Review of Spelling and Diction: The Definition Paragraph

Although you may not be a big fan of spelling rules yourself, for your writing to be perceived as professional and credible, you must strive to make it as error free as possible and avoid slang and clichés. You can use spelling tricks for some words, but since the English language has many, many exceptions to the rules, the best way to spell correctly is to use a dictionary. All those times your teacher said, "Look it up," he or she was right. Fortunately, you have the choice of a hard-copy dictionary or an online dictionary to find the words in question. Also, spell checkers are available to proof your work.

However, spell-check programs should be used with caution because they can't distinguish some homophones, they autocorrect erroneously, and they often miss grammatical errors that reading aloud would easily catch. You need to apply these guidelines when writing your definition paragraph and in other communications. A well-written definition paragraph explains an abstract concept. It uses a synonym, category, or negation to introduce and define the term in the topic sentence. Details show readers examples in emphatic order and leave a lasting impression and a clear understanding of the concept.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

• List the guidelines for writing a definition paragraph
• Memorize commonly misspelled words
• Recognize a cliche and describe how to avoid its use Write a grammatically correct definition paragraph