Unit 9b Book

1. Introduction

Knowing how to give good definitions is important for anyone speaking or writing about their field, their work in this field, or research they have done. It is crucial to give clear definitions when giving a presentation, or when writing a report, semester paper or thesis. This is known as defining the terms one is using, so listeners and readers will understand exactly what one is talking about. Giving good definitions of terms is a sign of clear thinking, mastery of the topic one is talking or writing about, and understanding of what one´s audience might need to have clarified.

Contents

• Giving simple definitions: A hospital is a place where patients receive medical treatment.
• Giving expanded definitions: A thermocouple can be defined as a small heat-sensitive electrical device consisting of two wires made of dissimilar metals which is used for measuring changes in temperature and is frequently found in heating and cooling systems.
• Phrases for introducing examples: such as, for example, for instance, like, one of the best-known examples is…, to illustrate, a case in point is…
• Related grammar: Relative clauses and use of commas. Order of adjectives used as pre-modifiers.

2. Listening: An Electrical Grid

As warm-up, you are going to watch a video on electrical grids. This will give you an opportunity to hear some definitions, explanations, categorizations and example- giving within an electrical engineering context. You are going to watch the video twice. First, focus on the information given in it and complete this listening comprehension task. Then, during the second watching, try to complete definitions, explanations, and examples in this task.

3. Grammar: Giving Definitions and Examples

As you could see in the previous listening task, not every explanation or statement is a definition. Similarly, not every relative clause is a definition. A proper written definition is a full sentence (not just a phrase) that must contain the term to be defined, a generic noun (aka a hypernym, i.e. a more general word from a higher semantic category) and the defining information, which is the explanatory/informative part:

Now, read more about a definition structure on the first two pages of this document. The most difficult part of a definition is the "higher category word", i.e. the hypernym or generic noun, because sometimes it is hard to find the most appropriate one. Practise choosing generic nouns in this task. 

Once you are able to choose the correct generic noun, you can practise the whole definitions in these two tasks: Task A and Task B. While completing these two tasks, notice that in order to come up with a clear and appropriate informative part of a definition, various grammatical structures can be used, for example, a relative clause (… which is used…; … which provides…), past participle (… used…), present participle (…providing…) and prepositional phrase (of reduced economic activity). In complex definitions, which seem to be more packed with information, it is desirable to use a variety of grammar forms in order to achieve good wording in terms of stylistics. You will see that in the four follow-up tasks, in which you are given four technical definitions: of a switch, capacitor, battery and theodolite. Put the parts of the definitions in the correct order.

4. Specialist Reading

Now it is time to see how technical definitions are used in a text. First, do this reading task to find out. Then see what electrical components and other related terms are defined here.

If comparing and contrasting these two tasks, maybe you can notice one significant fact: isolated definitions tend to feel unnatural and rare. Usually, a definition is part of a longer explanatory text and is often followed by some examples. Giving an illustrative example makes a definition clearer. There are several phrases that you can use to introduce examples. Study some of them on pp. 3 and 4 of this document. Then practise these phrases by completing this task.

5. Relative Clauses: Commas or Not?

When completing the grammar tasks in the unit, maybe you noticed an interesting fact: there was never a comma before a relative pronoun used in relative clauses in definitions. This may seem a bit weird particularly to Czech students, as there is always a comma used with relative clauses in the Czech language. In English, however, some relative clauses have commas, but some have not, depending on their type. As definitions use defining relative clauses, i.e. the relative clause is important for the meaning of the whole definition/sentence, it cannot be omitted and therefore, there are no commas. Read more about relative clauses in this document. You are not only going to read about commas used with relative clauses, but also have the opportunity to revise the rules of the use of the relative pronouns. After going through the grammar overview, practise the relative pronouns here and here. Then practise the use of commas in this task.

6. Forum: Giving Definitions

After seeing so many definitions in this unit, now it is your turn to come up with yours. In this forum, you are asked to write at least three definitions related to your field of study. BUT: do NOT mention the term being defined. Instead, use it, for example:

It can be defined as…

The other participants in this forum will do the same and, at the same time, they will respond to your definitions by guessing the terms you have defined. Let´s see how many of the terms will be guessed right. In addition, this forum will show to what extent the given definitions are clear and complete. So, if you think a definition given by your fellow student is not so good, do not hesitate to suggest how to improve it.

7. Word List

The key terms related to the topic of Unit 9b can be found:

• in the Excel format here.
• in the interactive flash card format here. This format is particularly good for drilling the new vocabulary.
• in a zip file here. This file is downloadable, so that after unpacking it, you can drill the new vocabulary on your desktop, laptop or any other portable device where you have a browser installed. Important: after unzipping the zip file, make sure to keep all the related files in the same directory at all times. Do not change any file names and do not transfer or delete anything.

Recommendation: Remember that the best way to learn new vocabulary is to see each new word in a context; that is, step by step as you complete all the tasks in the unit.

8. A printer-friendly version of Unit 9b

A printer-friendly version of Unit 9b exercises and the key to these exercises can be found here.