In a good many cases the necessity of defining the terms to be used, whether in the proposition itself, or in the argument, changes with the audience.  If you begin a movement to introduce a commission form of government into the town or the city in which you live, at first you will have to repeat the definition of commission government a good many times, in order that most of the voters may know exactly what you want them to do.  If the town once wakes up, however, and gets interested, you and every one else will be using such technicalities as “Galveston plan,” “Des Moines plan,” “recall,” “initiative,” and the like with no danger of leaving darkness where there should be light.

So even more obviously with school and college questions:  if you are sending memorials urging the introduction of the honor system or of student self-government, one to the trustees of your college, and another to the faculty, and at the same time addressing an appeal to your fellow students through a college paper, in each of the three cases your definitions might differ.  You could probably assume that both students and faculty would be more or less familiar with the question, so that your definitions would be of the nature of precise specifications of the plan you were urging.  With the trustees your definitions would probably have to be longer and your explanations more detailed, for such a body would start with only a vague knowledge of the situation.

As in all other steps in making an argument, so in defining, there is no formula for all cases.  In each case your knowledge of your audience must guide you, and your own sagacity.  Unnecessary definitions will make them think you a prig; insufficient definition will let them stray away from your meaning.

Notebook.  Enter any terms which need definition for the audience you are addressing.

Illustration.  Commission form of government after the Des Mouses plan.  The essential features of this plan are as follows:  The entire affairs of the city are conducted by a mayor and four councilors, elected at large for two years; they are nominated at a primary election; at neither primary nor final election are party designations allowed on the ballot; these officers are subject to the recall; the mayor is chairman of the council, but has no power of veto; the executive and administrative powers are divided into five departments, each under the charge of a member of the council—­(1) public affairs (under the charge of the mayor), (2) accounts and finances, (3)public safety,(4) streets and public improvements, (5) parks and public property; all other offices are filled and their duties prescribed by majority vote of the council; recall; grants of franchises must be approved by popular vote; initiative and referendum; a summary of city affairs must be published and distributed once a month.

Recall, On petition of twenty-five per cent of the voters at the last election the mayor or any of the councilmen must stand for reelection at a special election.