Help With a Research Paper

I’m taking an English course and as a final assignment I am required to write a research paper. Now my understanding of a research paper was exactly that, a research paper, ex. Eugenics, I would explain what it is, give pros and cons, show studies and give my personal feelings.

My task is to write a definition paper. I am to choose a term that needs defining or redefining and I for the life of me cannot figure out how to do this.Ex…what a soldier means in 2008. meaning would be different from aa soldier of WW2.I have chose a couple terms from which I may choose but I am stuck.

1.afterlife, 2.love, 3.ethics, 4.taboo, 5.culture, 6.freedom, 7.god, 8.purpose, 9.society, 10.atonement, 11.instincts, 12.success

Any help?

I don’t know what you’re asking for.

Well I need examples of how I can go about it using one of the terms I listed. A question if you will, like the soldier one. The way I described the eugenics paper, the professor said it would be an argument type paper…?

Well, pre-WWII, soldiers fought wars against other uniformed soldiers in order to capture land, and when the governments agreed, the fighting stopped. Post WWII, soldiers have to fight against un-uniformed civilians in conflicts that have little to do with controlling land, and when the fighting starts/stops is not necessarily determined by governments. Soldiers’ primary role used to be combat, but now it’s often stabilization, peace keeping, and reconstruction.

By comparing and contrasting what it used to mean to be a soldier with what it means today, you would be redefining the word, and from what you’ve said, fulfilling the requirements for this assignment.

if you need ideas on how to argue for a certain definition, take a look at some of the early Socratic dialogs. There Socrates argues for and against varying definitions for terms such as “justice”, “pious”, “love”, etc…

it will give you an idea about how to approach such a task.

oh, since you probably do not have any works by Plato yourself, i’ll save you the trouble of having to go to the library:

nice summaries of each can be found on wikipedia, though to actually get a feel to for to approach writing on such topics, you actually need to read some of the stuff.

Oh hell yeah, do freedom and then reword John Locke’s section on “Power” in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Easy A.

though… being a connoisseur of definitions myself, this assignment seems hopeless for an introductory English class.

there are many types of definitions and ways to defines words depending on the purpose. For instance, in arguing for a definition are you to argue for an ideal definition, or an actual one? Take love for instance, are you to argue for what love really should be, or merely what love actually turns out to be when you examine and study actual instances of love?

[quote]rmccart1 wrote:
Oh hell yeah, do freedom and then reword John Locke’s section on “Power” in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Easy A.[/quote]

this is called plagiarism. easy F.

I am not entirely sure what your assignment is, but if I understand you, you should try the word “honor”.

In this postmodern age, the definition has become extreme slippery.

[quote]stokedporcupine wrote:
though… being a connoisseur of definitions myself, this assignment seems hopeless for an introductory English class. [/quote]

I doubt the intention is to forward the results to Webster. Or even Interpretation.

[quote]nephorm wrote:
stokedporcupine wrote:
though… being a connoisseur of definitions myself, this assignment seems hopeless for an introductory English class.

I doubt the intention is to forward the results to Webster. Or even Interpretation.[/quote]

of course not, but still… in giving assignments you want the student to actually get something out of it. giving the students in an introductory english class the assignment of writing on the definition of a word is hopeless. as evidenced by the OP’s bewilderment over the assignment, its not an assignment for intro english.

To me, this assignment seems no different then assigning the class to write a research paper on the applications of calculus–some students might be able to do it, but most will be hopelessly lost.

perhaps a better assignment, one that might be beneficial, would be to write on what definitions are. research what types of definitions one can give, the differences between them, the process of forming definitions, etc…

to be honest though, i tend to think most college composition courses are wastes of time anyway. this is college… you learn to write by actually writing in your field of interest. Basic things like proper grammar should have been covered in highschool, and there is no “right” way to right. generally best to learn by actually writing in the field your going to be in.

i imagine that the professor, being an english professor with little experience in science or math, does not grasp how complex the notion of definition is.

[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
Well, pre-WWII, soldiers fought wars against other uniformed soldiers in order to capture land, and when the governments agreed, the fighting stopped. Post WWII, soldiers have to fight against un-uniformed civilians in conflicts that have little to do with controlling land, and when the fighting starts/stops is not necessarily determined by governments. Soldiers’ primary role used to be combat, but now it’s often stabilization, peace keeping, and reconstruction.

