β€œLots of Words” by Alan Levine via Flickr CC0 1.0

Throughout the semester, we will place a great deal of importance on defining words, both terminology that will help us describe, analyze, and discuss our observations, readings, discussions, writing, and vocabulary that will help us better understand the materials we encounter. To collectively build a glossary for this course, I’m offering another way to participate in the course and learn more words: each week you will choose a word that you encounter in assigned readings, in course documents, on the course site, in our class or student support hour discussions, or in research materials for this course, and write a post that teaches all of us the word in its context. For each post:

  1. include only the word in the subject line of the post
  2. in the post, start by including the word again and its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc)
  3. add the definition, making sure you’re using the most appropriate definition, which might not be the first one listed in the dictionary
  4. link to and cite the source of your definition–in general I recommend Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (m-w.com), although you might need to consult a different kind of dictionary depending on the word (e.g. a field-specific dictionary, an urban dictionary, a foreign language dictionary, etc)
  5. identify where you encountered the word (specify the title, author, and page of a particular reading, date of the class discussion and if possible the speaker, title of the handout, etc)
  6. quote the passage (or paraphrase if you can’t accurately quote someone’s spoken language). The quotation or paraphrase should include more than just the sentence the word is in–a sentence before and after that sentence at a minimum is probably necessary to give appropriate context
  7. explain for the readers of our site (us, plus visitors) the written or spoken passage as you now understand it having learned (or learned better) the word. Understanding the word might also help you understand the tone of the passage. In your own words, state what the author or speaker conveys. If you need to define more than one word in the passage, please do, glossing each word in a separate post. It is not acceptable to merely write “Now I understand the passage because I understand what this word means.“ Your purpose isn’t to tell me that you understand it, but instead to share the knowledge with all of us. It’s about the power of crowd-sourcing our efforts and supporting each other as well as learning to love words!
  8. (optional but encouraged) include links and images that help your classmates understand the word or the context
  9. choose the category Glossary (this will make it easier for us to look at the glossary collectively and for me to give you credit).
  10. add tags to your post that reflect the topic you wrote about. Include a tag based on where you encountered the word (such as the title of a reading), etc, that will help us organize and reflect on the glossary as it grows.

These posts will contribute to a shared glossary for our course. You are expected to post a minimum of 10 glossary entries β€” roughly one glossary entry per week from now until it’s time to write your final reflection, with time off for a busy week or two.

You will reflect on this glossary work, both as author and as audience, for the final portfolio as well as a mid-semester reflection.

If you have any questions, please contact me, or ask in class or on our site.

Sources

  1. I found inspiration for this project when I worked as a writing fellow supporting Dr. Katharine Goodland and her Medieval and Early Modern Culture students at the College of Staten Island and she assigned a digital and oral definition project. ↑