How to Write a Great Definition Essay
If you are required to write a definition essay and demonstrate your personal explanation of a particular notion, here are some tips on how to write such essay well.
What is a definition essay?
A definition essay is a piece of writing in which you can provide your personal understanding of a particular word. It helps improve your language skills as well as showcase your understanding of the subject that you study.
Important tips on how to choose a word for your essay
- Choose an interesting idea – the topic must be interesting to you and your readers. Select the word which you like so that you can elaborate on it.
- Try to avoid concrete concepts – if the word is too concrete, you will not be able to write much about it. Choose a word which is not too obvious and which can be defined in many ways from different angles.
- Give preference to a familiar word – decide whether the concept is easily recognized by you and whether it is relevant to your experience. This will make the whole process of defining a word much easier.
- Get a word which you can say a lot about – find a word which has a really vast amount of meanings.
- Argue with a dictionary definition – it is not an easy way to discuss the meaning of the word of your choice, but adding such argument in your essay will help you make it stand out.
The process of writing a descriptive essay
- Define the word by yourself – before doing the research, try to define the word as you understand it. This will be a draft which you will adjust in the process of writing a whole essay. Even definition in one sentence is good for the beginning.
- Do the research – it is important to do the research online or by means of reading dictionaries etc. You might have your own explanation of the chosen word, but doing educational research is absolutely a must for a great definition essay.
- Consult with others – checking online sources as well as dictionaries is great, but as an additional source of information, consulting your friends, peers or family at times can be very useful.
- Compare the word to the similar terms – this step will help you show your understanding of the word. Contrast and compare the meaning with a similar word and use terms which are the opposite of the subject that you define.
- Take care of references – this stage of writing a descriptive essay is the one which you should not miss in case you used quotes from different sources, such as online articles, journals or books.
Writing a descriptive essay is interesting but challenging at the same time. We hope that our guidelines were helpful in a creation of a successful piece of writing.
