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  1.  

    I just encountered this while editing my brother’s essay. He’s in the fifth grade.

    Anyway, apparently, to reward using big words, whenever my brother plucks random synonyms from the Word thesaurus, he gets a better grade. Never mind that half of the words that end up in his writing are used in completely the wrong context. Now, he’s quite accustomed to thesaurus rape (of course, I didn’t call it that in front of him) and now I have to train him out of it. XP

    Does anyone else find this extremely annoying? I’m all for using a good vocabulary, but I’d prefer using it correctly in the right context, without just pulling words from the thesaurus.

  2.  

    Yes, I also find the act itself annoying. I’ve actually not had that happen to me yet though. My current language arts teacher calls that “snowballing” for some reason that which I can’t recall. I think it had something to do with trying too hard to impress someone.

  3.  

    I haven’t had it happen to me either…but I remember being told not to use the word ‘said’ for the longest time, so it took me some effort to break out of that in my writing.

  4.  
    I had a fairly flowery writing curriculum (why use a "boring" verb when a fancier one will do....uh oh) but I don't regret it. They were in for having us use at at least five different sentence types in each paragraph, which taught me sentence variety early on. (And made me more aware of when I write essays featuring: I think, I did, I, I, I, over and over again.) And...as much as I hate to admit this, thesaurus rape expanded my vocabulary immensely. Now I have a vast arsenal of words to draw on so that if I need a more precise word, I have it. Even though I try to keep the fancy shmancy down to a minimum. But, hey, I was eleven and it was OK at the time.
    That's where you build. Now, we perfect and hone our craft.
  5.  
    The only stupid thing I can remember getting told by an English teacher is that I shouldn't use the phrase "you kids" because it's grammatically incorrect. Well it was a character bloody saying it! It was his bad grammar, not mine. Stupid teacher... Not that big of a deal though.
    And yeah rewarding kids for thesaurus rape does sound screwed up. Hooray a new generation of Paolini's!!
    •  
      CommentAuthorAdamPottle
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    scintillating.
    • CommentAuthorsimian
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    ... thesaurus rape. I hate you all.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     

    Yup, my teacher last year rewarded thesaurus rape. I should dig up the horrid ‘descriptive essay’ I wrote for her. It involved ‘whispy clouds of pearl knitted into cerulean skies,’ because she hated my initial rough draft which was much better and rather plain in style. So I went over the top with it to prove a point.

    I got the highest grade in the class. >.< I’ve since learned that most of what teachers tell their students is completely useless.

  6.  

    In the words of Stephen King(IIRC at least), any word you have to look up in the thesaurus is the wrong word.

    • CommentAuthorRocky
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     
    Yes. That's epic fail right there. Someone should fire that "English" teacher for not knowing the difference between the "bigger" word and the "better" word.
    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     

    The only time I use a thesaurus is when I know there’s a word I’m forgetting, but I can’t quite think of it.

    My sixth grade English teacher told us to avoid using “said” when we could use something else. This was when Eragon came out, and I remember being v. confused. She was an excellent teacher in all other respects, though, as far as I could tell—her grammar was very strict, and in retrospect it was good for me.

  7.  

    My sixth grade English teacher told us to avoid using “said” when we could use something else. This was when Eragon came out, and I remember being v. confused. She was an excellent teacher in all other respects, though, as far as I could tell—her grammar was very strict, and in retrospect it was good for me.

    This is what happened to me last year. We got a big list of replacements for ‘said’ and everything. XD

    I do like to use the thesaurus to help me find a word if I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but I’m of the opinion that you should know what the replacement word actually means in the correct context. Because sometimes, what Word gives you as a synonym really doesn’t make sense where you want to use it…

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     

    DON’T SPLIT INFINITIVES!

    I once had a teacher who INSISTED we never end a sentence with a preposition. Even in characters’ dialogue.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     

    :/ It’s happened to me, too, but my (eventual) reasoning for it is that English teachers want you, at this age, to explore the English language. When you’re older, you can start putting things in context because you understand more.

    That and, y’know, English teachers =/= writers.

  8.  

    Infinitive splitting is actually grammatically okay.

    I like Jeni’s explanation. Who says we can’t play around in the English language when we want to?

