Introduction
A glossary is, in the words of the Collins English Dictionary, "an alphabetical list of terms peculiar to a field of knowledge, with definitions and explanations." The creation of a glossary allows individual thinkers to:

• identify intellectually valuable concepts
  
• assess their own understanding of each chosen concept
  
• undertake research to solidify that understanding
  
• communicate the quality of that understanding to an audience

In short, the successful building of a glossary is a way of "owning" new ideas and theories, of integrating them into one's thinking and creating.

The faculty of Unit III want to introduce you to theories and ideas that will sharpen your analytical responsiveness to intellectual and practical problems. We are thus asking you, every week, to submit with your integrative project a glossary of concepts you have encountered during that week.

The Assignment
Your weekly glossary will include six concepts. Your faculty member will announce three concepts for study at the beginning of the week, and you will choose and investigate for yourself three additional concepts during the course of that week.

For each term in the glossary you should write at least one paragraph (beyond any dictionary definitions you include) which expresses coherently your knowledge of the concept and the ways it might be applied to examine and explain yourself and the world around you.

Remember that the word glossary, which entered English in the sixteenth century, comes from the Latin word glossa, meaning an unusual word requiring an explanatory note. In academic study (and in life outside the classroom) words and concepts may be "unusual" in two different ways.

First, a concept may be downright unfamiliar; for example, when it is encoded in a phrase from another language, such as a priori, or when it is rarely used in everyday conversation, such as ideology. Second, though, a concept such as society or justice may seem utterly familiar, yet prove very difficult to explain and/or occur in a context which ascribes a specialized meaning to that familiar idea.

Evaluation
In responding to your glossary, your seminar instructor will be asking three questions:

• how relevant are the concepts chosen to the intellectual work of the Unit?
  
• how thorough and sophisticated is the writer's understanding of the concepts?
  
• how coherently is that understanding communicated to the reader?

Tips
A dictionary definition is often a good place to start (as we did above) but it is a bad place to end. Your glossary entry should include much more than a definition (or several) of the concept

• If you are unfamiliar with the concept, use dictionary definitions to familiarize yourself with it If you think you are familiar with the concept, write out your own definition and examine it in the context of the week's readings
  
• Use class readings, lectures and discussion as sources for your glossary entry
  
• Specialized encyclopaedia (for example, of Philosophy or of Sociology) in the library may help you to develop your understanding of a particular concept
  
• Discuss the concepts with your group members, seminar colleagues and friends (always give credit to anyone who helps you reach your conclusions)

word version