During our interview, Amanda Holt, a business major, and member of the Spring 2003 course, chose to focus on a task assigned during the second week of that semester, one that was entitled, ". . .in the beginning."
More commonly referred to by students as "the OED," this task requires students use the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary to research the etymology of any word they choose. Designed, in part, to prepare students for a more extensive research project assigned later in the semester, this task requires that the definitions and uses of a word found in the OED comprise at least three-fourths of their response. Geared also toward increasing students’ rhetorical and material flexibility, the task requires that students generate at least three paragraph-long "plans of action" for representing (or for de- and re-contextualizing) their OED findings.
