Author: jmclarty@uoregon.edu

First Things First: Give yourself adequate time to study for the course. If you were taking the classroom-based section of the course, you would be spending 2 hours in the classroom per Web Lecture. Give yourself at least that much time to study each Web Lecture and its corresponding reading. Additional time will be needed to study the morpheme sets, do the written assignments and prepare for the exams.

There are 4 Study Units. Each unit covers approximately the same material that would be covered in two and one-half weeks (two weeks in Summer Term) during the regular classroom-based version of this course. See the Course Organization section for a list of topics covered in each Study Unit.

Each Study Unit is composed of a series of activities designed to enable you to master the material. Each Study Unit has a separate subsection within each unit which can be accessed from the Modules tab in Canvas. You must study the units in numerical order, beginning with Unit 1 and ending with Unit 4. Also, it is better to complete your study of a specific unit and take the test for that unit before beginning the next unit.

Begin your study of each unit by reading the information at the top of each Study Unit Home Page, and then skimming through the contents of that unit. Then, do each activity in the order listed. Next, review the unit materials. We highly recommend making flashcards for yourself (you can make them by cutting an ordinary piece of paper into six or eight pieces). After you’ve made them, you can get your friends, family, roommates, etc. to quiz you on the material. It’s also a very good idea to do the extra credit assignment and take the extra credit quiz (information on these and other study aids for each unit is available under the ‘Assignments’ link at the left). Finally, email your written assignment to the instructor and take the unit exam. (See Requirements and Grades.) Be sure to complete the exam and submit the assignment prior to the deadline. You may check these deadlines in the Course Calendar.

After completing all 4 Study Units, review all course materials and take the Final Exam prior to the final exam deadline. (The Final Exam Study Guide is available under the ‘Final Examn Prep’ subsection in Modules.)

Morphemes are parts of words (or word roots). You need to memorize one set of morphemes and their meanings for each unit.

Morpheme sets are available in each unit’s subsection in Modules. Memorize the set which corresponds to the unit you are studying. For example, you should memorize Morpheme Set 1 while studying Unit 1. The Unit 1 Exam will test your knowledge of Morpheme Set 1 (as well as other Unit 1 materials). NB: The morpheme sets for this course are not the same as the morpheme sets in the textbook! Be sure you are studying the morpheme sets from the Study Unit homepages!

You MUST

1. know the form(s) of the morpheme,
2. know its meaning(s), and
3. be able to recognize it in a word.

The BEST way to memorize morphemes:

1. get 3×5 cards or other small cards or papers and make “flash cards,” i.e. write the form(s) of the morpheme on one side of the card and its meaning(s) on the other;
2. study the morphemes for short periods, two to three times a day.
3. try to think of words that you already know that contain the morphemes you’re trying to learn.  If you can’t think of any, use a dictionary to find words that start with those morphemes.  Read the definitions of those words and try to think about how those definitions relate to the meaning of the morphemes you’re studying.  Do this with just one or two morphemes per day so you don’t get confused.

Don’t try to cram this studying. Cramming may work in the short run, but students who attempt it often find themselves failing by the end of the course. This is because the material expands rapidly, and it is difficult to retain so much information when it is not well-learned. Psychological studies show that memorized material is retained best if done in small amounts and repeated at regular intervals. Successful students often carry their flash cards with them to study during odd moments throughout the day.

Remember to go back and review morphemes from previous units before taking each unit exam. ANY MORPHEME CAN APPEAR ON ANY LATER EXAM AFTER IT HAS BEEN ASSIGNED. Building vocabulary is a cumulative process.

Each unit contains 4 Web Lectures. The Web Lectures for each unit are accessed from Modules in Canvas and are then found in the corresponding unit’s subsection.

Web Lectures are designed to complement the textbook. They may

1. discuss topics not covered by the textbook;
2. expand on topics discussed in the assigned readings;
3. summarize information covered in the readings.

Exam questions pertain to all materials, both the web lectures and assigned readings.

The textbook provides the bulk of the content of the course. Two chapters of the textbook are assigned in each study unit. You are responsible for all material in the assigned readings. Some topics may be discussed in Web Lectures as well.

Note: You are not expected to memorize specific examples in the textbook or the Web Lectures. For instance, a list of native and borrowed words is given on page 8 of the text. You do not need to memorize these specific examples. You do need to understand basic differences between these two types of words and be able pick out examples in a new list of words. If you understand the principles taught in the text and Web Lectures and have worked through the exercises, you should be able to deal with new examples with a high degree of confidence.

Exercises are given both from the textbook and at this web site. Answers to both types of problems are provided at this web site.

Exercises are strictly for your own benefit and should not be sent to the instructor.

The exercises are designed to prepare you for the exams. To get the maximum benefit from the exercises:

1. do them with the same care as if you were turning them in for a grade;
2. don’t look at the answers until you have completed the assignment;
3. review your mistakes and try to understand the reason you made it.

One written assignment must be submitted prior to each unit exam deadline. (See the Course Calendar.)

Written assignments are intended to get you started applying the principles of word analysis to words you encounter in daily life or your field of study.

For more specific information, read the written assignment instructions under the ‘Assignments’ link.

While this course is not graded on a curve, and the online nature of the course puts much more responsibility on the student to do well in the class, there are 50 points of optional extra credit offered for this class. 10 points of extra credit are offered for each unit.

All extra credit activities (assignments, quizzes) for a given unit must be completed before taking that unit’s exam in order to receive credit for them.  The final extra credit assignment and quiz must be completed before taking the final exam.

There are 5 extra credit quizzes, worth up to 5 points each. One quiz per unit plus one quiz prior to the final are given, for a total of 25 possible points. (The quizzes can be found in the ‘Assignments and Extra Credit’ in each unit’s subsection in Modules link on the menu bar on the left in Canvas).

For units 2, 3, 4 and the final exam, the instructor will post extra-credit assignments on Canvas (under Assignments/Extra Credit).  These assignments are due before the exam for each unit.  Hint: it will be extremely difficult to do these assignments unless you’ve done all of the unit reading; although extra credit is given credit anytime until its deadline, you will greatly benefit from completing the quizzes prior to taking that unit’s exam (if you are taking the exam early).

Canvas offers you the ability to send emails to the class and your instructor, so the instructor won’t operate a separate listserv, unless specified otherwise.

You must use your uoregon email account as per University policy. It is the only one that the instructor will use when sending announcements, reminders, study tips, etc. If you don’t want to use your uoregon account, you can set that account to be forwarded to your preferred email. If you are using a web-based email program (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook etc.) with active spam protection, make sure that my email address is not blocked (by adding it to your Address Book, Safe List, etc.). Otherwise, you may miss out on important announcements and reminders that are sent periodically to the class.

This list will be used to communicate with you, so do check your e-mail regularly.

Please only use the email function in Canvas for postings directly related to this class and do not post any messages of an inappropriate nature. Read the Nettiquette Guidelines posted in Canvas’s Discussion Board and Course Documents sections and see the UO Acceptable Use Policy for details.