{"id":10920,"date":"2012-11-27T20:28:58","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T01:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=10920"},"modified":"2012-11-27T20:28:58","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T01:28:58","slug":"utilizing-thesauri-to-attain-a-facade-of-erudition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/utilizing-thesauri-to-attain-a-facade-of-erudition.html","title":{"rendered":"Utilizing Thesauri to Attain a Fa\u00e7ade of Erudition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As the end of a semester draws near, and having been reading student papers, let me offer a word of advice to any students who happen to be reading this. Thesauruses give words which overlap in meaning, and that is useful. But two words are not always interchangeable even if they are essentially synonymous. And attempts to sound more eloquent than you are, or as though you have a broader vocabulary than you do, are rarely successful, and will typically leave you sounding at best stilted and at worst incomprehensible.<\/p>\n

Let me put it another way. Saying that you are supralunar that someone is no longer feeling submeteorological will produce chuckles, rather than making your reader impressed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the end of a semester draws near, and having been reading student papers, let me offer a word of advice to any students who happen to be reading this. Thesauruses give words which overlap in meaning, and that is useful. But two words are not always interchangeable even if they are essentially synonymous. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[845,4871,11988,12521,13440],"class_list":["post-10920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-humor","tag-assignments","tag-humor","tag-students","tag-thesaurus","tag-vocabulary"],"yoast_head":"\nUtilizing Thesauri to Attain a Fa\u00e7ade of Erudition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the end of a semester draws near, and having been reading student papers, let me offer a word of advice to any students who happen to be reading this.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/utilizing-thesauri-to-attain-a-facade-of-erudition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utilizing Thesauri to Attain a Fa\u00e7ade of Erudition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the end of a semester draws near, and having been reading student papers, let me offer a word of advice to any students who happen to be reading this.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/11\/utilizing-thesauri-to-attain-a-facade-of-erudition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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