Match Wits With Our Word Wizards

(Text-only version of Word Wizards)

Connotation and Denotation
(and when to use methodology, method, procedure, and approach)

Select from each pair the sentence that illustrates pejorative connotations and that which illustrates meliorative connotations:

• The media were swarming around the pileup on the innerbelt to capture every conceivable injury for the evening news.
• The journalists were on the scene at the innerbelt crash to document the incident for the evening news.
  
  
• Photographers stood patiently along the walkway, awaiting the arrival of the Oscar nominees.
• The paparazzi lined the walkway anxiously poised to snap the Oscar nominees.
  
  
• America's Midwest is often referred to as the heartland by Washington congressmen.
• America's Midwest is often referred to as flyover country by DC politicos.
  
  

Select the sentence that illustrates the best word choice to describe the concept of computational simulation:

• Computational simulation is a new methodology used to evaluate damage propagation stages and the structural fracture load.
  
  
• Computational simulation is an evaluation method that conveys to the design engineer a detailed description of the damage initiation stages that would occur in the ultimate fracture of a fiber composite structure.
  
  
• An alternative procedure, computational simulation, was used to evaluate damage growth and propagation to fracture for graphite/epoxy and silicon carbide/fiber glass-matrix composite compact tension specimens.
  
  
• Computational simulation represents a new global approach that may be used for progressive damage and fracture evaluation in design investigations.
  
  

For an explanation of connotation and denotation, see Quirks of English.

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Last updated: 1/20/2009