    I remember being twelve years old and making my own mini-book of all the replacements I could use instead of ‘said’.* I told my parents what I was doing and that’s how I found out what the word ‘thesaurus’ meant.

    Which is kind of ironic, considering the fact that earlier I had been looking for ‘said’ synonyms (could we call them saidonyms? It’s kinda catchy) in a book about a group of slower-reading kids who actually steal a thesaurus.

    *I only actually discovered that was wrong about the same time I found out that most of the right-thinking world considered Twilight trash. In other words, I was sixteen years old. shaaaaaame.

  9.  

    That and, y’know, English teachers =/= writers.

    To butcher a phrase:
    “Those who can, write. Those who can’t, teach.”

    That’s where you build. Now, we perfect and hone our craft.

    Well put.
    I think one of the fastest ways to reach perfection is to do everything wrong and screw up as early as you can, so you learn from it and know what not to do in the future. (it works for jobs too but be careful…)

    The only time I use a thesaurus is when I know there’s a word I’m forgetting, but I can’t quite think of it.

    Ditto here. Or when I have one word in mind but know it’s not exactly what I want to say so I go looking for the word that floats in some fragmented memory.

  10.  

    I had a fairly flowery writing curriculum (why use a “boring” verb when a fancier one will do….uh oh) but I don’t regret it. They were in for having us use at at least five different sentence types in each paragraph, which taught me sentence variety early on. (And made me more aware of when I write essays featuring: I think, I did, I, I, I, over and over again.) And…as much as I hate to admit this, thesaurus rape expanded my vocabulary immensely. Now I have a vast arsenal of words to draw on so that if I need a more precise word, I have it. Even though I try to keep the fancy shmancy down to a minimum. But, hey, I was eleven and it was OK at the time.

    X

    Sounds a lot like something I had to do, called Write Shop.
    I hated it.

    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     

    Those who can’t do teach high school.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     

    My present English teacher so far has indicated that she loves purple language as long as one doesn’t get too carried away. We read The Soloist at the beginning of the class and on the whiteboard she wrote out all of the purple words from a section of the book that she thought were very profound so we could see what real writing was all about. Funny thing is, judging from the papers I’ve read in peer review, most of the class has figured it out and are trying to get any A in the department of wordiness by any means possible. XD

    •  
      CommentAuthorFalling
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     
    I think Jeni hit it on the head. Honestly, many students will take the path of least resistance- Describe what happened in that book- 'it was nice, I guess" "it's okay"

    It really takes a push or series of pushes to get many students to precisely describe something without using lazy/ vague wording. Later on they can discover the nuances- perhaps by high school?
    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009
     

    The splitting infinitives thing stems from people thinking English should be as much like Latin as possible, except that of course in Latin it’s not possible to split infinitives, so screw that.

    Yeah, same. To be quite honest, I’ve gotten through English class by writing purple and slamming teachers in the head with it.

    Sadly, it’s worked. Ditto for AP—made up some incredibly purple bullshit.

    •  
      CommentAuthorsansafro187
    • CommentTimeOct 1st 2009 edited
     

    Gah, this reminds me of one girl’s short story from a CW class I took in the spring. She only used “said” by itself, unmodified, a grand total of twice throughout a story that was at least ten pages long.

    I counted.

  11.  

    Ten pages? Tell me she didn’t read it aloud

    (loved Sly’s very bold statement)

  12.  

    Nah, we never read aloud in that class. We got the stories the class before we were to workshop them and they were anonymous until the workshop itself was over, and you weren’t allowed to talk during yours.

    What really made the whole said-phobia silly was the fact that girl probably wrote the best dialogue in the entire class, so it was basically like a healthy person trying to sprint using crutches.

  13.  

    Yes, I also find the act itself annoying. I’ve actually not had that happen to me yet though. My current language arts teacher calls that “snowballing” for some reason that which I can’t recall. I think it had something to do with trying too hard to impress someone.

    I think it could be related to “snowing”, which is when you turn up the margins, make everything a bigger font, hit the return key after every paragraph, and a lot of other things which make your paper bigger.

    My English teacher, the most awesome English teacher ever, has mixed opinions on using “said.” On the one hand, using “said” all the time is only used for reporters who want to give an objective opinion – to use words like “denounce” or “decry” means that you are taking a side. On the other hand, don’t use “stated”! “Stated” is stupid. Very few people “state” anything. They yell, they retort, they shriek, but they very rarely “state” something.

