You can’t use the word itself in your definition of a word. For example, you can’t write “A guitar is a musical instrument shaped like a guitar”. You need to find a way to define the word or term without using the word or term in its own definition.
There are two approaches to defining terms in your essays:
You are allowed to give your own definitions because you are using the word in your essay and presumably you are using it to mean something. So you can explain (define) what you are using the word to mean. E.g. “In the image, the children are finger painting in a playful way. I am using the word playful to mean they seem to be finger painting voluntarily and are finding it fun. Playful activities are different from work activities, by which I mean activities children do because they are required to do it, and they would not do if they had a choice. Both playful and work activities can result in learning. Jean Piaget said that ‘play is the work of childhood’ (Piaget, 1951)”
Option 2 is especially useful if your module doesn’t seem to have a definition of a particular term you want to use. I well remember being very frustrated as an undergraduate that my lecturers insisted I define every term I used, but the learning materials they gave me often didn’t do that. I wish someone had told me I was allowed to define the terms myself. That doesn’t mean you can be silly – don’t write “In this essay I will use the term ‘habitus’ to mean a small lizard of the genus Lygodactylus capensis”. Read option 2 again – when you use a word, you are using it to mean something. So simply explain how you are using the word in your essay.
If your module does define the term you should refer to that definition, even if you are going to use a different definition in your essay e.g. you might write “The E219 Glossary (The Open University, 2022) defines conditioning as ‘A model of learning concerned with the formation of associations’. In this essay I will use the term to mean learning processes that happen without the conscious will of the learner, through the unconscious formation of associations between stimuli and behaviours”. That is a slightly more specific definition than the one given in the module glossary, and defining it in this way shows you have a a good understanding of the concept. Demonstrating your understanding in this way will probably earn you a higher grade (as long as it’s relevant to the essay question).
References
Goffman, E. (1963) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Piaget, J. (1951) Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. Translated by C. Gattegno and F. M. Hodgson. New York: Norton and Co (this edition 1962).
The Open University (2022) E219 Glossary. Available at https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/glossary/view.php?id=1972028 Accessed 28/1/2023
Melanie Rimmer 