{"id":1178,"date":"2020-04-17T15:22:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T19:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2020-04-17T15:43:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T19:43:54","slug":"word-of-the-week-exemplar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2020\/04\/17\/word-of-the-week-exemplar\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Exemplar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bob<\/a>Every year, faculty nominate a graduating senior in our program as Writing Consultant of the Year.\u00a0 Our student should have shown a real commitment to helping student writers and the ability to communicate well and do hard work when facing adversity (and a pile of drafts to read does build character!).<\/p>\n

We have a winner, to be announced in a post later this week, but I wanted to explore a word that I link to excellence, high points, peaks.<\/p>\n

We have many: paragon<\/em>, aegis<\/em>, the somewhat obsolete eidolon<\/em>. This week’s word, though, has as its virtue sounding both ordinary and a trifle exalted. We recognize its lexical cousins: example, exemplify, excellent. And while some examples can be bad, exemplars are not, at least in the uses I found. Merriam Webster’s online example<\/a> makes it clear that this is an example to follow, an ideal. To do something exemplary<\/a> is to act as an exemplar, to do something admirable.<\/p>\n

While hunting down a Creative-Commons image for “exemplar,” I discovered that the US Air Force Academy annually recognizes<\/a> an Exemplar that an entering cadet classes wishes to emulate. I found the 2020 winner, Bob Hoover, one of my favorite pilots; Hoover was famous for his service in World War II, his competitive spirit in air races, and was longtime friend of his squadron mate, General Chuck Yeager. To qualify, “[a]n Exemplar must have exhibited integrity and character in both their professional careers and their personal lives.”<\/p>\n

Our word sounds Latinate, so I will take us to the OED<\/a>, my source for etymology. Partly true! There’s an Anglo-Norman ancestor in play, too. In Latin, it’s a model, an ideal, and much more besides.<\/p>\n

We could use more exemplars and exemplary behavior today. Fingers crossed for lessons well (and harshly) learned.<\/p>\n

Please send us words and metaphors useful in academic writing by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n

See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Every year, faculty nominate a graduating senior in our program as Writing Consultant of the Year.\u00a0 Our student should have shown a real commitment to helping student writers and the ability to communicate well and do hard work when facing adversity (and a pile of drafts to read does build character!). We have a winner, … Continue reading Word of the Week! Exemplar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2516,87405,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}