Vocab List 1: Important words you should know

1. Brevity (n)- conciseness (gets to the point) in speech or writing {with brevity}

2. Pithy (adj)- brief but full of meaning; short but sweet  3. Taciturn (adj)- silent due to unhappiness or bitterness with a

situation4. Bombastic (adj)- pompous and showy; describes one who

speaks in a way to impress others5. Colloquial (adj)- describes common everyday speech;

conversational; informal; perhaps even a specific dialect6. Digress (v)- to stray from the subject being spoken about; go

off on a tangent7. Loquacious (adj)- very talkative8. Rhetorical (adj)- relating to speech that is used to persuade9. Insolent (adj)- boldly disrespectful; rude 10. Narcissistic (adj)- self-adoring; egotistical; superior [Myth of

Narcissus]11. Pretentious (adj)- describes one who has or pretends to

have an extreme sense of importance 12. Vernacular (n) – the language or dialect of a specific

population or subject area

Vocab Activity 1.1 Write a sentence with each of the

words from List 1 that relates to something you read in English 9 or 10.

Choices: Lord of the Flies, Antigone, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, any short stories you remember, etc.

Write about something specific using the word

Example with #1: In Of Mice and Men, George wants Lennie to speak with brevity so no one can tell he is mentally challenged.

Vocab Activity 1.2 (HW)Create a story using all of the words

from List 1.

Topic suggestions: Going on a first date A bedtime story You as a superhero for a day Summer vacation

These can be real or fictional.

Vocab List 1 Parts of Speech

1. Brevity (n) 2. Pithy (adj) pithily (adv), pithiness (n)3. Taciturn (adj) taciturnly (adv), taciturnity (n)4. Bombastic (adj) bombastically (adv), bombast (n)5. Colloquial (adj) colloquially (adv), colloquialism (n)6. Digress (v) digression (n)7. Loquacious (adj) loquaciously (adv),

loquaciousness (n)8. Rhetorical (adj) rhetorically (adv), rhetoric

(n)9. Insolent (adj) insolently (adv), insolence (n)10. Narcissistic (adj) narcissistically (adv),

narcissism (n), narcissist (n)11. Pretentious (adj) pretentiously (adv),

pretentiousness (n), pretense (n)12. Vernacular (n)

Summer vacation storySummer is always short but sweet, and I will try to make this story pithy to match. Probably the coolest thing I did in this past decade of summers was go to Israel. This was three summers ago. My Israeli tour guide tended to digress a lot when speaking, but she was very likable and her tangents were enjoyable. It turns out one of our American tour guides went to the same college as me, but he turned out to be pretentious, insolent, and bombastic. He made us sing and clap along to a certain song every morning on the bus, which ended up being funny as well as corny, but other than that he would get in people’s business and make lots of overly intrusive comments. The vernacular in Israel is Hebrew, but most people we met knew English at least on a colloquial level. There was one crazy girl who was usually loquacious, except one day she got stuck under the bus in the luggage compartment for about thirty minutes, after which she was quite taciturn. On other days, she would tell us stories about being in the psychiatric ward, and unfortunately those stories were not told with brevity. One guy constantly walked around with his shirt off, which probably seems narcissistic, but he didn’t mean to be – it was about 110 degrees there. A lot of people think trips to Israel are going to be filled with rhetoric about religion and politics, but that wasn’t the case with mine. It was informative and fun.

Vocab Activity 1.3 Write one of the following types of letters using all of the words from List 1. They may be addressed to someone real or fictional. Love letter Hate/break-up letter Letter of complaint (to a restaurant,

store, any type of business or service) Letter of resignation (to a boss about a

job, to a coach about a team, etc.)*Try to use different parts of speech for each vocab word, not just the version of the word that is on the original list.

Letter of complaint to the birdiesDear birdies,

I will write this letter with brevity because you always waste enough class time with your noise as it is. I actually hope you are taciturn after you receive this pithy letter, which I suspect you can read, although it may not contain your colloquial vernacular (I believe it consists of phrases such as “squawk squawk squawk”). Ahh, but I digress already. The point of this letter is to rhetorically tell you that sometimes you come off as bombastic with very loud, obnoxious noises, which makes me think you may be insolent and narcissistic birds. I don’t think you mean to be pretentious, but children are trying to learn in here, so stop being so loquacious. Thank you and have a nice day!

Love, Ms. Bond

Letter of ComplaintDear Target,

Forgive me if I speak colloquially here, but the instructions you provide for how to put different pieces of furniture together suck. They contain far too much brevity. When I was putting together a bookcase I purchased from your store, it took me six hours because your vernacular regarding the different components of the bookcase was unclear. I became taciturn during the process (though I’m normally loquacious) because it was so difficult, though I eventually prevailed. The instructions could certainly be amended to be pithy as opposed to too brief. Not to digress, but oftentimes I find your employees to speak quite bombastically. I don’t think they are insolent, but they seem to be a bit narcissistic about working at Target, which is kind of weird. I mean, it’s not exactly a dream career. I hope you don’t find this letter pretentious. I mainly just wanted to address you rhetorically about the importance of proper instructions for assembly of furniture for the good of all your future customers.

Sincerely, Anonymous

Vocab ReviewFor each question, write a sentence in response that uses the vocabulary word in the question.1. What is a situation where someone might need to speak with brevity?2. Who is a writer who writes in a pithy manner?3. What could have happened to someone that would cause them to be taciturn?4. Who do you know or know of that is bombastic?5. Describe a situation wherein someone might speak colloquially.6. What is a reason someone might digress during a conversation?7. Is it good or bad to be loquacious? Explain your choice.8. Describe a situation wherein someone might speak rhetorically.9. Who do you know or know of that is insolent?10. Why is it a problem for one to be narcissistic?11. Who do you know or know of that is pretentious?12. Name a type of vernacular you’ve heard before.