...and his gratuitous charm

[vvvexation]

I...am not sure what to make of this vocabulary-building tool.

I mean, I suppose, all other things being equal, it's probably a useful thing to have in existence. But the fact that there's actually a market for this...

...yeah, I dunno, man.

Comments

[capnkjb.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that the use of "gratuitous" right there is a bit of a stretch, but yeah, sure, why not. Misuse of words is cool nowadays. >.<

But yeah, it's a deal with the devil, but if it ameliorates ignorance, well, c'est la vie.

[slyviolet.livejournal.com]

*hurk*

[adamchristopher.livejournal.com]

oh, i just wrote blink blink, too.

[adamchristopher.livejournal.com]

haha. sorry. that was utterly off-topic, and i'm really tired.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Heh. The misuse of "gratuitous" actually bothered me more than anything else. But the actual book, judging from the sample, ain't that bad.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

No worries--I don't mind off-topic comments, and I like little coincidences like that.

[tshuma]

"gratuitous" actually hurt, a little. =)

I guess it's a decent educational tool, if it gets people interested in actually understanding their favorite book and expanding their vocabularies. It does seem as if they're likely to end up with a somewhat florid expansion given the style of the works in question.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I suspect what actually baffled me most on a visceral level was the idea that the books' target audience might not know most of these words already. I have to actually think about it to realize that most teenagers are not like I was.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

From a cognitive psychology perspective, it's an excellent way to learn vocab if you're a Twilight fan.

I would be amused if they took this a step further and published a version of Twilight where more long SAT words had been added. Better yet, it could be an e-book with hyperlinks to the word definitions. Even better still, the text could swap in synonyms dynamically so as to allow a good learning curve like a well-done video game or personal trainer would do.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Ooh. So how would the synonym-swapping actually work--I mean, how would the book determine what level to start you off at and when to move you up a notch? Would it depend on how many times you clicked over to read the definitions? I can see that backfiring in the case of a compulsive reader like me--I'd be likely to read the definitions even of words I already knew.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

I was thinking at the number of times people click on definitions as an indicator. Even you'd get bored of reading them, right?

However, you could also do it with end-of-chapter quizzes.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Quizzes might be a better way to go. Then again, this whole scheme seems to rely on frequent rereading, and I'm not sure how often most people reread most books, but I suspect it's not all that often. D'you reckon the reread stats are significantly greater for books like Twilight?

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

If I were a Twilight fan and I was choosing between rereading Twilight and memorizing a giant word list, the book would look very appealaing.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that assumes your goal is to learn vocabulary. Now if you were choosing between rereading Twilight, memorizing a giant word list, and going to the mall....

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Oooh.... reframing. You win.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm not saying the ebook wouldn't work for those who were trying to learn vocabulary--i.e. the people the Cliff's Notes guide is aimed at. But then again, given the existence of said Cliff's Notes guide to accompany one's probably-already-purchased copy of Twilight, the ebook would have to be pretty cheap to compete.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

When I was in junior high I read Dragonflight and Dragonquest 7 times. I stopped halfway through The White Dragon on the 7th read. So, um, yeah.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure there are books I've read that often. But you and I are surely not typical.