Advice for students: Beware of thesaurus
Reading an essay from a college freshman many years ago, I came across a sentence that baffled me — it referred to “ingesting an orange.” I crossed out “ingest,” wrote “eat,” and wondered why anyone would’ve written otherwise. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that my student had very likely started with “eat,” only to cross it out and substitute a word that seemed somehow better — lofty, less plain, more imposing.
Since then I’ve taught many students who seek to improve their writing by using “better” words. Their revision strategies focus on replacing plain words with big, shiny ones. Such students usually rely on a thesaurus, now more available to a writer than ever before as a tool in many word-processing programs.
But dressing up a piece of prose with thesaurus-words tends not to work well. And here’s why: a thesaurus suggests words without explaining nuances of meaning and levels of diction. So if you choose substitute-words from a thesaurus, it’s likely that your writing will look as though you’ve done just that. The thesaurus-words are likely to look odd and awkward, or as a writer relying on Microsoft Word’s thesaurus might put it, “extraordinary and uncoordinated.” When I see that sort of strange diction in a student’s writing and ask whether a thesaurus is involved, the answer, always, is yes.
A thesaurus might be a helpful tool to jog a writer’s memory by calling up a familiar word that’s just out of reach. But to expand the possibilities of a writer’s vocabulary, a collegiate dictionary is a much better choice, offering explanations of the differences in meaning and use among closely related words. Here’s just one example: Merriam-Webster’s treatment of synonyms for awkward.
What student-writers need to realize is that it’s not ornate vocabulary or word-substitution that makes good writing. Clarity, concision, and organization are far more important in engaging and persuading a reader to find merit in what you’re saying. If you’re tempted to use the thesaurus the next time you’re working on an essay, consider what is about to happen to this sentence:
If you’re lured to utilize the thesaurus on the subsequent occasion you’re toiling on a treatise, mull over what just transpired to this stretch.
Michael Leddy teaches college English and blogs at Orange Crate Art.
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Comments
Pascal Venier says on February 5th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Without meaning to be flippant, shouldn’t the title really be : Advice for students: Beware of thesauri? ;^)
ituloy angsulong says on February 5th, 2007 at 9:47 am
That’s why I practice blogging – so that I can use words that are natural without worrying if its contextually right or wrong.
Nathania Johnson says on February 5th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I use thesaurus.com alot, but if I find a word that I’m not familiar with, I just click on the tab for dictionary.com to find it’s true meaning, which often gives examples of use. If I’m really not clear, I simply do a google search to read how other people use it.
It’s a great way to learn new words and expand vocabulary.
Michael Leddy says on February 5th, 2007 at 11:13 am
@ Pascal: I meant the title as a pun — “Beware of thesaurus,” like “Beware of the dog.” (Sorry!)
Pascal Venier says on February 5th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
… but of course! Sorry! I am only a slow understanding Frenchman!
david says on February 5th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
“If you’re tempted to use the thesaurus the next time you’re working on an essay, consider what is about to happen to this sentence:
If you’re lured to utilize the thesaurus on the subsequent occasion you’re toiling on a treatise, mull over what just transpired to this stretch.”
You just made a very flat and uninteresting sentence into a very interesting and challenging one. While the use of a thesaurus is usually not needed, if a person has a vocabulary that enables him to write such a sentence without outside help, then by all means he should. Why should everything be so simple, when it can be so beautiful and melodic. regards
Doug Cummings says on February 5th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
BTW, I love the Tolkien companion books in the pic. Definintely a handy reference.
chris says on February 7th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I understand what you’re trying to explain and in the main you are on solid ground, but while the English language is an envolving beast, there are still lots of words which have mileage in them yet and are not ready for retirement.
In the same way software packages often have many features that you don’t use; it’s never the correct thing to do to tell someone that if you can’t do it in Google spreadsheet, then doing it in Excel isn’t the answer.
When I know a word which means something that might otherwise take half a sentence to explain, I’ll opt for the efficient solution. Much depends on context and the target audience, but if I can send someone to a dictionary and go “huh, I didn’t know that word meant that”, then, just sometimes, that’s a job well done.
Chris K says on February 8th, 2007 at 11:01 am
I imagine that if students were assigned papers where the main (and to them only) purpose wasn’t a minimum length, they may be better at concise-ness. Similarly, using a certain “level” of words in the paper. In short, they’ve been trained to write exactly the way that student wrote.
Coyote Librarian says on February 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Surprised you didn’t include one of the most well-known examples of thesaurus misuse:
— [From Wash. Post, pg A1, 7/27/99 –
Bush did not get off to an auspicious start when he arrived as at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., as a sophomore or “lower middler” in the school’s vernacular. His first English grade – for an essay on emotions – was zero.
“As I remember, the impression of the red marker was so intense that it stuck out of the back side of the blue book,” recalls Bush. With the help of a thesaurus his mother had given him, Bush had erroneously written about “lacerates” running down his cheek – instead of tears.
———- end quote ———-