The Proper Use of a Thesaurus
Sep
10, 2009 |Filed in:
UncategorizedThis is hysterical. A friend sent it to me (Thanks, Mary!) and I had to share.
I have a very enthusiastic Thesaurus user in my 10 yo dd! I don’t wantto discourage her from using new words, but sometimes the usage is questionable. Here is an example from the first lesson of All Things Fun and Fascinating:Effelgent, Brobdingnagian Monoliths Rocks levitate in the solar system. Actually, some get hauled to the earth. Tumbling through space, they look like smoldering stars while hurdling through the air! On Earth, they look like descending stars. Although most of them are bantamer than a grain of sand, few voluminousones hit earth. One bopped a sustenance brute. It pummeled a dog in Egypt, in 1911. We should be frantically rapturous, that our firmament fortifies us.
Funny! I do flip to thesaurus.com when I'm stuck…even though I hear that there's a thesaurus in Word you can get to by right clicking! Maybe it's not good to have alternative words at our fingertips.
You have to admit this has been "dressed up" by the choice of wording! The key would be not to forget your goal. Chose words that create an image and inhance understanding. A lesson this 10 year old will learn in time. Personally, I would be proud if my 10 year old had written this. It shows she is choosing the vocabulary to suit the purpose. This was a science paper. It sounds very scientific, doesn't it? That is… all bopping aside. 🙂
Ha! That's great.
I've had to watch my thesaurus use–I'm guilty of doing the right-clicking in Word when I think a word sounds too plain. But sometimes, plain is what's needed. 🙂
Yes, with me it's usually a matter of telling for once. There is a time and place to tell, after all.