What is a claim of definition

1

Professor Shonette Stanislaus

ENG142-41

Spring 2017

Claim of Definition Argument

What is a claim of definition argument?

Some controversial issues in society stem from differences in definition. For instance, people have different ways of defining a parent. Some may define a parent as a person who conceives a child. Others may consider a person who raises and nurture a child as a parent, even if he/she has no biological attachment to a child. Hence, claim of definition arguments offer answers to questions such as:

· What is it?

· How should we define it?

· What is it like?

· How should it be classified?

· How should we interpret it?

· How does its usual meaning change in a particular context?

Basic outline of the claim of definition

Introduction

· Broad overview of the topic:

----Types of definition of the person, place, object or idea you would like to define.

Using the example of defining a parent: Biological and non-biological

----Which definition do you support: your claim/thesis?

Example: A parent is a person who cares and nurtures a child, and may or may not have

a biological attachment to a child.

Body

· Expand on your introduction:

------Discuss your claim in detail

-------Discuss counterargument(s)

------Discuss refutation

Using example above about defining a parent:

------ Discuss examples from research to support your claim that a parent is a nurturing person, who may or may not have a biological attachment to the child.

-------Discuss examples from research to acknowledge that people without a biological attachment can sometimes ill-treat children such as adoptive parents or foster parents.

-------Discuss refutation that even though some people with no biological attachments may abuse children, others have been caring. Biological attachment can also extend to other relatives such as aunts and uncles, and not necessarily the person who conceives a child.

Conclusion

· Restate your introduction and summarize points discussed in the body of your paper.

Note: Please remember to use academic/scholarly sources from research, in writing your argumentative synthesis. Hence, you should not cite Wikipedia; since it is an open source, with information written and edited by persons, who are not necessarily an authority on the subject, they are writing about.

You should use at least five (5) academic/scholarly sources for your synthesis. To find academic/scholarly sources, you can consider using Google Scholar and the Tiffin University library resources online or on campus.

Claim of definition questions retrieved from web.stanford.edu