ELUCIDATING A

CONCEPT
BY DEFINITION,
EXPLICATION, AND
CLARIFICATION
Have you ever heard of the term “window dressing?” You
have probably seen the arrangement on window displays
outside malls or in stores located along the sidewalk, just
like in the first drawing below
Now, take a look
at the second
drawing. It also
refers to the
same thing.
What could it
probably mean in
the world of
• .
accounting?
•Both drawings refer to the same term but they actually
mean two different things,

• The second drawing depicts a misleading representation

of data to create a favorable impression. In finance,
window dressing happens when financial statements of
a company or an organization are prepared to make them
look better before they are publicly released.
• For example, Company ABC wants to attract potential
stockholders. It might do some window dressing by
making announcements that will likely raise the stock
price, like announcing higher than actual sales projections
and obtaining and holding a lot of cash.
• The two definitions of the term are based on
how they are used in specific conditions, one in
display, the other in finance. While one may
think that understanding a term or a concept
simply entails defining it, then he/she must
change the way he/she thinks.
• Several techniques are used to better
elucidate or explain a concept and they will be
discussed in this lesson.
• According to Merriam Webster, to elucidate
means to make something clear or
understandable. In writing an academic paper,
concept elucidation is a critical tool. Why?
Because getting the message understood by
your reader is the primary concern of any
written text. And if you fail in clarifying a
concept, you fail to express your understanding
of it.
OBJECTIVES
• After going through this lesson, you are expected to:
❑ define and explain the different techniques used to
elucidate concepts in writing a concept paper;
❑ show appreciation in characterizing the different
techniques; and
❑ employ the different techniques in analyzing a text and in
writing a concept paper.
1. DEFINITION
• Definition is a “mode of paragraph development that
answers the questions:
What is it? What does it mean? What are its special features?”
(Saqueton and Uychoco 2016, p.80)

• When you define a word, idea or concept, you clarify its

meaning and you control the scope to avoid
misinterpretations and vague ideas.
• The word to be defined may be a person, a place, an object, a
concept, or an event/phenomenon.
1.1 INFORMAL DEFINITION
In this type of definition, the writer uses known
words or examples to explain an unknown
term.
• Examples:
a. Freedom, also referred to as liberty or
independence, is a state people reach when
they are free to think and do whatever they
please.
b. Bullying occurs when someone uses his or
her power or prestige to intimidate and
terrorize another person.
1.2 FORMAL DEFINITION
This is the most common form and follows a pattern:
• Term = genus + differentia
• Or
• Definition = general category + differentiating characteristics
Examples
a. A triangle is a plane figure with three straight sides and three
angles.
b. A measuring cup is a cup-shaped utensil used to measure dry
and liquid ingredients for cooking.
• It
is important to limit the genus. The narrower the genus, the more
specific the definition will be.
 1.3 Extended definition
It is used to define abstract concepts that cannot be formally defined.
The following are the strategies you can use for this particular
technique:

A. Use of synonym: using a similar term or phrase to define a

word
Examples:
a.A charlatan is a quack, an imposter, a pretender, a fraud.
b.A bloke is a man, a boy, a fella, or guy in British.

• Synonyms are only useful when a reader is more familiar to the

meaning of the word being defined than the actual term itself.
B. By etymology: explaining the origin or the
place where the term comes from.
•Examples:
a. Tyrannosaurus rex comes from the Greek
word meaning “tyrant” and “lizard” and the
Latin word meaning “king”.
b. Eskwela is from the Spanish escuela and
the Latin schola, which means
“conversations and the knowledge gained
through them during free time; the places
where these conversations took place.”
 • Byillustration or visuals:
C.By illustration or visuals: providing a graphic
representation of a topic
or term to be defined.

