Originally Posted by
sherwood
I feel the same way, but one has to expect some people may not have learned the exact same advanced vocabulary that they have. I know quite a few words other people do not, and I'm sure they also know a few that I don't know.
The question is simply put like this " Is it ok to put a trivial word or two in a required document for understanding a course?" and I'd have to say no. It's understandable to want to expand a students vocabulary beyond a normal scope, but don't go to town with the thesaurus button in something that is supposed to be informative and is crucial to understanding the task at hand.
When it comes down to it in 3 weeks when I try and remember the syllabus i most likely won't remember much of what was on it other than the five or six words I learned, just because they wanted to make a simple document into a Wall Street Journal article.
In this case I feel that the words detract from what we need to know, I focused more on decrypting a simple paragraph than actually paying attention to it.
cliffs: i'd rather leave the vocab learning up to my extra-curricular reading, let me know what i need to when i'm reading something thats supposed to outline what i'm supposed to understand.
Well, based on what you quoted, it sounds like a post-graduate student writing for a post-graduate course level.
If the professor is trying to apply that level of writing in an undergrad class, he will learn his lesson when two-thirds of the class refuses to do the reading.
As RB wisely noted, concise language is the most effective tool for instruction.
Originally Posted by Jani
go bitch at the professor
:werd: Agreed. He'd be better off knowing about this issue now.