Develop a Scratch Outline for your Definition paragraph. A definition is telling what something means. In a definition paragraph, you develop your personal definition of a term of a concept. You can do this by giving several examples or one extended example to support your point made in your topic sentence.
Follow these steps:
Preview the Writing Assignment 2 on pages 259-260.
Select one of the terms provided. Keep in mind that you will be writing a paragraph that defines the one you chose.
GENERATEa tentative topic sentence for your definition paragraph.
Identify your term, the class it belongs to, and the special feature that sets the term apart from other members of the class. (Remember not to make statements of announcement or create topic sentences that are too broad or too narrow.)
Use a prewriting technique to GENERATE supporting ideas for your topic sentence.
Create a scratch outline, as illustrated on pages 25-27 of the textbook.
Compose a Definition Paragraph Draft
Write a draft of the Definition paragraph. Now that you have developed a scratch outline and received feedback, you are ready to write a rough draft of the definition paragraph. You will post your draft to this discussion.
Your paragraph should contain the following:
Approximately 150-200 words
A well-developed topic sentence
Adequate detail to support the topic sentence
