From proper punctuation and the decline of the subjunctive to correct etiquette in emails and text messaging, Rogers (known at the National Geographic as StyleMaven) raises questions and renders opinions on the English language.
The Power of Words
Posted Nov 13,2008

After reading National Geographic' s November issue, a reader wrote that she had learned a new word, “diurnal.” She and her office looked it up online, then one of her colleagues passed the definition along to her 12-year-old son, who took the word to school. The son’s teacher gave her students an assignment to see how many unfamiliar words they could find in National Geographic.

It just shows you the power of print and is a prime example of how our magazine can both educate and entertain.

Determining when it’s appropriate to use a technical term or an obscure word—and possibly make readers stop reading and either run to their dictionaries or put the magazine down entirely—can be subjective. Words familiar to one person because of background or interests may be totally unfamiliar to another.

I remember my confusion as a young journalist in 1968 when, right out of college (with a history major and literature minor), I attended my first NASA press briefing, just before the launch of Apollo 8 (yes, I’ve been in this field a long time). Jargon like “delta V” and “translunar injection burn” almost propelled me into orbit, but before long I was easily spouting those phrases with the best of the press and finding that they helped me communicate clearly and precisely with astronauts, engineers, and scientists. Using them in the pages of National Geographic was a different matter. There they needed explanation.

Earlier this year, while preparing a photo portfolio celebrating the landscape of the Altiplano in Bolivia, editors and researchers debated wording in a picture caption and whether or not to use “sublimate,” the scientifically correct term, rather than “vaporize,” one that would be more immediately clear to a reader. Because our context was not scientific, we opted for the more familiar word and a more general definition, but not before an argument was made that there’s nothing wrong with sometimes making our readers stretch.

“Sublimate” would not have thrown me because it’s a word I learned while working on those space science articles years ago. However, even now, after decades of researching and editing, I find that I occasionally need to refer to a dictionary—for terms such as palimpsest, etiolated, and beef tea.

I hope I never stop learning. And, by the way, the word “diurnal” is the antonym of “nocturnal,” and means being active primarily during the day.

Posted by Lesley Rogers | Comments (3)
Filed Under: Word Usage

Comments

Daus
Nov 13, 2008 10AM #

We also have similar cases with the use of unfamiliar words. Editor judgement is a crucial on this things: whether or not to use them.

Thank you for bringing this up.

D Traver Adolphus
Nov 13, 2008 10AM #

Your crepuscular readers thank you.

Sheila Sanders
Nov 13, 2008 10AM #

CONSIDERING THAT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IS WRITTEN ON THE EIGHT GRADE LEVEL YOUR ARTICLES AND YOUR MAGAZINES ARE TRUELY A RELIEF FOR THOSE OF US WHO TRUELY LOVE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND THE POWER THAT WORDS CAN CONVEY, YET I FEAR THAT IS BECOMING A LOST ART. THANKS FOR TRYING TO PRESERVE IT

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