  14.  

    @ Smart Alien-

    Ah. I don’t think that’s it, but that’s interesting. My history teacher told us a story about how he used several tricks for lengthening papers when he was younger.
    /unrelated

    Wait, are you saying that “state” is bad, or is that your English teacher’s opinion?

  15.  

    It’s his opinion. I use “state” when there is nothing else to use.

  16.  

    I don’t know if my English teacher likes purple prose or not. I’ve had many in the past that seemed, so back then, I thought that that was good writing. We did last year (I had the same teacher as I do now) get a list of words to replace “boring” words. I’ve gotten similar lists in the past. My teacher does, however, think that Stephenie Meyer is a bad writer, so that’s a good sign anyway.

    I think that most teachers encourage purpleness and give better grades for it because it gives the illusion of intelligence. When a fifth-grader uses big words, they seem smart. The teacher reads their paper and says, “Ooh, big words. This kid must be really smart. A!” Plus, some teachers aren’t that bright themselves, or they pay more attention to how it sounds than what is means. It sounds fancy and good, so they like it. If they focussed on meaning, they’d realize it sucked. I don’t mind teachers of other subjects liking purple prose. It allows me to BS my way through a lot essays by “sounding smart,” without actually having to know what I’m talking about.

  17.  

    On the one hand, using “said” all the time is only used for reporters who want to give an objective opinion – to use words like “denounce” or “decry” means that you are taking a side. On the other hand, don’t use “stated”! “Stated” is stupid. Very few people “state” anything. They yell, they retort, they shriek, but they very rarely “state” something.

    On that note, can you belch and talk?

  18.  

  19.  

  20.  

    I think that most teachers encourage purpleness and give better grades for it because it gives the illusion of intelligence.

    This. When I read the books(you know the ones, I just don’t want to risk derailing this with our collective hatred) the first thing I thought about the prose is “this reads like a middle-schooler trying too hard to sound sophisticated.” For students, it’s an understandable mistake, but good teachers ought not mistake it for quality.

    • CommentAuthorlawzard
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     

    I had a teacher who actually told me not to use purple prose to impress people, but since she also told me to use saidonyms (I totally want that word to catch on), it was kind of a mixed bag.

    Plus, some teachers aren’t that bright themselves, or they pay more attention to how it sounds than what is means. It sounds fancy and good, so they like it. If they focussed on meaning, they’d realize it sucked.

    This is so true, and not just of teachers. I have a friend who thinks her super flowery writing is teh awsum because just because it sounds pretty, even though it doesn’t make sense if you actually think about it.

  21.  
  22.  

    u gaiz check this out

    “The muscled he-beast poses ‘pon husky pedates”

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     

    Pretty much any time an English teacher tells you there is something you should never ever ever do in writing, it a bald-faced lie. Especially the splitting infinitives thing… sure, it’s something to avoid, but there are cases when switching it around would just be awkward, unclear, and possibly grammatically incorrect.

    Also, active vs. passive tense in papers. I’ve had teachers tell me to only use passive. I’ve had teachers tell me to only use active. I’ve had teachers rant against both in class and why the other is the only way to write papers because it’s so much better. Um… can we just agree that there’s places for both and no particular hard-and-fast standard?

  23.  

    A teacher told you to always use passive? That’s… strange, and pretty inexplicable. At least there’s reasoning behind always using active, in that it theoretically gives your sentences more punch. I can’t really see one for the reverse. I tend to almost always use active, except during very specific situations, like if it’s really more to the purpose to make the acted-upon noun look weak, or if it just sounds too weird when phrased actively.

    • CommentAuthorRocky
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     
    The only frustration I can remember from an English teacher was my freshmen year in FL when she tried to teach us how to "show, not tell". A sound principle, yes, but I was getting frustrated after several rewrites of the same paper and she kept marking me down for telling, and not showing.

    Of course, it's hard to catch on to that principle when her bottom line was always, "don't just _tell_ me about something, _show_ me".

    Yup. That was the extent of it.
  24.  
    Sprecken of showing and telling


    Ugh, I hate when they just tell you "show, don't tell."

