A paragraph in this morning’s paper about Nelson Figueroa, a pitcher for my beloved New York Mets, perfectly illustrates the link between content knowledge and reading comprehension:
“The 33-year old right-hander has put the journey in journeyman. It’s just 20 miles from his Lincoln High School alma mater to Shea, but his trek from his Brooklyn upbringing to Queens would daunt Odysseus.”
You don’t have to know baseball to make sense of this delightful paragraph. But you need a solid vocabulary (journeyman, trek, daunt), some Greek mythology and even a phrase or two of Latin. Perhaps you think this writer is striving for erudition to impress his educated readers? The passage is in the sports pages of this morning’s New York Post, a NYC tabloid with a decidedly blue-collar readership.
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You don’t have to know baseball to make sense of this delightful paragraph. But you need a solid vocabulary (journeyman, trek, daunt)
Delightful?
I’m still trying to understand what he’s saying. Heck, I’d say this paragraph perfectly illustrates the correlation between excessive prepositional phrases and poor writing:
“The 33-year old right-hander has put the journey in journeyman. It’s just 20 miles from his Lincoln High School alma mater to Shea, but his trek from his Brooklyn upbringing to Queens would daunt Odysseus.”
Ahhhh! Doesn’t his guy have an editor?
99% of mankind will just skip over this paragraph and reach into their lunchbucket on the table and pull out a cheese steak sandwich and take a bite out of it after a hard day in the trenches.
End rant :-).
But regarding the vocabulary: I don’t think focusing on content is the key to learning words like “journeyman, trek, daunt, alma mater.” Rather, lots of plain old-fashioned reading alongside vocabulary study is the key.
You, sir, are a curmudgeon (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Then what do I know about good writing? Why use two words when ten will do, I always say!
Cheers,
Robert
You, sir, are a curmudgeon
:-(. For penance, I will (struggle) to provide at least three positive comments on this blog before my next negative one.
Then what do I know about good writing?
I only visit blogs that have great writing and content.
Now, this has gotta count as a positive post!
That’s a gracious and generous offer. Since you’re praising our writing and content, I’ll count that as two positive comments. I look forward to the third!
Warmly,
Robert