[spinestein]

I took a journalism course in college (yes, I'm sorry, too) and I wrote a paper for an assignment on persuasive writing, in which I championed the cause of football and other "manly" contact sports at the expense of "less manly" pursuits like bowling and the hop, skip, and jump.

I was thoroughly criticized for the concept by the teacher, who argued against me using some of the same ideas found here in this Chomsky prattle.

[cleo1939]

It sounds like your teacher was not much of a teacher but a
talking head.

A teacher would have argued about the basis of your argument
and the way in which you put it across or not put it across
as the case may have been.

Therefore I must assume that your argument was strong enough
for the teacher to lose sight of his/her object and defend
his/her position.

You may not have realized it at the time but your paper
probably was pretty convincing. Else why the concept blitz?

Having said all of that, I think that a person that uses a
five letter word when a four letter word will do is an
intellectual a$$ (IE. Chompsky).