Transcribe the following poem by Ted Hughes into the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as it would be pronounced in Standard American English:

Thistles

Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
Or crackle open under a blue-black pressure.

Every one a revengeful burst
Of resurrection, a grasped fistful
Of splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust up

From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.
They are like pale hair and the gutturals of dialects.
Every one manages a plume of blood.

Then they grow grey, like men.
Mown down, it is a feud.  Their sons appear,
Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same ground.

After transcribing the lines into the IPA, write a short paper (5-7 pages) in which you analyze the sounds in the excerpt.  Are there interesting patterns of consonant sounds?  Are there interesting patterns of vowel sounds?  How do the sounds in the poem reflect the meaning of the lines?  How do they contribute to the poem's overall effect?

Remember to talk about sounds -- not spelling.

Click here for a photograph of some thistles.

I recommend to all students working on papers that you use the resources available through the WRITE Site at http://owl.department.tcnj.edu/.  The WRITE Site offers online assistance with questions about writing and includes a link for making appointments with writing tutors at the Tutoring and Academic Enhancement Center on campus.

Use the Oxford English Dictionary and/or other sources to research the history and linguistic properties of a single English word.  Where and when did the word originate?  From where did English originally take it?  When did it come into English usage?  How has it evolved over the centuries?  What words have been derived from it and when?  In 5-7 pages, trace your word's semantic, phonological, orthographic, and morphological changes from its origins (as far back as we know) to the present.

Choose a word that you like, but look for a word with an interesting and/or long history, such as a word with Indo-European roots or a word that has changed radically in usage over time.

Click here to go to the online Oxford English Dictionary.  If you're interested in slang or ethnic words, you might want to take a look at a web project that is being created right here at TCNJ -- the Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language.

I recommend to all students working on papers that you use the resources available through the WRITE Site at http://owl.department.tcnj.edu/.  The WRITE Site offers online assistance with questions about writing and includes a link for making appointments with writing tutors at the Tutoring and Academic Enhancement Center on campus.