Common Assessment Unit 2 and 5
Semester 2
Grade 10
Day 1
Reading Information/Writing Argument
(Follows Lord of the Flies or Frankenstein)
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
Page 1
Day 1
Read the three texts below, “How do you decide whether a new word should be
included in an Oxford dictionary,” the New Word Flowchart, and “OMG! Oxford
English Dictionary adds new words.” When you have finished reading both texts,
respond to the two tasks that follow. Note that Text 1 appeared in the United
Kingdom; some spellings will be different from those in the US.
Text 1
How do you decide whether a new word should be included in an Oxford
dictionary?
Every year hundreds of new English words and expressions emerge: we need to
keep track of them and choose which ones to add to our dictionaries.
Finding new words
Oxford University Press has one of the largest and most wide-ranging language
research programmes in the world. Our most important resources are the Oxford
English Corpus and the Oxford Reading Programme. The Corpus consists of entire
documents sourced largely from the World Wide Web, while the Reading Programme
is an electronic collection of sentences or short extracts drawn from a huge variety of
writing, from song lyrics and popular fiction to scientific journals. It's based on the
contributions of an international network of readers who are on the lookout for
instances of new words and meanings or other language changes.
Keeping track and making choices
We continually monitor the Corpus and the Reading Programme to track new words
coming into the language: when we have evidence of a new term being used in a
variety of different sources (not just by one writer) it becomes a candidate for
inclusion in one of our dictionaries. For every new dictionary or online update we
assess all the most recent terms that have emerged and select those which we judge
to be the most significant or important and those which we think are likely to stand
the test of time.
Evidence
In previous centuries dictionaries tended to contain lists of words that their writers
thought might be useful, even if there was no evidence that anyone had ever actually
used these words. This is not the case today. New terms have to be recorded in a
print or online source before they can be considered: it's not enough just to hear
them in conversation or on television, although we do analyse material from Internet
message boards and TV scripts.
Timeline
It used to be the case that a new term had to be used over a period of two or three
years before we could consider adding it to a print dictionary. In today's digital age,
the situation has changed. New terms can achieve enormous currency with a wide
audience in a much shorter space of time, and people expect to find these new 'highprofile' words in their dictionaries. This presents an additional challenge to
lexicographers trying to assess whether a term is ephemeral or whether it will
become a permanent feature of the language.
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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Personal inventions
People often send us words they have made up and ask if we will add their invented
terms to one of our dictionaries. Unfortunately, the answer is usually no, because we
only add words that we consider to have genuinely entered the language: we assess
this by looking at all the evidence we have in our databases. Of course, some
invented words do catch on and become an established part of English, either
because they fill a gap or because they are describing something new. Examples of
this type of invented word include wiki, quark, spoof, and hobbit.
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
Page 3
Text 2 The New Word Flowchart
Corpus
analysis
Add to
our
dedicated
new words
database
Reading
programme
THE
RESEARCH
PROCESS
Is it found in a
variety of different
sources and used by
several different
writers?
Yes
Editorial
spotting
SOURCING
User
suggestion
No
NEW
WORDS
Is its use
limited strictly to
one group of users,
e.g. young
teenagers?
Yes
HOW A
NEW WORD
ENTERS OUR
DICTIONARIES
Reject
for now,
monitor
usage
with a view
to future
inclusion
We are often asked how we select new
words for inclusion in our online and print
dictionaries. This flowchart outlines the
process, from the recording of a new
term all the way through to its appearance
as a dictionary entry.
No
No
Does it have
a decent history of
use and is it likely to
stand the test of time?
Some of our facts and figures:
Hundreds of suggestions are added to our new
words database every year.
No
We make four updates to our website every
year, and each update includes many of the
suggestions that have been recorded on
our database.
Yes
Does it have
The most searched-for word on
Oxford Dictionaries Online
in 2010 was 'affect'.
a broader use,
or is it also used
as a verb?
The most searched-for misspelled word on
Oxford Dictionaries Online in
2010 was 'truely'.
Yes
Is it a
trademark?
