I compiled this list of 100 words for a copy editing class at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va., while on sabbatical during the spring of 1999. They don't represent any sort of standard, I'm sure.
These words were chosen arbitrarily during several months of reading a number of publications, among them Editor & Publisher, Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Harpers, RollingStone, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. I selected words that I ran across more than once, and words that I thought future copy editors should know. These were words that I suspected would be challenging to students. And some were challenging to me.
My thinking in compiling the list was that these words appear often enough in everyday life that any aspiring copy editor should know what they mean. But I asked myself, shouldn't any college graduate know them also?
Here is what I've found when I asked my 16 copy-editing students to take the vocabulary challenge on the first day of classes, Aug. 24, A.D. 1999. The scores ranged from a low of 32 missed to a high of 68. The average number of missed was 44.7. I wonder how this compares with students in other colleges and universities, and I wonder how these numbers would compare with those of students 20 to 30 years ago. Are there societal influences in the interim that would make these scores better? worse?
Early during my class test, one student exclaimed with a degree of shock: "I've never seen some of these words." Taking the cue, I asked the students to put an X by any word that they had never seen. I was surprised and somewhat alarmed at how many Xs appeared. Let me be quick to say also that these are very bright students. Here are some of the words that got the most Xs by them:
Fifteen of the 16 students indicated that they had never seen the word eleemosynary (a surprise to me. A beautiful word, almost a musical score); 12 had never seen the word oleaginous (perhaps understandable.); 12 had never seen the word contumacious (another surprise); 11 had never seen ratiocination or hegira; 10 had never seen uxorious; 9 had never seen pusillanimous; and 8 had never seen lachrymose, insouciance, pulchritude (such an ugly word to mean what it does) and opprobrium. Would I have done any better than they when I was in college? Probably not. I think maybe that I had seen them all, however.
I see this vocabulary list as a challenge for those who revel in words--journalists, students, anyone who loves words.
I invite college students and journalists to take up the challenge.
Also, I'm open to any suggestions about words that any of you think should be on the list, words that you think copy editors on a daily newspaper should know. A list of this sort is necessarily arbitrary, so it can be altered easily. Provide the word, and tell me why you think it should be included. Thanks for your help.
Michael M. Spear
Associate Professor
Journalism Program
University of Richmond, Va. 23173
Tel: 804 289 8324
Fax: 804 287 6052
mspear@richmond.edu
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