‘It depends upon what the meaning of the word “is” is’.

The OED in all its glory. Hannah Whitaker for The New York Times.

The line I’ve quoted above is perhaps the most lawyerly thing our 42nd president ever said—though he was famed for his lawyerly, slickly evasive way of dealing with tough questioning—and it’s hard not to think of it often as we approach the home stretch of the semester, as I begin to anticipate the many definitions that will rain down upon me in the form of end-of-term papers. In the spirit of this season, I’d like to dispense some advice on how to define your terms, when to define your terms (hint: not at the beginning of your paper, and not in answer to the unasked question, ‘What is sociology?’), and how to choose good sources for those definitions.

 

What’s a good source?

Here’s the first line from a recent student paper:

What is sociology? According to google, sociology is “the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society.”

I found it hard to believe that ‘google’ was the source, but here’s how the student cited it in their reference list:

“What+is+sociology – Google Search.” What+is+sociology – Google Search. 26 Oct. 2016.

That’s not exactly how I would cite it—for one thing, it makes it a little harder to track down without the URL. Of course, you suggest, I could simply google ‘What is sociology’; but apparently the Google algorithm will give different people different results, given what it’s able to determine about an individual’s search and browsing histories. In this case, however, my query turned up the same answer, and it is indeed Google’s own definition. It’s interesting that the student didn’t seem to consider some of the other options on that first page—if their results were anything like mine, they might have seen the definition of sociology provided on the official website of the American Sociological Association, or those provided by the sociology departments of any number of reputable universities. So the first thing I’ll say about search engine results is that many people don’t seem to consider the possibility that some sources might be better and some might be worse in quality, or that they might offer conflicting definitions of the same thing. But they are, and they do. Nevertheless, an alarming number of people just go with the first hit. Don’t do that. You’re supposed to be a scholar, or at least a junior scholar. Scholars try to get at the truth, and that means using the best tools at their disposal.

(Think about it for a second: when you turn in an academic paper—really, this should be true of anything you take the time to write and put your name on—what you are saying to future readers is something like, ‘I’ve read up on this subject, and I’ve thought long and hard about it, maybe I’ve even gone out and expended some elbow grease and shoe leather to collect my own data, and now you should take me seriously on this matter!’ What do you think you’re saying when your research very obviously consists of the first few things you found in a Google search? You’ve probably exercised more due diligence in researching a first date.)

One of the best tools at your disposal is the Oxford English Dictionary, which is the product of roughly a century of previous scholarship, and is one of the great fruits of anglophone civilisation. Here you’ll find, not only definitions of current usage, but a detailed historical account as to when the word first entered the (written) language, as well as subsequent changes of meaning. You can access the full version from a campus computer, or when you’re logged into a campus library (or the New York Public Library, for that matter).

All dictionaries are not created equal. If you didn’t know that before, you should know that now. Use the OED. If you’re loath to take my word for it, at least try it in comparison to two other excellent, totally free sources:

1. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
2. The Online American Heritage Dictionary

I mention these sources because they are both referenced in a highly informative recent post by one savvy language maven; additionally, in the case of the American Heritage Dictionary, the eminent psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker serves on their usage panel, and draws from his experience on this panel in adjudicating various grammatical and stylistic disputes in his excellent recent book on writing.

Anyhoo, those are a few reputable go-to’s when you need a dictionary definition. BUT … you should employ dictionary definitions a lot less than you think you should.

When are they appropriate? That will be the subject of a future post…

 

Further Reading

Johnson, Samuel. 1755. A Dictionary of the English Language. For a geeked-out, antiquarian edge to your research, you can hardly do better than the seriously old school, Dead White Male cachet of Johnson’s Dictionary.

Tags: lexicography, writing