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English Language and Composition
Diane Waite
Teacher
Edison High School
This lesson requires students to work in teams to solve a crime -a crime of authorship involving millions of dollars in prize money. After a brief overview of general linguistics, students are presented with the field of Forensic Linguistics, how language is used to solve crimes, then familiarized with Ted Kaczynski's case and how he was caught using his writing to create a linguistic profile. Students are given four documents of which three have one known author, Rebecca Giggs. The fourth document is an unknown author (later revealed to be Annie Dillard). Using annotation, close reading, rhetorical analysis, and data collection skills students come to conclusions based on the comparative evidence they have collected. Once students a conclusion is made about the author of the fourth document, students present their expert findings via slide show to a judge in a mock court of law. Did Rebecca Giggs write the fourth document?