This morning I would like to discuss a major pet peeve of mine (sorry in advance to anyone this might apply to): people who feel like they have to use big words to appear intelligent! Now, I fancy myself to be somewhat of a "wordsmith", so I can appreciate a large vocabulary and plays on words, etc. But personally, I feel that truly intelligent people don't have to flaunt their big words & knowledge in order to show how smart they are!
This rant was brought on by a flashback to my Honors English class in high school, because I read several quotes by Henry David Thoreau this morning. My teacher was obsessed with Thoreau! Okay, the guy had a beautiful mind & vision of "transcendentalism through simplicity", but enough already! There was a girl in my class who was the teacher's pet because she enjoyed using superlative adjectives (see, I can thow those big words around, too!) to write about something you could sum up in three words. I guess I'm just old school, but I read somewhere early on that America reads at an average of an 8th grade reading level, so I prefer to write in such a way that others can relate to it & enjoy reading it, rather than be made to feel like an idiot because some high-and-mighty writer wanted to feel superior and forgot about the most important part of writing - the audience!
Phew - I'm glad I got that off my chest...I think I was at least mildly traumatized by that experience in high school - for the record, I dropped out of Honors English & enrolled in regular ol' plain Senior English & had a great time & probably learned more! At least we didn't study Thoreau all freakin' year!
1 comment:
OMG, I sooo relate to this one. The memory that sticks in my mind of this was my ex-sis-in-law. She is extremely intelligent, there's no denying that, but when she asked me what kind of connifer was growing in my yard, I about died, lol. Just to bother her I said "you mean that tree?" and she kept saying "yes, that connifer", so I refused to answer the question. It just irked me! So she said she'd just wait for Randy to get home and ask him. His response was the same as mine: "It's a TREE". I don't think she ever got her answer, but I don't think she really was looking for one anyway...just wanted to throw that word out there. Too funny! Now when I hear someone use that word I start laughing.
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