At our first class, you'll choose/I'll assign you one of the following words:

Wild: Barbara

Waste (n.): Andrew 

Field (n.): Victor

Demesne: Mariellen

Cultivate: Joanne

Domesticate: Tyler

Native: Maria, Matt

Innate: Rochelle

Park (n.): Aishah

Garden (n.): James, Michael

Pale: Kassondra

The assignment has a few parts. First, read Raymond Williams' "Nature" and note how he carefully examines the word (you saw another version of this with Cronon and "wilderness"). Then, look up your assigned word in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED--and please note that only the OED is acceptable for this assignment), and find one or more definitions from the 1600s or earlier that seems in some way different from a contemporary definition. Finally, go read the primary texts assigned for January 30 (Howard, Sidney, and Shakespeare) and choose one that presents a relationship between humans and the natural world that seems related to one implicit in the early modern definition(s) of your word. (Your word may appear in the literary text, but most likely it won't.)

Now, write. I'm looking for 1-3 pages that 1) offers a brief discussion of the historical evolution of the word (ie, the differences found in one or more earlier uses of the word, or perhaps a tension/ambivalence in definitions that runs over time) and 2) shows me that this definition can be useful in explicating a text or passage of text (that is, the one you chose). Please include a "Works Cited" entry for both your OED word and your primary text (I know that you might use a web source, which are tough to cite properly, but do your best).

This probably seems more confusing than it is. We'll run through an example in our first class that should help.