepared to think aboutthe Burning Man Festival in terms of gift economics, but traversing the ground between the species (the Burning Man festival) and the genus (gift economics) provides ample opportunity to turn a particular readership towards the notion.

 

Writing to establish such connections, we rely on definitional recipes including but not limited to

  • enumeration (listing the most important parts that make up a whole—not all the parts, because defining something well actually requires that we leave certain contested aspects out of the “equation,” so that we can focus our readers’ attention)

 

  • etymological definition (studying the history of a concept and its uses, and then selecting and amplifying the use that will make your case persuasive),

 

  • and definition by way of example. Generally speaking, definition requires us to determine when greater or less ambiguity will be more persuasive in a particular case. The simple art of telling stories usually brings about opportunities for experimenting with these (and other) techniques, so try and find "gutters" and transitions in your narrative where you might weave in techniques of enumeration, etymology, or example. Narrative is a flexible genre, and definitions easily nestle into stories with compelling plots.

 

But you can always go back to the simple formula "X is..." or "X is not..."

 

So, again, here's the basic structure:

 

X is a member of the category Y

The 3 most important criteria of Y are

1.

2.

3.

 

Then, match X to 1, 2, and 3!

 

arguments, including definition, rest on assumptions (warrants), so it's important to know what your audience already knows, believes, etc.

 

Recall, from our last class meeting, James' claims regarding computers and distributed consciousness:

1. posit a fact : consciousnes + internet = another form of consciousness

 

2. cite 2 sources: one supports, one doesn't. Entertain and attend to both opinions in your text = prolepsis, Socratic dialogue, space for rhetorical appeals to audience investments/interests/values.

 

Often, when we think of definition, Webster’s dictionary comes to mind. But dictionary definitions can't attend to the exigence of a particular time and place--terms, concepts, and meanings emerge to frame issues, according to the rhetorical situation. Definitions, in use, don’t usually function like perfect classical mathematical equations. Rather, in everyday situations, definitions have more to do with probabilities; therefore, writers tend to amplify certain aspects of definitions in circulation and turn down the volume on other uses.

 

So, remember,

 

Counterargument is your friend

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