By comparing and contrasting what it used to mean to be a soldier with what it means today, you would be redefining the word, and from what you’ve said, fulfilling the requirements for this assignment.[/quote]

Exactly, however thae soldier one was a sample that cannot be used.

[quote]stokedporcupine wrote:
if you need ideas on how to argue for a certain definition, take a look at some of the early Socratic dialogs. There Socrates argues for and against varying definitions for terms such as “justice”, “pious”, “love”, etc…

it will give you an idea about how to approach such a task. [/quote]

I actually have most of the socratic dialogs needed them for some philosphy classes I took.

[quote]stokedporcupine wrote:
though… being a connoisseur of definitions myself, this assignment seems hopeless for an introductory English class.

there are many types of definitions and ways to defines words depending on the purpose. For instance, in arguing for a definition are you to argue for an ideal definition, or an actual one? Take love for instance, are you to argue for what love really should be, or merely what love actually turns out to be when you examine and study actual instances of love? [/quote]

I believe it would go, Explain the literal meaning, assumed meaning and then my meaning. The old meaning and how I got the new one. Using society, polls, studies.

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
I am not entirely sure what your assignment is, but if I understand you, you should try the word “honor”.

In this postmodern age, the definition has become extreme slippery.[/quote]

yes this is exactly the type of thing that was asked.

[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
stokedporcupine wrote:
though… being a connoisseur of definitions myself, this assignment seems hopeless for an introductory English class.

there are many types of definitions and ways to defines words depending on the purpose. For instance, in arguing for a definition are you to argue for an ideal definition, or an actual one? Take love for instance, are you to argue for what love really should be, or merely what love actually turns out to be when you examine and study actual instances of love?

I believe it would go, Explain the literal meaning, assumed meaning and then my meaning. The old meaning and how I got the new one. Using society, polls, studies.[/quote]

what is the “literal meaning” of a word? A dictionary definition? A scientific (whether physical or sociological) account of the term? Some reference to the etymology? A reference to some sort of action in a Wittgensteinian sort of language game (this is best i think)? A postmodern style historical account of its use?

see, this is the problem, this stuff gets REALLY complicated REALLY fast.

what your teacher should have done is just asked you to write on a certain topic, and left the silly definition stuff out of it.

[quote]stokedporcupine wrote:
see, this is the problem, this stuff gets REALLY complicated REALLY fast.

what your teacher should have done is just asked you to write on a certain topic, and left the silly definition stuff out of it. [/quote]

You are making this complicated. The goal of the assignment is probably just to think about how we use language and what words mean. If he spends the time to work that through, he has learned something. He needn’t be able to argue with Bertrand Russell about reference and meaning.

[quote]nephorm wrote:
stokedporcupine wrote:
see, this is the problem, this stuff gets REALLY complicated REALLY fast.

what your teacher should have done is just asked you to write on a certain topic, and left the silly definition stuff out of it.

You are making this complicated. The goal of the assignment is probably just to think about how we use language and what words mean. If he spends the time to work that through, he has learned something. He needn’t be able to argue with Bertrand Russell about reference and meaning.[/quote]

you might argue that i’m making this to complicated, but then i think it becomes more of a pedagogy issue.

my view is that “general education” style classes are generally done very badly. i don’t like the idea of a college writing class to begin with, for the stated reasons, and hearing about some of the insane topics assigned in these classes normally only reaffirms my view. college classes in general should be more writing intensive, there should be little need for such a thing.

[quote]stokedporcupine wrote:
nephorm wrote:
stokedporcupine wrote:
see, this is the problem, this stuff gets REALLY complicated REALLY fast.

what your teacher should have done is just asked you to write on a certain topic, and left the silly definition stuff out of it.

You are making this complicated. The goal of the assignment is probably just to think about how we use language and what words mean. If he spends the time to work that through, he has learned something. He needn’t be able to argue with Bertrand Russell about reference and meaning.

you might argue that i’m making this to complicated, but then i think it becomes more of a pedagogy issue.

my view is that “general education” style classes are generally done very badly. i don’t like the idea of a college writing class to begin with, for the stated reasons, and hearing about some of the insane topics assigned in these classes normally only reaffirms my view. college classes in general should be more writing intensive, there should be little need for such a thing.
[/quote]

You’re making it complicated because you want to bolster your self-esteem. I hope it’s working, because I doubt it’s helping the OP.