The use of definitions is important in writing health essays. However, the presence of definitions can also make your health essay bland and too formal. Most of the times, definitions are used to inform and give weight to a critical term in the health essay. Thus, the use of definitions is sometimes necessary but should not necessarily be boring. In effect, boring definitions may be attributed to the writer’s inability to spur the readers’ interest.

As a general advice for your health essay, you must be wary to vary your way of defining terms. Truly, there are artistic methods in making a definition. Here are some examples of how you can creatively write definitions in your health essay:

• Field definition

Simply, a field definition describes a term using a group of closely associated words. For example, if you use the words primary, secondary and tertiary in defining a hospital in your health essay, then you are already defining the ranking or classification of certain health facilities. You do not have to say what primary, secondary and tertiary means in your health essay.

• The use of metaphor and simile in defining terms

Metaphors and similes are figures of speech. According to the website, thefreedictionary.com, a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison. On the other hand, a simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often with a phrase introduced by like or as.

This figure of speech is very useful to your health essay. These can tweak the way you want the terms to be defined. For health essays, these are just two remarkable ways of adding variety in defining terms.

• Definition by negatives

In a health essay, it is simply telling what is not. It is like talking to people how to be healthy by telling them what is not healthy. For example, being healthy is not practicing how to eat too much. Most definitions we write in health essays directly tell about what the term is. In using negatives, it is an indirect way of telling what the term is all about by stating what it is not.

• Defining by etymology and semantic history

This kind of definition talks about the roots of the term and how it evolves. When you define some terms in the health essay, this is like explaining to the readers about the historical background and linguistic usage of the terms.

You can use different artistic definitions in your health essay. The more you add variety to your definitions, the more you spur the creativity of your readers to understand your concepts in the health essay.

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