No
Yes
Analyse corpus
examples of
use to write
definition
Consult
specialists
where
necessary
Liaise with
OED editors
for dates,
etymologies,
etc.
Draft
a full
entry
Circulate draft
entry for
comment from
editorial team
Include in Oxford
Dictionary of English
or New Oxford
American Dictionary
as appropriate in due
course
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
CRAFTING
THE
ENTRY
Include in the
Oxford
Dictionaries
Online
website
Page 4
Text 3
OMG! Oxford English Dictionary adds new words
By Anna Stewart, CNN
March 25, 2011
London (CNN) -- OMG! It is no longer a just a teenage expression, but officially a word found
in the dictionary.
"FYI" (for your information), "LOL" (laughing out loud) and "OMG" (oh my god) are all now
formally recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the world's principal Englishlanguage dictionaries.
These terms may have resulted from the character limits in texts and tweets, but have since
been adopted as commonly used expressions in everyday speech and print.
Graeme Diamond, chief editor of new words for the Oxford dictionary, explained what it takes
for a new word to make the grade: "You have to show that the word has been in usage for a
decent length of time and, most importantly, that the word is used and understood by a wide
audience."
One new entry to the Oxford dictionary is "WAG" -- an abbreviation for "wives and girlfriends"
used to refer to the partners of soccer players.
"WAG burst out of nowhere," Diamond said.
Introduced by a British newspaper article in 2002, it lay dormant for four years. Then, with
huge media attention on England's footballers during the 2006 World Cup, "WAG" became a
commonly used and understood expression.
The Oxford English Dictionary heralds itself as "the last word on words for over a century" -and, with four updates each year, it certainly keeps up and keeps "hip" (slang), with the
English language.
Take the word "heart" for example. A new "sense" was added to it as a verb, recognizing
slogans with "I (heart) ..."
According to a statement from Oxford, "it may be the first English usage to develop via the
medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers."
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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Day 1, Task 1
RI.10.1, RI.10.2, RI.10.3, RI.10.5, RI.10.7 W.10.2, W.10.4
Review the presentation of information in Texts 1 and 2 (“How do you decide whether a new
word should be included in an Oxford dictionary” and “The New Work Flowchart”)
A. Compare and contrast how structure affects the presentation of ideas or claims
as presented in TEXT 1 and TEXT 2.
B. Which do you think is the more effective organizational structure and why? Offer
specific evidence for your position.
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NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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Task 2
RI.10.8, W.10.2, W.10.4
In Text 3, “Graeme Diamond, chief editor of new words for the Oxford dictionary, explained
what it takes for a new word to make the grade: ‘You have to show that the word has been in
usage for a decent length of time and, most importantly, that the word is used and understood
by a wide audience.’”
a. Discuss two examples that are used to illustrate new words that “make the grade,”
identifying the word and the rationale given for inclusion in the Oxford dictionary.
b. Evaluate the evidence used to support inclusion in the dictionary based on the
criteria established in Text 1.
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NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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End of Day 1
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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Common Assessment Unit 2 and 5
Semester 2
Grade 10
Day 2
Reading Information/Writing Argument
(Follows Lord of the Flies or Frankenstein)
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
Page 10
Day 2 Writing Prompt W.10.1, W.10.1a, W10.1b, W.10.1C, W.10.1D, W.10.1E, W.10.4, W.10.5,
W.10.9b
Both texts from Day 1.
New words seem to appear every day. Some of these words have staying power, while
others do not. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has a criteria established for determining
inclusion into the dictionary.
Considering the criteria presented, determine whether you believe the expression “yolo” should
be included in the Oxford English Dictionary.
In a well-developed and organized argument essay that will be presented to the Board of
Directors at the OED, establish a claim and support it with valid reasoning and relevant and
sufficient evidence. Be sure to include the following:
a.
A precise claim;
b.
Logical organization;
c.
Development of claim and counterclaim, supplying evidence for each while
pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of both;
d.
Cohesion through transitional and linking words;
e.
A formal style and objective tone;
f.
A concluding statement that follows from and supports the argument presented.
End of Day 2
NJ Model Curriculum End of Unit Assessment, Grade 10, Unit 3
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