Help if you need it.

I’ve posted the first draft of my Definition Argument for your benefit.

This post will remain pinned to the top of the blog
until I’m sure you’ve had a chance to see it.

Mine “defines” a term by comparing it to another.

• I began my research with the belief that polio eradication would be very similar to smallpox eradication based on similarities in the approaches taken by health organizations to immunize entire populations with vaccine.
• What I learned by reading is that the polio virus, the body’s method of fighting it, and the effectiveness of vaccines against it are fundamentally different than the same factors for smallpox.
• Therefore, my argument concludes, eradicating polio will be very different than eradicating smallpox, perhaps even impossible. At a minimum, we’ll have to harm a lot of intended beneficiaries in the process, which did not happen in the smallpox campaign.

In other words, polio eradication DOES NOT BELONG to the category: world health campaigns that can be accomplished with just money and effort.

1. My post is about 1100 words before the References section.
2. It uses in-text citations WITHOUT parentheses.
   • Please follow this model in your posts as well.
3. It uses an AP-style References section
   • AP is the new style choice of the Writing Arts Department
   • I made mine for free using BibMe.com
4. It DOES NOT cite the dictionary or in any way telegraph that its job is to define a term. Instead it makes a persuasive argument (about the difficulty of eradicating polio) that clarifies an aspect of polio: it’s NOT LIKE smallpox.
5. It’s a first draft, so it will embarrass me until I revise it.
6. Once I revise it, it will be a second draft, still embarrassing but less so.
7. Questions? Use the Reply field below this post.

Author: davidbdale

Inventor of and sole practitioner of 299-word Very Short Novels. www.davidbdale.wordpress.com View all posts by davidbdale