การใช้การเปรียบเทียบและการนิยาม

การกระทำที่ชนะการโต้แย้งเกี่ยวกับคำศัพท์

• Arguments หลายข้อไม่ใช่การโต้แย้งเกี่ยวกับข้อเท็จจริงเลย
• They are disagreements about what a word covers — fair, effective, necessary.
• Defining the term is how you move the argument to ground where evidence decides.

If “fair” means three different things, an argument that never defines it has three games sharing one ball.

Writing a comparison

• State the category in the first sentence, before either subject appears.
• Then measure both on it, in the same order, in the same terms.
• End by saying what the comparison decided — a comparison that decides nothing was decoration.

Writing a definition

• Name the term and say what it must include for the argument to work.
• Show why a looser definition would let something through that should not pass.
• Then apply your definition to the case — that application is where the marks are.

Two ways definition goes wrong

• Defining a word nobody disputes wastes a paragraph — check that the term is genuinely contested.
• Defining a term to suit your conclusion is visible to a reader and costs credibility.
• A good definition is one an opponent could accept before seeing where it leads.

Checking your paragraph

• Comparison: cover one subject. Does the category still make sense on its own? It should.
• Definition: would your opponent accept this definition in the abstract? If not, it is loaded.
• Both: what did this paragraph settle that the previous one had left open?