1.    Carefully read, in our text, Readings for Writers,this week's definition  readings and
                essays found in Assignments  .
2.   Visit the following link: Style: Definition Writing

3.   Read the information carefully and take notes of important points.

4.   Read the definition below .

                " Resistance":  reduction in a pathogen's sensitivity to a particular drug. Resistance
                is thought to result usually from a genetic mutation. In HIV, such mutations can change
                the structure of viral enzymes and proteins so that a anti viral drug can no longer bind
                with them as well as it used to. Resistance detected by searching a pathogen' s genetic
                makeup for mutations thought to confer lower susceptibility is called enotypic
                resistance. Resistance found by successfully growing laboratory cultures of the
                pathogen in the presence of a  drug is called phenotype resistance. High level
                resistance reduces a drug's virus suppressing activity hundreds of times. Low-level
                resistance represents only a few fold reduction in drug effectiveness. Depending on the
                toxicity of  the drug, low-level resistance may be overcome by using higher doses of
                the drug in question.

5.   Think about what improvements could be made, after reading the lecture site notes
                and the chapter,  to make the definition more understandable for a general  audience.
                To understand what you have read, you may need to look up some definitions of
                unknown words.
6 .  On the Classroom Discussion board, under the appropriate thread, post specific
                 ideas on improving the definition for a general audience.  Show rewrites to illustrate the changes that
                 should be made to simply for a general audience. Classmates should comment.
        Note: There is no other written assignment, other than the above, due for this type of writing.

       Back to Assignments

               Last Updated: August 2001
               Patricia A. Hutchins
               http://www.delta.edu/pahutchi/definitionassn.html