Read the following paragraph and answer the questions after the paragraph.

Question

Cool is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as “not excited; calm and controlled” and by A Dictionary of Catch Phrases as “unafraid, unflustered.” A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English describes cool as a “hippy expression for confidence or self-assuredness.” The Dictionary of American Slang characterizes cool as being “in complete control of one’s emotions; hip but having a quiet, objective, aloof attitude; indifferent to those things considered nonessential to one’s individual beliefs, likes, and desires.”
—Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson
1. What is this paragraph defining?
2. Do Majors and Billson rely on a synonym, a category, or a negation to start off the paragraph?
3. List two examples the authors use to develop the definition.
4. How do the authors organize the paragraph?

Answer 1

1. The word “cool”
2. A negation, followed by a synonym
3. The various definitions are the authors’ examples in this paragraph.
4. From one extreme to another—most to least formal