Throughout the semseter, you will post entries for our dictionary/glossary assignment.  You will be asked to choose a word from the readings--it could be any part of speech, but I would prefer a verb or an adjective.  Think of words that you might actually want to use to make your own prose more interesting, exciting, or varied.  Once you've chosen your word, create a new page (don't post it here) named for that word.  Then, find an on-line dictionary definition of the word, and copy and paste the definition and the link to the defitinition below it.  Finally, write a short paragraph explaining why you chose this word: why did it stand out to you from the reading? Why do you think that it is important to the essay or story that you read?  How would a different word alter the writer's meaning (not just of the sentence in which it appeared, but in the essay or story as a whole)?

At times, this assignment may change.  For certain readings, I will ask that, instead of choosing a word from the reading, you consider a term or phrase that the reading makes you think of.  How would you sum up the "theme" of a reading in a word?  What word does the reading inspire you to think of, perhaps in a different way?  Should I ask you to respond to the glossary in this way, the assignment will be much the same.  You will still create a page in the name of the word and find a definition for it, but this time you will write a paragraph explaining what in the reading inspired you to choose that word.  

Regardless, this is the sort of entry you should make:

Example:

I would create a new page with the name "Choose," and in it I'd put the following information:

Choose

v., chose (chōz), cho·sen (chō'zən), choos·ing, choos·es.

1. To select from a number of possible alternatives; decide on and pick out.
2. 1. To prefer above others: chooses the supermarket over the neighborhood grocery store.
   2. To determine or decide: chose to fly rather than drive.

To make a choice; make a selection: was used to doing as she chose.

http://www.answers.com/topic/choose?cat=technology

(I simply copied and pasted the URL from the dictionary and it automatically became a link to that page)

Explanation:

In the paragraph above, I said that you would have to "choose a word," which in some ways implies that you have a free choice in the matter.  What it actually means, when you think about it, is that you have the free choice to choose words within an assignment which you have no choice but to carry out, or risk affecting your grade.  Often, we think that we have "choices," but at times we are really only able to choose from a set of categories that have been provided to us.  Although I hope that you have fun with this assignment and I hope that you choose words that interest you, you have to choose words from readings that I have given you, and you have no choice but to choose a word of some kind and report on it.  Had I said "find" or "look for," my meaning would have been the same, but the tone of my paragraph might have been slightly less friendly.