bodner088

In the interest of Search Engine Optimization and attracting more "Mainstream Readers" from a growing population of abbreviators , texters, phonic spellers, urbanizers, ("Yo! U 'Aight?") hashtag huggers, semi- literate souls, libertine Lingovators , and other denizens of the world's 'audience', bloggers and other writers have had to increasingly limit their formerly extensive vocabularies to reach a steadily declining " lowest common denominator " of practical literacy. Simplified, this means that if I want to get more hits (and more unique visitors ) on my website or blog, I must state my message in terms that are getting simpler and simpler. I must lower my vocabulary skills and writing style to conform to that of the general public. For example, if I've interviewed a person and want to mention something that he had said, I would not write " The Senator indicated.. ." I would write " He admitted... " --- not on...

We bloggers (and the occasional speechwriter) use dictionary.com for quick word definitions, etymological stories (there's one below) and for alternate word choices. For this last, we use the Thesaurus feature. It (" Dic ," as we chronic abbreviators and vulgar insinuators often call it... for short), is enormously useful, despite the fact that it is so laden with ads, pop-ups, pavilions, flash graphics and other distractions that the quick bit of information which you seek is often hidden (" obscured " would have been a snazzier word choice, but I'm in a rush) on the page. While some people (mostly 23-year old internet billionaires or Baby-Boomers taking a break from looking for an employment opportunity which they'll never find) think this " word search " or " improve your visual acuity "- type exercise is fun, I detest it, although I wouldn't put that in writing. Being the Baron Of Braintenance (my hobby) as well as the mo...