The writing of a definition essay is an exercise that introduces the student to different schools of thought and the basics of the subject of the definition essay.
A definition essay, as is obvious from the name, is an essay that seeks to explore the definition of a term or concept. While some students consider it to be an essay that is made up by repeating a definition of the subject of the essay in different words each time, it is not even close to that. The definition essay seeks to acquire a clear and comprehensive understanding of the subject of the essay.
It is for the same reason that the definition essay often incorporates personal opinions on the subject of the essay and makes use of external sources at the same time to perform evaluations of the discussed definitions. Through the course of the body of the definition essay, it is common to consider arguments on the definition as presented by different schools of thought and eventually shortlisting one school of thought to be the one that provides an adequate definition. As the definition essay comes to a close, it is best to briefly review the concepts and arguments presented in the main body before deciding on a specific argument to be valid.
By performing the exercise of writing a definition essay, the student is able to exercise exploratory research skills as well as understand how differing views may exist on a singular element. It is for the same reason that the definition essay is generally assigned in cases where a new course is about to begin or a new concept shall be discussed in the following class. In this regard, the definition essay plays the role of an assignment given on a subject in advance.