  25.  

    I’m guilty of using passive voice too much. Oops.

  26.  

    I wrote a really long rant on here about editing and pre-writing, but it didn’t post, so I’m irritated and don’t feel like typing it again.

  27.  

    Really? That sucks. I would’ve liked to read it, because I never get to edit my stories (because I never finish them).

  28.  

    Sometimes passive just sounds better, you know? “The poor innocent geek was beaten up by the bully” sounds better than “the bully beat up the poor innocent geek” if the subject of your story is the geek. If you’re writing about the bully, then “the bully beat up the loser” sounds better than “the loser was beaten up by the bully.”

    When I read the books(you know the ones, I just don’t want to risk derailing this with our collective hatred) the first thing I thought about the prose is “this reads like a middle-schooler trying too hard to sound sophisticated.”

    If you are referring to the series of books written by someone who was featured in an ad equating his works with Tamora Pierce and Philip Pullman, that was my reaction, too. Actually, the thing I thought about the second book was that it sounded like a kid using as many different words from the thesaurus as he could to write a paper. This was back when I liked the books…

  29.  

    @SWQ
    It was about editing school essays/stories. I was saying how my 9th grade English teacher would make me write an essay, and then right away say, “Now edit it.” I would argue with her about how I didn’t leave anything out, and that if she would tell me what was wrong with, then I’d fix it. Then she got mad. So the next thing I wrote, I typed it. Then I deleted certain passages, and I used that as my first draft. Then I put them back for my final draft.
    I also hate pre-writing, and I always did the pre-writing after I wrote the story/essay. So I guess that would be… post-writing.

  30.  

    I used to hate pre-writing, and I still do. I’ve gotten a little better on outlines (they’ve actually helped me a lot for timed prompts), but pre-writing… ergh.

  31.  

    Ah, I see. I never used to pre-write either. XD

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     

    I used—and still sometimes do—write my final draft first, and then would work backwards from that to produce a first draft and any pre-writing because I never do that.

  32.  

    Well, on this particular assignment, she made me so mad, that I was almost crying (as happens when I am angry). She was really mad because I was arguing with her. I usually don’t argue with teachers.

    It was also one of those “write about an experience in your life” crap prompts. I always asked why we had to write about ourselves, and they always say because it’s easier. Well, it is so not easier. No one wants to write about themselves. They should give an option of writing about yourself or making something up.

    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     

    For reflection. So you can reflect on your life. Sigh.

  33.  

    I don’t want to reflect. I’m a teenager, I don’t have much life to reflect on. I have really done very little. I’d rather make up other people’s lives that are way more interesting than mine, but noooo, I have to write about my life. Ugh, sigh, groan.

    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeOct 2nd 2009
     

    Right…

    So as a teenager one thing you can do is think, “Man, I haven’t really done much with my life, but my best years are slipping away already aren’t they?” and then become motivated to do something amazing.

    I just have no sympathy for people who think their lives aren’t interesting, because making your own life interesting is literally the easiest thing in the world.

  34.  

    ^^I didn’t say that I minded having a non-interesting life. I’ve had a happy life. And a lot of interesting things happen to be bad, so I’m glad that my life isn’t too interesting. I plan for my life to be interesting in the near-future.

    And I really hope that my “best years” are ahead of me and not behind me. And even the some-what interesting things in my life aren’t really fun to write about. I just don’t enjoy writing about myself. I wasn’t whining about my dull life. Sorry if it seemed that way. I was whining about having to write about myself, because for a while there, it was basically the same assignment every year. It gets old.

  35.  

    No one wants to write about themselves.

    I wouldn’t say people don’t want to write about themselves, but they are typically reluctant to do so. I had a mixed CW class last fall, and for the non-fiction portion we each had to write a personal essay. I thought it’d be really mundane fare, but once most people bought into the “what you write doesn’t leave the classroom” they really opened up, myself included.

    People wrote about some heavy shit in theirs, family problems, domestic abuse, sexual assault, etc.

  36.  

    ^^I’m sorry. I should have clarified. I was mainly saying that no one in my class ever wanted to write about themselves, so the whole “it’s easier” thing wasn’t really applicable.

