And the winner is...

Did you happen to miss the sonnet vote?
Alas, that you neglected all the best
your witty peers could offer, all they wrote
in verse and rhyme, they beat out all the rest
and won their classes' winter sonnet game.
Then moving on to our trueteacher site,
they represented well, fought hard to claim
the rights and privileges so requisite
of being the 8-Mile Sonnet Death
Match champ. Bravo to Sungeun's Chris's, Todd's
and rhythmic Thomas, Michael's, Brendan's breath.
For all spoke well against the stringent odds
the Bard proscribed in jest. Still, there is one
With most votes cast for him: Chris Masterson.

Wild about sonnets.

Vote for your favorite sonnet here in the all-out, drag-down, 3rd Annual American Idle/8-Mile Sonnet Death Match brought to you by Trueteacher.com.

How great are sonnets? Don't you love them? Check out this site which promises you a comprehensive reading journey down the roads of sonnet history.

Geoffrey Chaucer didn't ever see one episode of "Desperate Housewives."

(But as you find out in The Miller's Tale, he might have been a good writer for that show. Read the Middle English unedited full-version here. Parental guidance recommended.)

Library visit, November 5

Today, you must type "essay the first" into the trueteacher website. Be sure to type your name above the essay, put a space between paragraphs, and proofread as you type! When you are done, come back to this page for further instructions. Click here to enter your essay into the website. In a day or two, you'll see your essay appear in your portfolio here.

If you finish early, read some of your peer's essays that have appeared below or above yours on the "submit" page.

Check out some of the newest additions to the OED in the last year. (You may need to log in.)

Read William Safire's article in yesterday's New York Times about the phrase "shout out."

Go to freerice.com and see how much rice you can earn with your knowledge of vocabulary!

Check out some of the links in other blog entries below that you haven't yet checked out.

Flash cards homework tonight:
Pallor
Hoary
Prating
Tarry
Apothecary
Subtle
Cant
Rouse
Capital
Timid
Derision
Maxim
Stringent
Expound
Hedge (v)

Extra Credit Opportunities, Quarter 1

My philosophy on extra credit: it shouldn't replace credit. Be sure to complete all your homework before attempting any of the following.

-For a quiz grade: memorize and recite the first sixteen lines of Old English Beowulf (see "packet 1")--down to the word "hwile."

-For a quiz grade: memorize and recite the first eighteen lines of Middle English General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales (up to "Seeke").

-All non-honors extra credit opportunities are fair game--you may do a maximum of one of them.

This extra credit applies all year, not just for the first quarter!

Library Visit, essay 1

Search the London Times or the Boston Globe (click on Globe) or the New York Times for unique uses of your word since 2000.

Try EBSCO, which searches all magazines/newspapers at once for you. Type username/password, click on "full text periodicals" then "MAS Ultra" then search for recent articles using your word uniquely.

Go to OED.com and log in with my username/password to read more about your word if there is more to be read.

FYI: Here is the suggested outline for essay 1, draft 2:

-Intro: general to specific thesis
-Report on preliminary research/crunch #’s.
-OED definitions that are unique or different from ordinary definitions.
-OED citations from literature—what kinds of authors have experimented with or changed this word over time?
-2000àonward usage: in The London Times or other newspaper and in a modern poem/short story/novel.
-Foreign language speakers' usage/history with the word.
-Conclusion: what is this word’s future versus English’s future as a “super-language”?

Words, puzzles, wit.

Simon Winchester wrote a great book a few years back called The Meaning of Everything--about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Check out the excerpt that Amazon gives us for free--click on "excerpt" when you go here.

Also: read the timeline of the OED here. Starting in 1884 is amusing and edifying.

If you want to get rich and famous by solving word puzzles (or at least the latter), figure out Will Shortz's weekly puzzle on National Public Radio. Read this week's puzzle here. If you solve it, you might get picked to be on the Weekend Edition program with him. Who's Will Shortz, you ask? Only the greatest enigmatologist, that's all!

Old English Dictionary

Want to write more old English poems? Check this dictionary out for help...

Read The Times

Homework 9/11:

browse the London Times website to get a feel for what Brits are thinking and reading about these days. Be prepared to discuss your findings tomorrow.

So, welcome to the English 10H blog.

Welcome to the English 10H blog. Prepare yourself for important blog entries down the line.