{"id":1594,"date":"2021-11-04T13:53:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T17:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2021-11-04T14:02:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T18:02:24","slug":"overused-word-of-the-week-disconnect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2021\/11\/04\/overused-word-of-the-week-disconnect\/","title":{"rendered":"(Overused) Word of the Week! Disconnect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/disconnect.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1595\" src=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/disconnect.png\" alt=\"disconnect\" width=\"284\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/disconnect.png 200w, https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/disconnect-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/a>Readers know how much I despise the noun &#8220;Society&#8221; and adjective &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2016\/10\/27\/a-new-super-bad-writing-habit\/\">Super<\/a>.&#8221; To me, these words indicate rushed or even lazy thinking.<\/p>\n<p>While our super irritating adjective super crops up mostly in speech, society just cannot understand why using society as a noun without any qualification seems so evil in my classes.<\/p>\n<p>There. I got to use them both. And I feel soiled. Now I have a third word to indicate half-baked thought: <em>disconnect<\/em>. Not as a verb, when it has a clear meaning, but as a noun. Consider this popular bit of student-think:<\/p>\n<p><em>A serious disconnect emerges between how the two characters think of their grandmother&#8217;s past.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Just. Stop. It. I&#8217;m adding the word to my <a href=\"http:\/\/writing2.richmond.edu\/writing\/wweb\/peeves.html\">Pet Peeves list<\/a>, which means writers lose 10 points and have a week to regain some or all of them by revision.<\/p>\n<p>This will, I fear, be a losing battle, but consider all of the options: misunderstanding, rift, estrangement, rupture, breakdown, gulf, and so so many more!<\/p>\n<p>My argument is less with the word than with the lack of variety and nuance it evidences in student work. So please, writers, slow down and consider (with a thesaurus and many examples, if you must) the power of synonyms.<\/p>\n<p>Keep hope alive;\u00a0<em>Elle\u00a0<\/em>Magazine published an article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elle.com\/uk\/life-and-culture\/culture\/news\/a32476\/overuse-of-the-word-super-in-the-english-language-needs-to-stop\/\">lamenting the overuse of &#8220;super.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 We might be shouting into a hurricane, but civilization may survive, yet!<\/p>\n<p>Send me misused or overused words, along with other good words and metaphors, by e-mail (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/metaphor-of-the-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/word-of-the-week\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Creative Commons image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/term\/cable-break\/87601\/\">The Noun Project<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readers know how much I despise the noun &#8220;Society&#8221; and adjective &#8220;Super.&#8221; To me, these words indicate rushed or even lazy thinking. While our super irritating adjective super crops up mostly in speech, society just cannot understand why using society as a noun without any qualification seems so evil in my classes. There. I got &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2021\/11\/04\/overused-word-of-the-week-disconnect\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">(Overused) Word of the Week! Disconnect<\/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":[2516,2521,2520,40197,99],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-1594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-style","category-usage","category-vocabulary","category-writing","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","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=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}