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!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
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”?
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”?
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)