Writing A Success Definition Essay: Helpful Hints

Writing a definition essay, you are aimed at giving a personal explanation of the meaning of a certain word and supporting this meaning by facts, examples, statements. This kind of an essay requires good literary skills, creativity and imagination as it doesn`t deal with events, facts, data, but discusses words and their denotations and connotations. Therefore, the first step to a success definition essay is to choose the right word for interpretation:

• Choose an abstract word that has several denotations to have more material to write about.
• Find a word that is disputable, i.e. means different things to different people.
• Choose a word familiar to you to be able to use your knowledge and experience.
• Learn about the origins of the word and changes in its meaning in an etymologic dictionary.

The organization of the paper follows the 3 – part format usual for other kinds of essays: introduction, body and conclusion. However, the content of each of these parts has its peculiarities that should be taken into account if you want to write a success definition essay.

1. Introduction.

In this part of the work you should inform the reader of what you are going to write about, and catch the reader`s attention. You can do it, using one of five basic patterns:

• a historical review;
• an anecdote;
• a surprising fact;
• a story about some well-known person;
• a declaration.

Provide the dictionary definition of the word. You may use more than one dictionary definition to compare them. You can also give some contradictions to the word: contrast helps clear up the meaning. Give your own explanation of the word`s meaning in your thesis statement. Mind that it should be brief, exact and non-standard. Demonstrate your creativity and ability to describe complicated concepts in plain words.

2. Body.

Substantiate your thesis statement, giving your interpretation of the definition, and support it with examples. Give the analysis proving the link between the examples and the word`s meaning. There may be several points that reflect different aspects of the word definition. Ensure that each point corresponds to the paragraph of the body. Mind that the opening sentence of each paragraph should refer to the thesis.

3. Conclusion.

Give the summary of the main ideas of your essay. Restate the thesis and the main points, referring them to the body paragraphs. You can also explain how your life was affected by the defined word. Go back to the attention catcher in introduction to connect all parts of the essay. Use an interesting quotation or phrase to finish your work.