Glossary Assignment

Glossary Assignment: Due weekly the night before class, a minimum of 15 times this semester

 

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 readings, and vocabulary that will help us better understand the material we encounter. To complete this assignment, you will choose a word that you encounter in our assigned readings, on the course site, in our class discussions, or in research materials for this course, and write a blog post in which you do the following:

  • Include ONLY the word in the subject line of the post
  • In the post, again provide the word and its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc)
  • Include a dictionary definition–and make sure you’re using the most appropriate definition, which might not be the first one
  • Cite the source of your definition or link to it–I recommend Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, although you might need to consult a different kind of dictionary
  • Identify where you encountered the word: specify the specific page of a particular reading, date of the class discussion, title of the handout, blog post URL, etc
  • Quote the passage (or if it’s someone’s speech that you cannot quote directly, paraphrase it carefully)—this might require more than one sentence to convey the meaning of the passage
  • Explain for everyone what you understand about the passage now that you understand the word. It is not acceptable to merely write “Now I understand the passage because I understand what this word means.” If you do, you will not get credit for that entry.
  • (optional) include links, images, or other media that help your classmates understand the word or the context
  • Choose the category Glossary in the right sidebar when you write a new post
  • add tags to your post that reflect the topic you wrote about. You should include a tag based on the source text of the word; additionally, you might also tag your post with the part of speech, the letter it begins with (this will help alphabetize our glossary), and the number of the glossary entry it is for you to help you keep track (remember, the tag becomes a link to every post with the same tag)

These posts will contribute to a shared glossary for our course, available from the blog menu. Since I expect you to look up any words you don’t know, and to read all blog posts, any glossary entries can appear on quizzes or exams. You are expected to post a minimum of one glossary entry per week. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, or to ask me in class.


 

At the end of the semester, to reflect back on the glossary entries you’ve completed this semester, to facilitate my finding all of them, and to make it easier for us to share the entire glossary with each other and anyone else interested, please write a post that includes the following information:

  • Give it a title
  • Choose the category Glossary Write-Up
  • In the post, make a list of the 15 or more words that you included in your glossary–just the words in a list.
  • Then hyperlink each word to its glossary entry post.
    • To do this, highlight the word, then click on the link icon
    • Paste in the address for the post you wrote about that word
    • Click Add Link
  • I strongly encourage you to revise glossary posts to correct any misspellings, typos, or incorrect, incomplete information. Check that they each have the category Glossary, a tag for the title of the text they come from (not including any other words), and any other tags you want. Be sure to include a comma between tags when you create them so you don’t create one giant tag that only applies to one post.
  • Then write a reflection about the glossary assignment for the semester. Think about how it affected your reading process, your comprehension, your coordination with classmates for this crowd-sourced project, etc.
  • Due date 5/17/15

 

5 thoughts on “Glossary Assignment”

  1. Noblesse Oblige

    Noblesse oblige (Noun)
    According to the Merriam Webster dictionary noblesse oblige means: The obligation of honorable, generous and responsible behavior associated with high rank or birth.
    This term was used by William Faulkner in, “A Rose for Emily,” page 4 of class handout.
    William Faulkner wrote, “but there were still others, older people, who said that even grief should not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige.”
    My understanding of this term in the passage is that the towns people especially the older ones frowned upon the relationship between Homer Barron and Miss Emily. They knew her upbringing and the Griersons were considered to be aristocrats. Miss Emily the last of Griersons was still considered an aristocrat. They felt she was forgetting who she was and was dating and contemplating marriage to someone who was beneath her stature. They felt she should not let grief and loneliness cause her to settle for a day laborer. Her father who had vanquished so many suitors would have been appalled.

  2. Edict

    Edict (Noun)
    According to the Merriam Webster dictionary edict means: An official order given by a person with power or by government.
    This term was used by William Faulkner in, “A Rose for Emily.” on page 1 of class handout.
    William Faulkner wrote, “…dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor who fathered the edict that no negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron…”
    Faulkner used the tem edict to emphasized that the Colonel Sartoris who was mayor at the time and was responsible for the new law for black woman to wear apron in public would not be considered to be lying when he made formal statement that Miss Emily was excused from paying taxes because the town was indebted to her father for a loan he had given to the town in the past. This apparently was not true, but because Colonel Sartoris was in high authority within the town his explanation for not allowing her to be taxes was not challenged during his time as mayor.

  3. Bulbous – (Adjective): big and round often in an unattractive way
    The word “bulbous” is found on page 4. “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down”. My understanding of the word and the phrase is that the narrator’s feeling of a pair of big and round eyes which are also unattractive are staring at her from the ceiling.

  4. Conspicuous ( Adjective) – very easy to see or notice

    The word ” conspicuous” is found in ” The Cottagette” of the paragraph: “He came so often that Lois said she thought it would look better if we had an older person with us; and that her mother could come if I wanted her, and she could help with the work of course. That seemed reasonable, and she came. I wasn’t very fond of Lois’s mother, Mrs. Fowler, but it did seem a little conspicuous, Mr. Mathews eating with us more than he did at the Calceolaria.” My understanding of the word is that Malda did not like Mrs. Fowler and obviously it was easy to noticeable for her dislike.

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Principles of Narrative