Expanded Definition and Matrix

• Listing and describing the parts - identifying smaller, more familiar pieces of an idea to point to the definition of the bigger concept.
• Etymology - sharing the word's origin.
• Examples of anecdotes - telling a story or example that illustrates the term.
• Negation - defining a term by explaining what the concept is not.
• Evoking the senses - using a word that creates a picture in the reader's mind so that the reader might relate through the memory of sound, sight, touch, hearing, or smell.
• Environment or sector - pointing out how and where something is used.
• Ramifications - showing how the term or concept affects people or objects
• Historical references - showing how a word has been defined throughout history.
• Stipulative definition - assigns a new meaning to an expression (or a meaning to a new expression); the expression defined (definiendum) may either be a new expression that is being introduced into the language for the first time, or an expression that is already current.
• Explication - The process of analyzing and developing an Idea or principle in detail.the act of explaining something in detail, especially a piece of writing or an idea: His explication of each side's strategies and tactics is gripping. There's too much explication in the play and not enough action. He seems to require endless, occasionally tiresome explication to convey his ideas.
• Limitation - Good matrixes limit the amount of information you have to work with to write your paper. In a 15-page article, maybe only a few paragraphs pertain to your research question. Do not bother highlighting or writing down the rest of the information.
• Comparison - Besides limiting the number of ideas and amount of text, the placement of notes on your matrix will give you a bird’s eye view of how the authors’ ideas relate to other author’s ideas. By labeling the ideas that pertain to your question, you can see where authors agree and disagree – and where other authors ignored an idea altogether. (You may want to find out why.) As you fill out your matrix, themes will start to emerge where do disagreements arise, which ideas seem to gain consensus among authors, and so on.
• Discovery - You can anticipate what ideas will emerge and label those in advance of your reading.
• Location - You will create a reference list as you read your articles. That is easy to do if you keep track of citations as you find the sources in electronic databases or on the Internet. When you are finished, remove from the reference page any articles you did not cite in the paper. Your matrix will alert you to the sources you plan to cite.
• Labeling - The names of the first authors of each study appear across the top of the matrix. The names can easily be related to the full citation information.
• Note taking - as you read the research make brief notes in the blank cells about ideas that address your research question. Do include page numbers. Do not include information that does not address your question in some fashion. As you fill in the cells, you may find that some of the authors provide little useful information. You can drop those authors from your references.
• Expanding - The matrix will need to be expanded as you review more studies. You can expand by adding pages. If you like you can tape pages together to create a spreadsheet. If you are proficient with Excel, you can create your matrix in Excel. You can even draw your matrix on poster paper.