BASICTECHNIQUES

INTECHNICALWRITING
3.1 Definition
I. Specific Objectives
Given the study exercises, you should be able to :
a. name the five TECHNIQUES used in technical- scientific writing
b. give the meaning of definition and
c. identify the classification of definition
d. enumerate the different methods of expounding a formal
definition
 e. explain the rule for definition
f. identify the placement of definition in report
g. state how the definition is being developed in a given paragraph
h. compose a formal definition of some given terms, and develop each
into amplified or expanded paragraph
II. Learning Activities

A. Input
Technical writing uses techniques or patterns such as a definition, classification,
partition, description of mechanism and description of processes.

Each technique will be discussed in detail and in the order in which they are
listed.
Using Definitions
A definition explains a word or a phrase. Definitions come in many
different forms, and the least effective is the one that students most
commonly used quoting the dictionary (“Webster defines responsibility as…)
Instead of quoting the dictionary, you can use one or more methods.
Definitions are of two types; namely, formal and informal. Formal definition
requires that you give the term to be defined, the class to which it belongs,
and the differentiating characteristics that distinguish it from the other
members of the class.
 Informal definition consists of one or more synonymous expressions
substituted for the unfamiliar term used.

To add fullness and interest to basic data, a formal definition may be

expanded to numerous expository methods listed next.
1. Defining by Genus – Species
The word or the entity being defined is first placed in its genus (class) and then
distinguished from the other members of that class.

CLASS FEATURE

An orthopedist is a doctor who specialized in bones

A skylight is a window set in the roof of a building

2. Defining by Synonym
A synonym is a word or phrase that seems approximately the same thing as the
word you are defining.

Apathetic means “indifferent”

Clandestinely means “secretly”

The form of the synonym should correspond to the form of the word being defined.
Apathetic doesn’t mean “indifference” but “indifferent.”
3. Defining by Comparison, Contrast, or Analogy
a. comparison – pointing out differences or similarities

b. contrast – pointing out the differences of both objects

c. analogy – cities similarities or likeness

• The plover is a bird that lives on the shore, like the sandpiper. But the plover is
usually fatter, and unlike the sandpiper, it has a short-tipped bill.
• While the burglary is the stealing of property from a place, robbery is the stealing
of property from a person.
• A line on a piece of property is like a leash on a dog. It’s a way of legally attacking
the property to someone who has a claim against the property owner
4. Defining by Examples and Illustrations
Defines a word by giving examples to make a general subject more specific; to
make abstract terms more concrete by using illustrations.

• A planet is a heavenly sphere such as Jupiter, Mercury, Mars or Earth.

• A crustaceans is a shelled creature such as lobster, a shrimp, or a s crab

5. Defining by Functions
If the world denotes a person or object, you can define it by saying what the
person or object does.

• An orthopedist treats bone diseases.

• An Ombudsman defends an individual in a conflict with an institution.

6. Defining by Etymology
Etymology is the study of the roots of words. A word is defined by
giving its root meaning and thus showing where it came from.

• If Validas is a Latin word meaning “strong”, then one who is sick and weak is
called invalid
7. Negative Definition
It tells as what something is not, in order to clear the ground for
explaining what it is. In the definition that follows miserliness is defined in
term of its antithesis, thrift.
“Thrift, by derivation, means thriving. The miser is a man who does not thrive. The
whole meaning of thrift is making the most of everything. The miser does not make
anything of anything. He is the man in whim the process, from the see to the crops,
tops at the intermediate mechanical stage of money. He does not grow things to feed
men, not even to feed one man, or even to feed himself. The miser is the man who
starves himself, and everybody else, in order to worship wealth in its dead for, which
is also distinct from its living form. (G. K. Chesterton)
Rules for Definition to be observed

Here are rules, in formulating a formal definition.

1. Try to use simple terms. Don’t define an unfamiliar term by using more difficult
terminology, thus confusing the reader.

2. If the term defined is a noun, the word after it should also be a noun (the name
of the class). Don’t begin your definition with when, what or where.

3. In defining a term, avoid using the term itself or any of its derivatives.

4. Don’t put the term you are defining in too broad or too narrow a class.
Placement of Definition in Report

Definitions may be located:

1. In the text itself – when the terms to be defined are few and synonyms or
appositives will suffice to make their meanings clear.