    I do think you are write, however, most people are just reluctant too. Of course, if high school kids write about that stuff, they get sent to the counselor (they may need it sometimes, but most teachers don’t really give off an “open up to me” sort of vibe). Nothing awful like that has ever happened to me (thank God), but I could see how people would open up if it would never leave the classroom. I would tell deeper stuff in a CW class like that, probably.

  37.  

    Yeah, I don’t think it would’ve flown in high school since you typically know the people in your class and see them all day. It’s a pretty cathartic experience though, if you can get people to do it.

  38.  

    If I wrote about half the things I want to write about, I would have very strange looks. I have a lot of dark and scary fears that would love to see the light of day. But I don’t tell anyone about them, which is why I have a diary! Except sometimes, I secretly wish someone would read it, just to see what’s going on inside my head.

    And that sounded really dark. You see why I hate personal essays? Well, despite the fact that you can’t ever write about something bad without mentioning someone in the school?

  39.  

    I have a lot of weird fears too. If I wrote them all down, people would think I was crazy. I think that a lot of people have weird fears and things that would make them seem dark and twisty inside. Some people have more than others. I’m also slightly paranoid, so that brings up a lot of weird stuff as well.

    Anyway, I wouldn’t mind writing one if it was the situation that sansafro mentioned.

  40.  

    I’m guilty of using passive voice too much. Oops.

    Heh, I used to do that all the time without realizing. ;)

    About writing about yourself, I’m rather reluctant to do so, but once I start, the piece I’m writing usually turns out pretty good. The thing is, when you’re writing about fantasy, fiction, etc, you can’t know EVERYTHING. (if that makes sense) If you’re writing from a personal experience, you were there, it’s about your thoughts.

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009 edited
     

    Passive voice is overused by me also. :P

    I dislike writing about myself. Our teachers assignmed so much of that kind of work, that my brother and I took to calling it N.T.H.: Nosy Teacher Homework. It was almost always at the start of the year, and began with the teacher addressing a desire to “get to know [us] all”. So, instead of having a nice conversation or going around the room, they assigned an essay about ourselves. ALWAYS on some mundane, boring topic (or, sometimes, creey ones) like “what’s your favourite subject at school, and why?” (a boring one) or “write about your most embarassing moment that you can remember” (relatively creepy).

    I disliked N.T.H. so much. I got so frustrated one year (we had staff problems, so I had like 6 different teachers that year) that when we were told to write a brief autobiography for the umpteenth time, I just snapped and wrote something like “I was born, much to my suprise, at a very young age, and haven’t since achieved anything of note.” and left it at that.

    I think the best advice I’ve ever been given was “write. don’t care what about, or even if it makes sense: just write.” Granted, he didn’t care about what we wrote, or really correct it in any way (he was a lazy substitute who used to cover the blackboards with maths questions and go to sleep at his desk every day), but I at least enjoyed the operate to write without being defined to a topic.

  41.  

    “I was born, much to my suprise, at a very young age, and haven’t since achieved anything of note.”

    Lol. What did the teacher say?

    I think we’ve gotten the embarrassing moment question too, and all I can ever think is, “Why would I want to tell you my most embarrassing moment? It’s the beginning of the year, and I don’t even know you. Even if I did, I wouldn’t want to tell you something embarrassing.’

    Our most common topic is “Write about an important/exciting even in your life.”

    @Passive Voice
    I think I might overuse that also.

  42.  

    “Write about an important/exciting event in your life”

    Argh, I hate that prompt. I can never think of anything to write about.

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2009 edited
     

    Argh, I hate that prompt. I can never think of anything to write about.

    I suspect the problem you’re having there is that you’re trying to think of something that would seem exciting to other people. What you want is something that is exciting to you, not necessarily other people. For example, I was hugely excited a couple days when I got an email from a uni I’m applying to saying that they’d gotten my application. It’s not a big thing to other people, but the fun part of that prompt is explaining why you’re so excited, and drawing the reader into your world.

  43.  

    I see what you mean. It’s not a prompt that came up much after the eighth grade, but that’s useful advice to remember all the same.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    I think that most teachers encourage purpleness and give better grades for it because it gives the illusion of intelligence. When a fifth-grader uses big words, they seem smart.

