Posted: 4/2/2010 12:53:13 PM EDT
|
Why is it that people pretending to be smart have to use big words? It's fucking annoying. Particularly freshman. They use big words that I understand (for the ones in my major) but use the complex jargon wrong and fuck up the meaning. Is it too god damned hard to explain something as simple as possible? If the subject requires a complex explanation, then so be it. If it can be said in two minutes concisely instead of in 20 minutes with flowery language, then damn it, say it in two minutes! For an example that arfcom would understand. Suppose I asked what the standard caliber for an AR15 rifle is. Explanation 1: Most AR15s shoot 223/556. Explanation 2: The Armalite-15 rifle launches a 5.56 millimeter projectile, out of a case approximately 45 millimeters in length, as mandated by the members of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization. In short, freshman know-it-alls in the honors college piss me off.  ETA: Freshman was trying to use economics concepts such as utility functions to describe characters in a literature class. Nothing he said had anything to do with utility functions. And all it did was make their heads hurt. When he learned I was an economics major, he asked if I was in ECN 211 or 212. I replied ECN 413, bitch! |
|
ETA: Freshman was trying to use economics concepts such as utility functions to describe characters in a literature class. Nothing he said had anything to do with utility functions. And all it did was make their heads hurt. When he learned I was an economics major, he asked if I was in ECN 211 or 212. I replied ECN 413, bitch! WHAT? |
|
Quoted: ETA: Freshman was trying to use economics concepts such as utility functions to describe characters in a literature class. Nothing he said had anything to do with utility functions. And all it did was make their heads hurt. When he learned I was an economics major, he asked if I was in ECN 211 or 212. I replied ECN 413, bitch! WHAT? |
|
Quoted:
Words mean things. Are you pissed at people who use the right words to say the things they mean? Or are you more pissed at the people who use the wrong words that don't mean what they think they mean? (I tried to use are few large words as possible I could.) He's pissed because some people try to sound smart and use too many words to explain something that could easily be explained with fewer more commonly used words. |
|
Quoted: Words mean things. Are you pissed at people who use the right words to say the things they mean? Or are you more pissed at the people who use the wrong words that don't mean what they think they mean? (I tried to use are few large words as possible I could.) No, there's a time and place for the use of complex jargon, and then there are know-it-alls who want to sound smarter than everyone else. In this case, the guy was describing concepts inaccurately to prove a point about a book. Which he could do, because no one other than myself in the class knows what he's actually trying (and failing) to say. |
|
Quoted: Quoted: +1 I would concur that some people have an apparently ineluctable predilection for unnecessarily garrulous hyperloquacity, redundantly repetitious phraseology, and obscure or pedantically pleasing term selection. http://www.offresonance.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/double-facepalm.jpg |
|
Quoted: Quoted: +1 I would concur that some people have an apparently ineluctable predilection for unnecessarily garrulous hyperloquacity, redundantly repetitious phraseology, and obscure or pedantically pleasing term selection. Yeah, and some people here do it too! Indeed. I have a modest proposal whereby we may find some relief from this egregious and vexing situation in which we find ourselves –– that is to say, these "educated" microencephalous homunculi who infest our collegial communications mechanism here with their spoutings of etymologically sound but patently overbuilt grammatical constructions. Let's GET 'em! |
|
Quoted: So your problem is buffoons using words that sound impressive but they don't understand. There's nothing wrong with being able to express yourself with variety; it keeps language from being boring.Quoted: Words mean things. Are you pissed at people who use the right words to say the things they mean? Or are you more pissed at the people who use the wrong words that don't mean what they think they mean? (I tried to use are few large words as possible I could.) No, there's a time and place for the use of complex jargon, and then there are know-it-alls who want to sound smarter than everyone else. In this case, the guy was describing concepts inaccurately to prove a point about a book. Which he could do, because no one other than myself in the class knows what he's actually trying (and failing) to say. |
|
I believe it starts in high school - or earlier - where word-count is what some scumbag teachers expect (as opposed to actually delivering a concise and driven message).
It goes on to college. It could be, too, that it's just a phase where somewhat intelligent younger people use more and more of the vocabulary they've been exposed to. Just like partying more and more, or a few other things in life, it TAKES an education (well, from some better schools, anyway) to temper and hone the communication of what they know and learn. I've seen and heard what the OP is posting about - and more slight offenses to the English language - and I think it can be just a phase. |
| When you're writing, you have to consider the audience and the purpose for what you're writing. When you're writing a business letter or filling out forms, you use formal language, but when you're on the internet, or a casual conversation you speak more freely. In a bullshit freshman class you have to take no matter what your major is, you have to write long-winded bullshit just to make the word or page quota. Also, people don't always give their best effort in a class that has absolutely jack shit to do with their path in life. Most of the time, they produce a jumble of unreadable dogshit. |