Formal and Informal Definition
Formal and Informal Definition
Timeframe: 45 minutes
Target Audience: Students preparing to write a definition essay on the term “Wonder”
Formal
Informal
Descriptive
--Charles Schultz
Tautology
Adam called the elephant an elephant because that’s what it looked like.
--Mark Twain
Abstruse
3-Part Formula
Term
Group
Difference
Ed Sams,3
Formal definition
Once upon a time, the ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle were
arguing about the nature of man. Aristotle defined “man” as a biped (or two-
legged), so Plato handed him a chicken. Nettled, Aristotle amended his definition:
“Man is a featherless biped,” to which Plato handed him a plucked chicken.
[The definition is incomplete; it places the term within the group, but does not
differentiate it from other items in the same group. A formal definition requires
three parts: the term, the general group in which it belongs, and the difference
between it and all other items in the same group.]
Informal definition
Descriptive definition
Tautology
A tautology is a logical fallacy when the second part of the sentence tells no
more information than the first part. How is Twain’s definition a tautology?
In defining terms, avoid tautologies by not using the word root to define
the word (for example, do not say that uncouth means not couth.)
Abstruse
There are different kinds of definitions: the formal, the informal, the
descriptive, and the humorous. The humorous is intended not to inform the
reader on the topic but only on the writer’s point of view. The descriptive is often
used to explain a concrete item or else an abstract term that is hard to categorize.
The informal definition is used when a brief word substitute can help identify
technical terms that appear in reports. Only the formal definition provides a
complete and logical separation of the term from all other possible terms.
Ed Sams,5
Lesson Analysis: