Thread: Relationships and Their Meaning-Introduction

Relationships develop and become something or they drop by the wayside. In a serious of six essays I will attempt to show how certain types of relationships develop and how they are formed. I will also discuss the inner workings of each type of relationship.
The types of relationships that I will discuss are the following: (1) Friendships, (2) Social/Dating, (3) Male/ Homosexuality, (4) Female/ Lesbianism, (5) Boy Friend and Girl Friend and (6) Marital. These six I will discuss in six separate essays on each type of relationship.
Before I begin to attempt an explanation of relationships let me define what a relationship is. The Oxford American Dictionary defines a relationship as follows: “The way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected or the way in which they are connected.”
Also the same Dictionary further defines relationship as “an emotional and sexual association between two people.”
Then let us begin our study of relationships.

Glen, is this the piece you want us to review or am I waiting for something further? There's not really enough content here. I'm very interested in reading how you deduce that gay and straight relationships are different, other than the physical aspects of course. In my mind there should only be two essays here, as the six that you propose easily come under just two headings - (1) platonic relationships and (2) sexual relationships.

The introduction definitely needs work. Weed out all the excess wordage and fix the flow problem. Lose the definitions from the dictionary. They are empty and stale. Your readers want you to show them how YOU define relationships based upon your six essays. Don't tell them, show them. If you must write a definition, write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the desk to refer to as you write. It's for your eyes only.

Also, lose the "boy friend" and "girl friend" terminology. It's juvenile verbage and doesn't belong in a serious essay. Use instead "heterosexual" relationship or even "male and female relationship". Have you determined what audience you're targeting?

I'm not sure that your topics are narrowed enough to be handled in essays, because the underlying issue, "relationships" itself is so very complex. What supporting data are you using? Are you doing personal observations of these types of relationships or will all of your supporting data come from books and other papers?

Originally Posted by Glen1

Relationships develop and become something or they drop by the wayside. In a serious of six essays I will attempt to show how certain types of relationships develop and how they are formed. I will also discuss the inner workings of each type of relationship.
The types of relationships that I will discuss are the following: (1) Friendships, (2) Social/Dating, (3) Male/ Homosexuality, (4) Female/ Lesbianism, (5) Boy Friend and Girl Friend and (6) Marital. These six I will discuss in six separate essays on each type of relationship.
Before I begin to attempt an explanation of relationships let me define what a relationship is. The Oxford American Dictionary defines a relationship as follows: “The way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected or the way in which they are connected.”
Also the same Dictionary further defines relationship as “an emotional and sexual association between two people.”
Then let us begin our study of relationships.

Glen it looks like an outline of sorts. A narrowing and formulation of the scope of the writing. I do these myself, and have been tempted to put them as an opener; in reality they should be notes I post for my instruction.
The boyfriend/girlfriend thing and dating/social would semmingly fall under a similiar category. If there is that much difference, what and how would they differ?

You are making progress, excellent progress. It is wonderful to watch a mind wander through the maze of construction. Keep going you will make it

a "social/dating" relationship covers all the other types you mentioned except maybe marriage.