2. in the footnote – when the report is to be read by a mixed group of readers,

some of whom may be familiar or unfamiliar with the terms used in the text.
3. in a special section in the introduction – when the terms are of great
importance in understanding the text of the report.

4. in the glossary at the end of the report – when the inclusion of numerous
definitions in the text itself would cause repeated interruptions which caused the
readers to lose track of the topic being discussed.
B. Practice Task

1. State how the following definitions were developed.

Write your answers on the space provided for.

1.1 From a Greek word meaning “to use words of good omen”, euphemism is the
substitution of a pleasant term or a blunt one-telling it like it isn’t.

1.2. Thermosetting a term applied to resins (plastics) which solidify or set on heating and
cannot be remelted while thermoplastics refers to resins (plastic) that may be softened by
heat and which upon cooling regain their original properties, even if the process is repeated.
 1.3 Examples of general reference book according to their form and the material
to which they include are dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, yearbook, handbooks,
almanacs, biographical dictionaries, directories, atlas, gazetteers and bibliographies.

_____1.4 Refrigeration is a process whereby heat is transferred from a place where it is

undesirable to a place where it is unobjectionable.

_____1.5 The conductor/director is the guide and inspiration in a choric group. He

controls speed, volume, and rhythm with his hands and facial expression.
2. Write an extended definition (around 150 words) of one of the following terms:

2.1 computer 2.4 internet

2.2 transformer 2.5 sewing machine

2.3 thermometer 2.6 globalization

• Submit this part of your module to your course professor

III.Feedback
• Get the result of your work from your professor/ instructor

• If you got the correct answer to the given exercises, congratulations, you have
understood the lesson well. You may proceed to the next lesson.
• If not go over this lesson again or confer with your professor/instructor
Answers to Practice Test
1.1 Etymology

1.2 Comparison, Contrast and Analogy

1.3 Examples

1.4 Genus – Species

1.5 Function
3.2 Classification
I. Specific Objectives
Given the activity, you should be able to :
a. give the definition of classification
b. enumerate some points to remember in classifying
c. evaluate an article based on the principles involved in
classification
II. Learning Activities

A. Input
From Patterns: A Short Prose Reader by Mary Lou Conlin:

There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standards sets and
best-sellers – unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns wood pulp and ink,
not books). The second has a great many books – a few of them read through, most
of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought.
(This person would probably like to make books his own, but restrained by a false
respect for their physical appearance.)
 The third has a few books or many-everyone of them dog-eared and dilapidated,
shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This
mam owns books).

-from ‘How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler

Having read the paragraph “How to Mark a Book”, do the following:

1. Sort out objects, ideas, events, people, etc. into grouping, sets, or classes following a
definite principle or criteria of division and subdivision.

2. Find out whether there is something common among a given list of items. That
common property is the basis of your classification.
3. check if you apply the following guidelines for classification:

3.1 the classification is applied to a plural subject

3.2 the basis of classification is consistent with the writer’s purpose.

3.3 the classification is complete (according to its basis)

3.4 the categories are arranged in logical order.

3.5 the categories do not overlap

B. Practice Task

As you discovered in Lesson 3.2, reading and writing are the two main focuses of this
lesson. More specifically, the focus on basic techniques for technical writing, the
classification.

1. What do you think is meant by classification? Make a definition.

2. Make a list of the principles involved in classification.

3. Evaluate this article based on the principles involved in classification.

There are three general classes of neurons (the basic unit of the nervous system),
grouped according to their function. Sensory neurons carry signals to the spinal cord and
brain. Motor neurons carry directives from the brain and spinal cord, both to stimulate
the contraction or relaxation of muscles and spur the activity of glands. Finally,
connecting neurons – interneurons – shuttle the signals back and forth through complex
pathways, between the brain, spinal cord and other parts of the body. Interneurons
comprise over 99% of the more than 10 billion neurons in the nervous system, including
most of the nerve cells of the brain itself.

- William Keeton and Carol H. Macfadden

• Submit this part of your module to your course professor
Feedback
• Get the results of your work from your course professor / instructor

• If you got the correct answer/s to the given practice task, congratulations, you have
understood the lesson well. You may proceed to the next lesson.
• If not go over this lesson again or confer with your professor / instructor