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June 16, 2006
Tradition, Change, and Precision
I observe that my dictionary software permits using the traditionally transitive verb “expound“ as intransitive: whereas I was taught that one expounds a position, a claim, the Scriptures, or a proposal, the Oxford American Dictionary (on which Apple’s Dashboard software relies) allows us to “expound on” a topic. The Oxford editors do not, however, approve the widespread use of “advocate” with an indirect object. Even in this fallen day and age, one advocates a cause, one does not advocate for that cause.
Just so you know.
And since I’m blogging about academica, I will belatedly point to Alex Halavalais’s now-famous post on ways students could cheat better. It’s not the kind of thing I would have posted — I can’t do anything to make my job harder — the post and some of the comments deserve attention.
Can you tell I’m grading papers and exams?
Posted by AKMA at June 16, 2006 08:25 AM | Threadorati
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Comments
One point Halavais failed to mention was Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' admonition to not rely on Wikipedia as a definitive source for information, and to not blame the online encyclopedia for their bad term papers (source).
AC
Posted by: Andrew Careaga at June 16, 2006 09:31 AM
And the bit about foreign English/Canadian spelling doesn't bother me, as long as my student is spelling something correctly according to some orthography. Switching back and forth, though, does constitute a clue about cheating (though I’d be positively impressed that the student bothered to copy the source spelling correctly).
Posted by: AKMA at June 16, 2006 10:29 AM
Okay, now I'm confused. I have always thought the correct form was "expound UPON."
I've never heard it used without the UPON.
So much for my higher education!
Posted by: Pascale Soleil at June 16, 2006 12:14 PM
My wish is that the world in general would use comprise correctly. And my present-day grumble is in the expression "gone missing.
Posted by: Mom at June 17, 2006 04:16 PM
