*Glossary available at the end of the post.
Tuesday afternoon, while trying to rest off the tension and stress of my first official exam this semester, I decided to check new notifications on my Whatsapp Messenger. While at this, I noticed a sort of literal sparring ongoing between two male contenders in a particular group chat. My interest was piqued. Not one to be easily interested in participating in such showy acts, I decided to keep mute and simply enjoy the interplay (kinda like the way one would sneak into a movie theatre when the lights are already dimmed, lol).
To some people it was irksome, to others much like me, we were busy looking for more popcorn. Then after a while of being a wallflower and simply observing, I started realizing a few things. Such as, People tend to equivalate verboseness with intellectual adroitness.
Don't get me wrong, I respect sesquipedalians. I admire their dexterity with words. But only when the words are in sync with the matter being discussed.
Often, just to earn the admiration of their readers or audience, many youths make use of bombastic terms without considering if they apply in that context. Consequently, they end up spewing, put simply, utter gibberish.I've had the opportunity to come across a particular guy who was so terrible with words but thought of himself to be an unquestionable master of English. It was such a ludicrous situation, one filled with mirth for me quite honestly. I never tried to correct him on his countless errors tho. It would have broken his ego. After Tuesday's event though, I felt I had to express my views on this someway, hence, a blog post! In my opinion, and that of many literary scholars, concise and succint words are always the best channels for passing information or expressing oneself. Of course it is never a bad idea to embellish one's writing with some grandiloquence once in a while, however, moderation is key. A sparse amount of lexiphanic statements in strategic places is enough to express the writer's acuity. Wordiness only diverts readers attention from the original purpose of the write-up and bores them in the end. Sadly, Not many people can detect when their writing is wordy. The basic idea is, when a word is dispensable, there's no need to include it in the sentence. Take for instance this sample sentences.
1. "The man ardently, vehemently and passionately refused to move his car" This is a classic case of wordiness. A much better Variant of the sentence would be;
2. "The man vehemently refused to move his car" (if the imagery must be painted ) Or better still,
3. "The man refused to move his car" The adjectives vehemently,ardently and passionately mean the same thing so using them all together is just wrong especially when the pattern is maintained throughout the text. I call it "word abuse" (just made that up, don't know if it actually exists. But you get the idea)
Picture a confident and charismatic speaker, saying sentence 1. You'd probably be clapping and saying "Punchline! Ride on! Tell them" Or anything else that would apply in this case. Everyone is guilty of it in some way.
And that is exactly why nowadays, folks are more bothered about expanding their English vocabulary rather than understanding the language's Diction and Grammar. Thus, there are tons of people possessing the knowledge of great many words, who aren't even able to properly pronounce half of these words.
I'm not a literary genius per se, neither am I a pedant. But I am a strong believer in the philosophy of "Less is more".
GLOSSARY
1. Wallflower- a Person who isn't socially inclined.
2. Verboseness- the excess use of words.
3 Adroitness- Skillfulness or ease of ability.
4. Sesquipedalian- A person who uses long words.
5. Dexterity- Skill in performing tasks.
6. Bombastic- Showy in speech.
7. Grandiloquence- Lofty, pompous speech or writing.
8. Lexiphanic- bombastic wording
9. Pedant- A person who is overly concerned with trivial points of learning.
10. Sparring- A contest in words, to wrangle.
11. Irksome- Annoying, Irritating
Tuesday afternoon, while trying to rest off the tension and stress of my first official exam this semester, I decided to check new notifications on my Whatsapp Messenger. While at this, I noticed a sort of literal sparring ongoing between two male contenders in a particular group chat. My interest was piqued. Not one to be easily interested in participating in such showy acts, I decided to keep mute and simply enjoy the interplay (kinda like the way one would sneak into a movie theatre when the lights are already dimmed, lol).
To some people it was irksome, to others much like me, we were busy looking for more popcorn. Then after a while of being a wallflower and simply observing, I started realizing a few things. Such as, People tend to equivalate verboseness with intellectual adroitness.
Don't get me wrong, I respect sesquipedalians. I admire their dexterity with words. But only when the words are in sync with the matter being discussed.
Often, just to earn the admiration of their readers or audience, many youths make use of bombastic terms without considering if they apply in that context. Consequently, they end up spewing, put simply, utter gibberish.I've had the opportunity to come across a particular guy who was so terrible with words but thought of himself to be an unquestionable master of English. It was such a ludicrous situation, one filled with mirth for me quite honestly. I never tried to correct him on his countless errors tho. It would have broken his ego. After Tuesday's event though, I felt I had to express my views on this someway, hence, a blog post! In my opinion, and that of many literary scholars, concise and succint words are always the best channels for passing information or expressing oneself. Of course it is never a bad idea to embellish one's writing with some grandiloquence once in a while, however, moderation is key. A sparse amount of lexiphanic statements in strategic places is enough to express the writer's acuity. Wordiness only diverts readers attention from the original purpose of the write-up and bores them in the end. Sadly, Not many people can detect when their writing is wordy. The basic idea is, when a word is dispensable, there's no need to include it in the sentence. Take for instance this sample sentences.
1. "The man ardently, vehemently and passionately refused to move his car" This is a classic case of wordiness. A much better Variant of the sentence would be;
2. "The man vehemently refused to move his car" (if the imagery must be painted ) Or better still,
3. "The man refused to move his car" The adjectives vehemently,ardently and passionately mean the same thing so using them all together is just wrong especially when the pattern is maintained throughout the text. I call it "word abuse" (just made that up, don't know if it actually exists. But you get the idea)
Picture a confident and charismatic speaker, saying sentence 1. You'd probably be clapping and saying "Punchline! Ride on! Tell them" Or anything else that would apply in this case. Everyone is guilty of it in some way.
And that is exactly why nowadays, folks are more bothered about expanding their English vocabulary rather than understanding the language's Diction and Grammar. Thus, there are tons of people possessing the knowledge of great many words, who aren't even able to properly pronounce half of these words.
I'm not a literary genius per se, neither am I a pedant. But I am a strong believer in the philosophy of "Less is more".
GLOSSARY
1. Wallflower- a Person who isn't socially inclined.
2. Verboseness- the excess use of words.
3 Adroitness- Skillfulness or ease of ability.
4. Sesquipedalian- A person who uses long words.
5. Dexterity- Skill in performing tasks.
6. Bombastic- Showy in speech.
7. Grandiloquence- Lofty, pompous speech or writing.
8. Lexiphanic- bombastic wording
9. Pedant- A person who is overly concerned with trivial points of learning.
10. Sparring- A contest in words, to wrangle.
11. Irksome- Annoying, Irritating
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ReplyDeleteWooooah!!!! LVN ur write-ups
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