Word: humes
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This year Andy McDowell and James Garner made the same error on the Jay Leno Show. Boston Globe editor Marjorie Pritchard and Christian Science Monitor editor Alice Hume both misused the word at an appearance before a writer's group last year...
...Artful Equivocation is an almost impossible concept to explain, but it is easy to demonstrate. Let us take our earlier typical examination question, "Did the philosophical beliefs of Hume represent the spirit of the age in which he lived?" The equivocate would answer it in this way: "Some people believe that David Hume was not necessarily a great philosopher because his thought was merely a reflection of conditions around him, colored by his own personality...
Others, however, strongly support Hume's greatness on the ground that the force of his personality definitely affected the age in which he lived. It is not a question of the cart before the horse in either case, merely the old problem of which came first, the chicken or the egg. In any case, there is much to be said on both sides...
...long run the expert in the use of unwarranted assumptions comes off better than the equivocator. He would deal with our question on Hume not by baffling the grader or by fencing with him but like this. "It is absurd to discuss whether Hume is representative of the age in which he lived unless we note the progress of that age on all intellectual fronts. After all, Hume did not live in a vacuum...
...illustrations, of course, need not be singularly relevant; but they must be there. If Vague Generalities are anathema, sparkling chips of concrete scattered throughout your bluebook will have you up for sainthood. Or at least Dean's List. Name at least the titles of every other book Hume wrote; don't just say medieval cathedrals, name nine. Think up a few specific examples of "contemporary decadence," like Natalie Wood. If you can't come up with titles, try a few sharp metaphors of your own; they at least have the solid clink of pseudofacts...