I got an assignment due Wednesday and it's called a word trace. All I can gather from my English teacher, who talks very much LIKE AN ENGLISH TEACHER is that I'm supposed to track the progression of a word through out Othello.I've decided to track the word hell, because it's not as plentiful. Does anyone know what a word trace entails though.

According to a web site, this assignment is part of a CO high school English class:

What’s On for Today and Why

The students will discuss words that represent the "big ideas" in Othello and that recur throughout the play. They will be assigned words to track throughout the text, recording which character says the word and in what context.

Students will also look up the meanings of their assigned words using resources like the Oxford English Dictionary and The Early Modern English Dictionaries Database Website edited and maintained by Ian Lancashire at the University of Toronto. The EMEDD is a database of several dictionaries from Shakespeare's time.

A student who successfully completes this assignment will become aware of the role of diction and voice in character development. Additionally students will understand that a word's meaning may change through context and over time, and these changes and other associative meanings affect our interpretations and understandings of the text.

What To Do

1. Introduce this project as you begin reading Othello. You should discuss the idea that writers make choices in their diction (especially in poetry) to help develop their ideas. Discuss connotation and denotation.

Thanks XD