    Or they become the laughing stock of the whole village. When I was ten or so, I went up to the front desk at the local post office to mail a bulky letter. There was a whole bunch of adults there at the time, and when I finally reached the front desk (the line was long), I said, “Hello. I would like to ensure that I have sufficient postage.”

    There was a moment of incredulous silence before every adult in the room started cracking up and repeating what I’d said, including the postmistress. Me? I was completely baffled as to why everyone was laughing at me; all I knew was that they were laughing at me for being polite and concise.

    And that, my friends, is perhaps my most embarrassing moment ever. u_u

    A teacher told you to always use passive? That’s… strange, and pretty inexplicable. At least there’s reasoning behind always using active, in that it theoretically gives your sentences more punch. I can’t really see one for the reverse. I tend to almost always use active, except during very specific situations, like if it’s really more to the purpose to make the acted-upon noun look weak, or if it just sounds too weird when phrased actively.

    I remember being taught that when writing scientific papers/articles/abstracts, you must write in passive tense in order to keep things impartial.

    And as for prewriting for school assignments, since I edit as I go and only start writing once I have an idea firmly in mind, I always had to backward engineer my rough drafts. Being a perfectionist (I’ve been getting better!), this faking aggravated me to no end because I would always have to create errors in my own work. >.<

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    Today my teacher insisted that we never, ever use “boring” words like “nice”. I thought of this thread with a smile.

  44.  

    Well, to be fair, “nice” really is boring in most cases. It’s so vague.

  45.  

    I agree with Dan. “Nice” is almost never the best word you could use unless you’re trying to convey something indistinct. IMO there’s nothing wrong with “boring” words as long as they mean what you’re trying to say. What gets you in trouble is trying to use flashy substitutes without grasping said substitutes’ nuances, and you just end up obscuring your meaning.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    “Write about an important/exciting event in your life”

    I have no scruples about fabricating some things in papers that don’t matter, so I took my most embarrassing moment and ran away with it, and had tons of fun. Er.

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009 edited
     

    “Hello. I would like to ensure that I have sufficient postage.”

    ...can I coo at how cute you were? Please? Please?

    Ahem.

    Spock!

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    ...can I coo at how cute you were? Please? Please?

    Beware for I am the epitome of Badass Adorable (according to my little sister). And being called “cute” happens to be my berserk button. u_u

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! For some terrible unknown reason, TVTropes is not blocked at my school (but AOL Mail is?...), so I already wasted half my day on it!

  46.  

    >Beware for I am the epitome of Badass Adorable (according to my little sister). And being called “cute” happens to be my berserk button. u_u

    Awww, how cuuute!

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeOct 6th 2009
     

    Beware for I am the epitome of Badass Adorable (according to my little sister). And being called “cute” happens to be my berserk button. u_u

    ZOMG KAWAII DESU NE~ ^ _ ^

  47.  

    ^^
    ROFL XD especially ‘Give the kid a sandwich tier’

  48.  

    I know it’s a little old, but I wanted to archive this somewhere I could find it again.
    And here’s this year’s entry.

    • CommentAuthorDWest88
    • CommentTimeMar 29th 2010
     
    Interesting, very interesting. I was homeschooled, thus avoided the usual writing classes you take in High School. I was taught a simple style of writing. Never use a large word when a small one will suffice, cut a word when it is possible, etc. But I noticed at the community college I attended, I was encouraged by quite a few teachers to use big words. Y'know, words that make you *sound* smart. For example, I was once praised for using the word "pecuniary" in a paper I wrote once. I admit this gave me a bit of a big head for a while until I was reintroduced to the basics of writing and was thankfully brought back to earth. Now that I've transferred to a private college I am encouraged to be as simple and brief as possible in my writing, ergo: as it should be.

    I have a friend who both went to our local highschool and is currently attending said community college. His writing style is overflowing with big, important sounding words. Brobdingnagian is his admittedly favorite word ever, and he uses it any chance he can get. But this has also lead to misused words, such as saying that someone's actions "garnished media attention." Yeah, *cringe*. I'm hoping he runs across that wonderful professor who set me straight, and soon.
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      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeMar 29th 2010
     

    Mmm, I’ll have my media attenton with a garnish of grated carrot, zucchini and sliced red pepper. :D

  49.  

    Sounds good to me. I’ll have the same, with a slice of lemon.