i) Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to
seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use a passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
(“Politics and the English Language”)
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Vocabulary Usage Guide for October 6 in AP English Lang and Comp
Eminent is an adjective that nearly always goes ahead of its noun – “an eminent statesman” is a prominent statesman. Eminent is nearly always used to convey something positive or valued.
If I had known that my science professor was an eminent biologist, soon to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, I would have asked for his autograph before the course ended.
“Her eminent good sense made her a godsend to our project.” (adapted from Wiktionary)
Imminent is an adjective used for describing a moment when something is about to happen. (If you can use the word 'impending', then you already know how to use 'imminent'.)
The greedy heirs awaited the imminent death of their wealthy old uncle.
The imminent likelihood of a fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.
To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.
Kennedy felt that there was a diplomatic way to assuage Russia’s concerns.
Tom had been dumped by his girlfriend; it was impossible to assuage his feelings of grief and loss.
Apostrophe is a literary device that pertains to addressing someone or something that is absent.
“Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him” is a good example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s plays.
John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play.
In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
Allusion – an indirect reference to something that many readers or listeners are likely to know.
With his line about storming the beach-heads and pushing back the jungle, Kennedy alludes to Pacific-island warfare during World War II .
The girl's allusions to hip-hop lyrics went straight over the teacher’s head.
Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s tendency to believe.
Her credulity made her a good candidate for the man who claimed he could hypnotize people.
The credulous farmers bought the phony medicine from the traveling salesman.
The greedy real estate agent played on the credulity of prospective buyers, showing them pictures of a lavish mansion when all he really had to sell was a log cabin.
Invective is a formal reference to cursing or foul language. In this sense, ‘invective’ is a collective adjective – it doesn’t really have a plural form (i.e., don’t say ‘invectives’). Also, in this sense, it is not used with an article (don’t use ‘the’ or ‘an’).
The coach’s foul invective along the sidelines got him kicked out of the game.
The witness’s hostile invective on the stand nearly got her removed from the courtroom.
Invective can also mean a rant. In this case, it’s OK to use ‘the’ or ‘an’.
A fine invective in Shakespeare occurs in King Lear, when Kent calls Oswald “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition." (King Lear, Act II, sc. 2)
A cistern is a large barrel or metal tank of liquid – most often, water. The word is nearly always used in connection with water supply, irrigation, drainage, or the engineering of water.
“The city water line feeds into a rain-water cistern.” (rainwater.sustainablesources.com)
“Some people use rain-water collected in cisterns to water their gardens.” (earthsystemsnw.com)
[That's it. Now you know them all! ~ PRB]
If I had known that my science professor was an eminent biologist, soon to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, I would have asked for his autograph before the course ended.
“Her eminent good sense made her a godsend to our project.” (adapted from Wiktionary)
Imminent is an adjective used for describing a moment when something is about to happen. (If you can use the word 'impending', then you already know how to use 'imminent'.)
The greedy heirs awaited the imminent death of their wealthy old uncle.
The imminent likelihood of a fire drill kept the teacher from giving a vocabulary quiz that day.
To assuage is to soothe, to comfort, to lessen the pain. Use ‘assuage’ in the emotional sense.
Kennedy felt that there was a diplomatic way to assuage Russia’s concerns.
Tom had been dumped by his girlfriend; it was impossible to assuage his feelings of grief and loss.
Apostrophe is a literary device that pertains to addressing someone or something that is absent.
“Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him” is a good example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s plays.
John Donne invokes death in the apostrophe “Oh, Death, be not proud,” almost as if Death were a character in a play.
In the following apostrophe, Hamlet bitterly complains about the women in his life: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
Allusion – an indirect reference to something that many readers or listeners are likely to know.
With his line about storming the beach-heads and pushing back the jungle, Kennedy alludes to Pacific-island warfare during World War II .
The girl's allusions to hip-hop lyrics went straight over the teacher’s head.
Credulity is a near-perfect synonym for ‘gullibility’. It refers to people’s tendency to believe.
Her credulity made her a good candidate for the man who claimed he could hypnotize people.
The credulous farmers bought the phony medicine from the traveling salesman.
The greedy real estate agent played on the credulity of prospective buyers, showing them pictures of a lavish mansion when all he really had to sell was a log cabin.
Invective is a formal reference to cursing or foul language. In this sense, ‘invective’ is a collective adjective – it doesn’t really have a plural form (i.e., don’t say ‘invectives’). Also, in this sense, it is not used with an article (don’t use ‘the’ or ‘an’).
The coach’s foul invective along the sidelines got him kicked out of the game.
The witness’s hostile invective on the stand nearly got her removed from the courtroom.
Invective can also mean a rant. In this case, it’s OK to use ‘the’ or ‘an’.
A fine invective in Shakespeare occurs in King Lear, when Kent calls Oswald “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition." (King Lear, Act II, sc. 2)
A cistern is a large barrel or metal tank of liquid – most often, water. The word is nearly always used in connection with water supply, irrigation, drainage, or the engineering of water.
“The city water line feeds into a rain-water cistern.” (rainwater.sustainablesources.com)
“Some people use rain-water collected in cisterns to water their gardens.” (earthsystemsnw.com)
[That's it. Now you know them all! ~ PRB]
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