A friend of mine, also an English teacher, commented on the picture. She mentioned that, after a year of reading AP Language essays, she had begun to hate the word "plethora" because her students were overusing it. I jokingly responded that I didn't like the word, nor did I know really how it was pronounced...was it pleth-er-uh or pleth-OR-uh? A former student of mine commented, asking why it mattered, as long as we knew what the student meant. I responded that most English teachers have pet peeve words or phrases. He interpreted this exchange as if we were mocking our students. This is not, in fact, true. We were discussing word usage.
There's a lot of subtext in the exchange that someone who is not an English teacher may be unaware of. We English teachers spend a lot of time looking at words. We teach about words. We notice words, even when we are not in English teacher mode. We analyze words, not only in the literature texts we teach but also in the student work we read. We try to instill in our students the importance of words in any kind of writing: both the writing they read and the writing they create themselves.
Words are important. We English teachers pay attention to them. A lot.
A famous quotation attributed to Mark Twain states, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." My problem with a word like "plethora" is that I believe it is a word that many people (students in particular) use because they believe it sounds intelligent. They don't use it because it expresses their ideas exactly. They are using the word to impress.
Whenever I teach students about vocabulary and word choice, I try to help them understand one basic fact: they should choose words that express their ideas as precisely as possible. John Keating, Robin Williams' character in the movie "Dead Poets Society" told his class, "So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do." The point he is making is that in order for language to be effective, it must be exact.
Language must have meaning. Today there are so many words that are overused to the extent that their power is lost. Think about a word like "awesome". The definition of the word is "extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear," yet we use this word to describe anything from frozen yogurt to the latest baseball victory. This is a word that should be reserved for true power: the presence of God, the destruction after a volcano. It should be used for anything that inspires genuine awe.
I realize that most people don't really notice words in the same way that I do. It's part of my daily existence to pay attention to words. Words do, however make an impression on each of us whether we notice it or not. Just as an experiment, the next time you see an advertisement, watch the news, or read an article in the newspaper, think about some of the standout words. The men and women who create them pay attention to the words they choose because they want to achieve a certain reaction from you, their audience. Those choices are not made lightly because the creators have a specific goal in mind, and they know that certain words will trigger certain reactions in you.
Here is part of the exchange, just for the record:
My friend's first response: You know what was a favorite of my students this year? Plethora. I started hating the word "plethora."
Me: I don't like it much, either. Now, is it pronounced PLETH-ER-AH, or PLETH-OR-AH? I have heard it both ways.
My friend: I think it depends on your accent.
I'll let you decide if it's mocking our students or not.
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