Descriptions

A description must be a clear and concise statement that tells whether an object is or is not the thing you are trying to define. Often such descriptions can be fairly short. Be careful, however, that the description is not too general or uses terms that are not defined. Here are a couple of examples, one of good quality and one that is questionable:

Example of good description:

A COMMODITY is something that has a value that can be determined in an exchange.

The preceding example is a good description. Because someone is willing to trade something, you know that something is a COMMODITY. If someone gives you three peanuts and a stick of gum for a marble, then you know that a marble is a COMMODITY.

Example of bad description:

A CUSTOMER is someone who buys something from our company.

The preceding example is not a good description. Because you know that the company also sells products to other businesses, you can misunderstand the word �someone�. The business may also want to track potential CUSTOMERs, not simply customers who have already bought something from the company. You can also define �something� more fully to describe whether the sale is of products, services, or some combination of the two.