THE collector ...by: John Fowles

The book is about a lonely young man, Frederick Clegg, who works as a clerk in a city hall, and collects butterflies in his free time. The first part of the novel tells the story from his point of view. Clegg is attracted to Miranda Grey, an art student who he thinks is very beautiful. He admires her from a distance, but is unable to make any contact with her because of his nonexistent social skills. One day, he wins a large prize in the pools. This makes it possible for him to stop working and buy an isolated house in the countryside. He feels lonely, however, and wants to be with Grey. Unable to make any normal contact, Clegg decides to add her to his 'collection,' in hopes that if he keeps her captive long enough, she will grow to love him. After careful preparations, he kidnaps Grey using chloroform and locks her up in the cellar of his house. He is convinced that the girl will start to love him after some time. However, when she wakes up, Grey confronts him with his actions. Clegg is embarrassed, and promises to let her go after a month. He promises to show her "every respect," pledging not to sexually molest her and to shower her with gifts and the comforts of home, on one condition: she can't leave the cellar. Clegg rationalizes every step of his plan in eerily emotionless language; he seems truly incapable of relating to other human beings and sharing real intimacy with them; it could be inferred that he is a sociopath. He takes great pains to appear normal, however, and is greatly offended at the suggestion that his motives are anything but reasonable and genuine.

The second part of the novel is narrated by Grey in the form of fragments from a diary that she keeps during her captivity. Clegg scares her, and she does not understand him in the beginning. At first she thinks that he has sexual motives for abducting her, but this turns out not to be true. She starts to have some pity for her captor, comparing him to Caliban in Shakespeare's play The Tempest because of his hopeless obsession with her and his warped behavior. She tries to escape several times, but Clegg is always able to stop her. She also tries to seduce him in order to convince him to let her go. The only result is that he becomes confused and angry. When Clegg keeps refusing to let her go, she starts to fantasize about killing him. Before she can try to escape again, she becomes seriously ill and dies, probably of pneumonia.

The third part of the novel is again narrated by Clegg. At first he wants to commit suicide after he learns of Grey's death, but after he reads in her diary that she never loved him, he decides that he is not responsible and is better off without her. Finally, he starts to plan the kidnapping of another girl.

Title : The Collector

Author : John Fowles

Publisher Dell Publishing Co., Inc. New York, USA.

Year 1980

Word Processors in the Classroom

1. Why used word processors?

Yet word processors can be used in many inventive ways, by both teachers and students. Teachers can prepare, create, store and share materials for their classes by using a word processing program, and learners can use a word processing program both in and outside the classroom, to practice writing skills, grammar and other language points, as well as to present their work. Also most teachers and learners these days will be familiar with the basic functions of a word processing program, and know how to create, save and store documents, which makes a program like this a good starting point.

A lot of the activities we will be examining here envisage one or two learners to a computer, but with some thought they can be adapted to the single-computer classroom, or assigned as homework if your learners have access to computers at home.

2. Word processors for teachers : creating materials

· Inserting images and links

Two of the things you will probably want to do when creating materials are to incorporate images into your worksheets to brighten them up, and to include links to websites which your students can go to for further research or practice.

· Creating forms

A form is a word document which has interactive elements in it, resembling closely the kinds of simple exercises you might find on the internet. These elements can include (among others) drop-down menus for making choices, text entry fields where your learners can type in text, and buttons to select one of a set of choices.

Forms can be very useful for making collections of basic exercises, and are a solid introduction to the more complex area making web-based interactive materials. The advantage of creating activities using forms is that it is simple. The disadvantage is that you cannot build in feedback to your students.

· Using Track Changes

Teachers can use Track changes to provide feedback on a learner's written work. The learner's text can be corrected by the teacher using track changes, or comments added suggesting how the learner might improve their own work. Track changes also offer possibilities in term of peer review and correction of written work.

· Using Markin

This is another Windows program that aids the corrections of word processed work from learners. It comes with a series of tools for making up grammar mistakes, spelling errors, word order and other common errors, using a series of abbreviations which will be familiar to most teachers and different colors for different types of errors.

3. Word processing activities for learners

· Using word processors for creative writing

Word processors lend themselves well to creative writing both in and outside the classroom. It includes dictionary, grammar and thesaurus tool. The basic advantage of using word processors in writing activities is the ability to model texts, share texts, produce them collaboratively and engage in peer and teacher editing on a more interactive level. Word processing activities will put the emphasis on the process of writing rather than on the final written product.

· Using word processors for language practice

Word processors are not only capable of enhancing writing skills, but can also be excellent tools for introducing or practicing language. The ability to move words and chunks of text around the page easily can guide learners towards a deeper understanding of how the language works. The ability to undo and redo moves and edits means that experimentation is easier and less time-consuming. When used in conjunction with grammar exercises, word processors can active `noticing' skills, increasing awareness of language structures and encouraging learners to play with the language.

· Further activities

a. Dictation

b. Noticing activity

c. Collaborative writing activity

· Using word processors for presenting work

One final use of word processors to consider is that of encouraging learners to put their word processed documents into a presentation package, possibly as part of a portfolio of their work.

4. Using word processors : considerations

There are some potential downsides to using word processors – not the least of which is working with mixed technological ability classes where typing skills may play a large part in performance anxiety and in the pace at which activities are carried out. Some attention must be paid to not putting too much pressure on your learners to perform too quickly. Trying to introduce too much too quickly into your word processing classes may ultimately make them more challenging than they should be, and frustrating for your learn