4.5 Definition and description as methods of development

1. Example 1

   Riis's tenement hallway

   In How the Other Half Lives (1890), Jacob Riis, who wanted comfortable New Yorkers to support housing reform, takes readers into a tenement on Cherry Street: "Be a little careful, please! The hall is dark and you might stumble over the children pitching pennies back there.... Here where the hall turns and dives into utter darkness is a step, and another, another. A flight of stairs. You can feel your way, if you cannot see it." Explain how Riis uses description to advance his argument.

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   1. 1Step 1: Situation: Riis's readers were middle- and upper-class New Yorkers who had probably never been inside a tenement.
   2. 2Step 2: Find the choices: second-person address ("you might stumble"), a guide's polite warning, and sensory details of darkness that force readers to feel their way.
   3. 3Step 3: Notice the fragments and repetition: "a step, and another, another. A flight of stairs." The sentences slow down like someone climbing blind.
   4. 4Step 4: Explain the effect: instead of telling readers the buildings are unsafe, Riis makes them experience it, which builds sympathy and urgency for reform.

   Answer: Model paragraph: Riis doesn't argue that tenements are dangerous; he walks his readers into one. By addressing them as "you" and warning them politely to "be a little careful," he becomes their tour guide, placing comfortable New Yorkers in a hallway they would never otherwise enter. The darkness is the key detail: the hall "dives into utter darkness," and readers must "feel [their] way" up stairs they "cannot see." The halting fragments, "a step, and another, another," slow the reader to the pace of someone climbing blind. By the time Riis calls for reform, his audience has already felt why it's needed.

2. Example 2

   Writing a definition by negation

   Practice prompt (written for this page): "What makes someone a good citizen?" Write a short definition paragraph that uses negation and an example.

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   1. 1Step 1: Start with what a good citizen is not, to clear away a common assumption.
   2. 2Step 2: State your own definition with its essential features.
   3. 3Step 3: Add a concrete example that illustrates the definition.
   4. 4Step 4: Explain how the definition sets up your argument.

   Answer: Model paragraph: A good citizen isn't just someone who obeys the law and votes every few years; plenty of people do both and never think about their neighbors again. Good citizenship is the habit of taking responsibility for shared spaces and shared problems, without waiting to be asked. The neighbor who notices that the crosswalk light is broken and keeps calling the city until it's fixed is practicing citizenship more than someone who only checks a box on Election Day. Defined this way, citizenship becomes something students can practice now, long before they are old enough to vote.

Common mistakes

• !Opening with a dictionary definition of a common word, which tells readers nothing new.
• !Piling on adjectives ("the dark, gloomy, scary, horrible hallway") instead of choosing one or two precise details.
• !Describing without explaining: details still need commentary that ties them to the claim.
• !Using a key term in a prompt without defining what you mean by it.

On the exam

• ✓Reading questions may ask what a description "primarily serves to" do or how a writer defines a term. Look at which details are chosen and what attitude they create.
• ✓In Question 3, prompts often turn on a debatable word. Defining it on your own terms can set up a more precise, more sophisticated argument.