Strong words have been going around over the U.S. elections. There's particular glee in using these words in the press. It seems to start with the "Blue wave" which sweeps, rolls over, and covers the U.S.
The definition of "Shellacking" is: a complete, lopsided defeat and is used predominantly in sports and politics. Then there's thumping and disaster. And theres "Crushing midterm rebuke" vs "massive rebuke. " And we wouldn't want to let "Trumped" not be told. Don't forget "rout." And the party who loses? They "suffer" a defeat of some kind. It could be stunning, or landslide. There are personal attack strong words: "Lame Donald Duck" and "Trump dumped." Then there are the more literary references. The Independent 's headline says the result "delivers a direct strike against the administration's military escalations in Iran." There are references to Bruce Springsteen with "Reborn in the U.S.A."
In media coverage and political analysis strong words count - they get attention and readers start to read. That most common verb this time? "Flip" - rather than changing seats. You can feel the physicality of flip, can't you? And then the thumping and shellacking vs switching sides.
What a difference between everyday language and political and media language. That's because weak words are considered fillers and strong words are vivid and "punchy" (interesting using a strong word to describe a strong word). In everyday language here's the comparison that is given:
weak: very good vs strong: excellent, superb weak: very bad vs strong: terrible, atrocious
Up pops up Larry Bell's 12 Powerful Words - they are designed to help students understand test questions, close achievement gaps and boost their academic performance. They are: trace, analyze, infer, evaluate, formulate, describe, support, explain, summarize, compare, contrast, predict. When we look at the strong vs weak words, it is as though we are writing a novel and need to use vivid language. When we look at the powerful words, these are the words of investigation and fact-finding.
We will move on to that step next in the headlines. The analysis, the evaluations, the descriptions, explanations, and so on, and finally the predictions for the next two years.
Here's my version of wave of blue - the Meconopsis Himalayan Poppy display at Longwood a few years ago.
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