During this week’s lecture, I discussed the following outline as a good model for you to follow while creating your own Expanded Definition essay. A good rule of thumb for your quoted material would be at least 2 cited definitions and 3 cited contextual sentences, but you might find having more definitions and more contextual sentences strengthen your essay. Remember to discuss, explain, and compare/contrast the quotes that you find to help your reader understand how these all relate to one another before endeavoring to write your working definition at the end of your essay.
Your Name's Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM TO: Prof. Jason Ellis FROM: Your Name DATE: Due Date SUBJECT: Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM Introduction [Heading Level 2] What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading. Definitions [Heading Level 2] Quote several definitions of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and parenthetical citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc. Context [Heading Level 2] Quote several sentences from a variety of sources that use the term in context. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal or two, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should be in quotes, have a parenthetical citation, and a bibliographic entry in your references at the end of your document. Working Definition [Heading Level 2] Based on the definitions that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition). References [Heading Level 2] Order your APA-formatted bibliographic references by the author's last name, alphabetically. In your posted version, they do not need a hanging indent. And, they should not be in a bulleted list.