Examples:
• 1.
The water cycle
describes the continuous
movement of water from
the surface of the Earth,
to the atmosphere and
back again.
D. By illustration or
visuals
•A mattock is farm
tool used for
removing stones
and large roots.
E. BY FUNCTION
• By function: stating what the word or
term is for.
• Examples:
•A straight spatula is a kitchen tool used
for scraping food from the sides of
pots, stirring ingredients in curved
bowls, or folding ingredients into each
other.
•A ledger is a written or computerized
records of all the transactions a
business has completed.
F. By examples
By examples: giving examples or
narrating incidences that can further
explain an abstract or complicated
topic.
A. Examples:
1. Compound exercises are exercises
that require multiple muscle groups
to work at the same time, like
deadlifts, squats, front lunge with
twist, and high plank T-spine
rotation.
2. The horticulture industry can be
categorized into three areas:
pomology, olericulture, and
ornamental horticulture.
G. By likeness or similarity • By likeness or similarity:
stating the similarity of one
concept with another.
• Examples:
• Brighter than 100 million
suns, quasars stand like
beacons on the shore of the
universe.
•A teacher is like a gardener
who allows the students to
grow under the best
conditions.
 • By analogy or metaphor:
H.By analogy or metaphor drawing a comparison
between the topic and
another concept already
familiar to readers.
• Examples:
• Thecentral processing unit
(CPU) of a computer system
Works like the human brain.
• Life is like a box of
chocolates - you never
know what you're going to
get.
I. By negation
By negation: defining a term by stating
what it is not.
Examples:
a. The Philippine flying lemur is
not a lemur but a rodent, and
cannot fly as it only glides in the air
from one tree to another.
b. In a vehicle with automatic
transmission, the driver is Not
responsible for shifting the gears
as the car does the shifting.
J. By contrast
•By contrast: defining by the use of opposites.
Examples:
•1. Unlike other birds, penguins cannot fly.
•2. Unlike other mammals, the duckbilled
platypus doesn’t give birth to live young.
K. By analysis or partition
By analysis or partition: Breaking down wholes into parts,
aspects into levels, and a process into steps.
Examples:
1. The Philippine government is divided into the executive
branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary.
2. For a definition of diabetes, the writer would want to
partition the three kinds of diabetes (type 1 diabetes,
type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes) and discuss
them one at a time rather than try to define them all at
the same time.
2. CLARIFICATION
•Cambridge Dictionary defines
clarification as “an explanation or
more details that makes something clear
or easier to understand.” In reading and
writing, you can use several strategies to
clarify a point and avoid misconceptions
or miscommunication
 2.1 Through Cause and Effect:
•Understanding the relationship between
cause and effect is a critical thinking skill
essential in all aspects of life. We consider
how mining is related to deforestation and
wildlife loss.
•In history, we try to understand the causes
and effects of specific political events in the
country that affect the way we view science
and religion.
 2.1 Through Cause and Effect:

•A cause is the reason why something happens

while the effect states the result or the
outcome. A causal chain is a sequence of
events in which any event in the chain causes
the next one, leading up to the final effect.
 •After reading the text, were you able to understand what
Minamata disease is? Is the concept successfully clarified in the
text? What is the cause of the occurrence of the disease in
Japan? What was its effect to humans? What causal chain of
events has been linked to mercury pollution?
•
• Concept: Minamata Disease
• Cause: methylmercury poisoning (ingestion of contaminated fish
and shellfish)
• Effect: sensory disturbances (glove and stocking type), ataxia,
dysarthria, constriction of the visual field, auditory
disturbances and tremor , fetal poisoning, brain lesions, death
• Causal chain: poisoning that led to health problems and death of
affected
2.2 Through theory
Through Theories:
• For sure, you have read or heard about
stories explaining the origin of an object or a
place, like the Alamat ng Daragang Magayon in
Albay or why seawater is salty. You might have
also heard theories explaining the origin of the
solar system or why we see reddish skies at
dusk.
• A theory is an idea or a system of ideas intended
to explain the occurrence of an object, activity, or
situation. When we were children, we all probably
believed that the sun sleeps at night when the
moon rises.
• Having learned science, we now know that it is
not the case. Rather, we understand that the
revolution of the Earth influences the occurrence
of day and night on the planet. This particular
theory is not simply a product of the imagination of
scientists but a result of painstaking work guided
by scientific processes and tools.
Theory
• Concept: penmanship
• Related theories: connection theory and motor
learning theory
• We can now conclude from the text that a kid’s
penmanship depends on how much time is
spent in practicing how to write and that
penmanship impacts academic achievement
based on the theories mentioned above.
3. EXPLICATION
• Explication is a deductive process where you take a
general concept, refine it, determine how to test for it
and then carry out the test. It is also known as
exegesis.
• Inthe modern times, it is known as close reading, where a
text is read multiple times to uncover its deeper meaning.
Here, you explain what the main points of the author are and
how they are connected while offering your own critique of
his/her arguments. It usually tells about figures of
speech, tone, setting, connotations, points of view, themes,
contrasts, and anything else that could add to the meaning
of a text.
 EXPLICATION

• Example:
• Inthe final stanza of his poem The Road Not Taken,
Frost talks about his dilemma of coming upon two
diverging paths, and not knowing which one to
choose. The third line is very important, as it
delivers an idea of choosing between the two
divergent paths.
3. EXPLICATION
Example:
• The tone in this stanza shifts from regretful to
optimistic. The two roads symbolically represent
individual choices. The mood is neither depressed
nor unhappy, but the poet sighs because he knows
what the complexities our life may have for him.
Whether he has chosen a right or a wrong path, it
has a compelling impact on his life. The phrase
“less traveled” suggests the theme of individualism
(Literary Devices 2020).