Glossary Project

Glossary Project: Due weekly, 15 times this semester, to coordinate  with the COMD/ENG Glossument Project

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 reading and writing, and vocabulary that will help us better understand the material we encounter. To complete this project, each week you will choose a word that you encounter in our assigned readings, on the course site, in our class or office-hour 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, provide the word and its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc)
• define it, making sure you’re using the most appropriate definition, which might not be the first one listed in the dictionary
• cite the source of your definition–I recommend Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, 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)
• identify where you encountered the word (specify the page of a particular reading, date of the class discussion, title of the handout, etc) and quote the passage (or paraphrase if you can’t accurately quote someone’s spoken language)
• explain for the readers of our site the written or spoken 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 but encouraged) include links and images that help your classmates understand the word or the context
• choose the category Glossary in the right sidebar (if your posts are not in the Glossary category, I won’t see them to give you credit for them)
• add tags to your post that reflect the topic you wrote about. You might 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, 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. Omitting any part of the required information will negatively affect the grade you receive as part of your blogging grade. If you have any questions, please contact me, or to ask in class or on our site. This project will culminate in the Glossument shared project.

A final glossary written wrap-up will be completed at the end of the semester:

You will need to write a final post 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.

Before you write this final post:

• I strongly encourage you to revise individual glossary posts to correct any misspellings, typos, or incorrect, incomplete information. Check that they each have the category Glossary, any tags for the title of the text or class topic they come from , 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.

Please write a post that includes the following information:

• Give it a title
• Choose the category Glossary
• Choose the tag Glossary Write-Up (look for that tag and choose it), along with any other tags you find appropriate
• In the post, write a list of the 15 or more words that you included in your glossary–-just the words in a list.
• Then hyperlink each word in the list 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
• 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. This should be approximately 250-300 words.
• Due date: 12/17