tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post6727393750724454054..comments2024-03-27T16:02:25.334-05:00Comments on Orange Crate Art: Beware of the saurus¹Michael Leddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05547732736861224886noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-42893445509575357372013-01-01T15:14:32.894-06:002013-01-01T15:14:32.894-06:00I would agree that a thesaurus can be a helpful sp...I would agree that a thesaurus can be a helpful spur to one’s thinking about language. But in my experience, students relying on a thesaurus are working from the mistaken assumption that the key to good writing is longer words. Nancy Sommers wrote <a href="http://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/welcomeweek/SommersRevisionStrategies.pdf" rel="nofollow">a now-classic piece</a> about that. I’d rather see students think about diction by, say, replacing forms of <i>to be</i> with sharp, lively verbs (that they probably already know).<br /><br />By the way, I don’t penalize anyone for using a thesaurus; I only point out which words don’t work and why. Michael Leddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05547732736861224886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-87494304600781705912013-01-01T14:30:23.500-06:002013-01-01T14:30:23.500-06:00I enjoy your blog and use it in class to demonstra...I enjoy your blog and use it in class to demonstrate many ideas to students. But I disagree wholeheartedly about abandoning the thesaurus. With limited vocabularies already, my students don't know which better words to search out in a dictionary, and using the thesaurus, with a dictionary at hand as well, helps them find new words to which they will become familier. I encourage them to save these words as a list and use the ones they find particularly useful again and again to improve their vocabulary. Honestly, the thesaurus was the only way I passed the GRE language component, and it seems the only way that students become familiar again with action verbs and descriptive adjectives. Yes, it sounds lofty at times. Yes, sometimes inappropriate words are chosen. But I choose not to penalize them for this when the effort is clearly present. They rediscover language, and sometimes they discover that words and the play of putting words together isn't such a boring task after all. Vic Grahatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02077148826482778262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-1245128759841593022010-02-16T02:50:21.370-06:002010-02-16T02:50:21.370-06:00I've always hated having to read a paper where...I've always hated having to read a paper where the author clearly replaced 90% of the words in the original document with a loosely related synonym.<br /><br />Regardless of this fact I made a web thesaurus replacement machine which magically grabs a random word from an online thesaurus to replace words in a document. Brilliant and amusing indeed. I'm sure it will come in handy for a few college students looking to spice up their written word.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-29425599427758925562008-10-17T21:10:00.000-05:002008-10-17T21:10:00.000-05:00Yes, in the right context, "ingest" could be funny...Yes, in the right context, "ingest" could be funny and apt. In the essay I was reading, it was just a sign of thesaurus-hunting. : )Michael Leddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05547732736861224886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-34328997020740831412008-10-17T19:28:00.000-05:002008-10-17T19:28:00.000-05:00I have to say, while I'm sure the context was diff...I have to say, while I'm sure the context was different in the case you mentioned, "ingesting an orange" has a certain poetic ring to it.The Chemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15970398885870679916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-82569199181667079262007-02-06T12:09:00.000-06:002007-02-06T12:09:00.000-06:00Michael! I just waded through some "thesauric" pa...Michael! I just waded through some "thesauric" papers from otherwise rather intelligent students. I'm referring them to your post right away.Elaine Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14248422399226824168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-91772494831151857932007-02-05T16:55:00.000-06:002007-02-05T16:55:00.000-06:00I'm laughing, both at the sentence and at the thou...I'm laughing, both at the sentence and at the thought of someone buying it. Thanks for the comment!Michael Leddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05547732736861224886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8343608.post-86296548197272175742007-02-05T13:19:00.000-06:002007-02-05T13:19:00.000-06:00I agree whole heartedly. A recent essay that was ...I agree whole heartedly. A recent essay that was turned in to me read: "Various sit with their countenance lit by the blaze of their computer monitors..."<br /><br />As if students felt that we wouldn't realize this was, to borrow a computer term they might be more familiar with, "hacked." <br /><br />(By the way, this particular section is also plagiarized, available on a number of paper-purchasing websites.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com