Writing material for educational courses

Principle 2Define terms

Glenn MartinMarch 2017

Principle 2 Define your terms, then use those terms

consistently throughout the course.

Defining terms Question: Does the material involve terms that:

• are likely to be unfamiliar to students? or• will be used with a different meaning to the

meaning students are familiar with?Example: in a Physics course, “force” has a particular meaning – mass times acceleration.[In general conversation, people use words in ways that are consistent with the definitions found in common dictionaries.]

Good definitionsIf a term needs to be defined, keep this in mind: A good definition differentiates between

what is “the thing” and what is not “the thing”.

To explain…. A good definition makes it as clear as

possible what is the thing that is being defined, and what is not “the thing”.

The importance of a good definition is that it enables us to differentiate “the thing” from other things with which it could be confused.

Example: How would you define “power”?

For example

Suppose we have a definition of “power”.If it is a good definition,it will clarify the distinctions between power and other concepts with which it might be confused.

What are the relationships between concepts?

Is one concept a subset of the other? (A or B)

A B

C

Do the concepts overlap? (C)

D

What are the connections between the concepts? (D)

Justification for the definition

If a term is used in a way that is different from what would be found in a common dictionary, there must be justification for the specialised use. This includes:

authority for the new meaning (e.g. academic source)

need for the new meaning (e.g. in order to explain phenomena)

proposed application of the new meaning.

Use terms consistently Having defined a term in a particular way,

it must be used with that meaning consistently throughout the course.

Care is needed not to, at any point, confuse the ordinary sense in which a term is used with the meaning it has been assigned in the course.