11/26: word studies
Over the past few days I've been reading and commenting on some of the upper-level Latin students' studies of particular words: they each chose a Latin word they're interested in and then examined how it's used by different authors in different genres or time periods. By doing so, they get a sense of the range of meanings of a word and its connotations. I just finished reading the last draft, and I am so pleased with the students' work. Not only did they take the assignment seriously, but they also each made it their own--their different personalities really come through in their analyses. I think they will be encouraged when I hand the drafts back tomorrow, and I'll look forward to seeing their final copies at the end of the semester.
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2 comments:
Awesome assignment. It sparks an idea for my creative writing students: tracing the etymology and history of an English word and writing a poem or story from the research. Thanks!
Thanks, Sandy. I like that the Latin word-study assignment seems so workmanlike (so "scientific") but becomes interpretive along the way, once the data shows the students nuances and interesting usage trends.
And your etymology creative writing assignment sounds great; I bet you'll get very interesting results. Let me know if you try it sometime?
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