Editorial Help Desk

Word of the Month

Rage Bait
Refers to online content that is “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive,” with the aim of driving traffic to a particular social media account. More here.

In recent months, the word gained popularity after actress Jennifer Lawrence revealed that she has a secret TikTok account she uses to "get in fights" with strangers online.

Tip of the Month

Effective Word Choice Tips

Edible; eatable
What is edible is fit to eat (edible flowers).
What is eatable is at least minimally palatable (the cake burned but it is still eatable).

Fictional; fictitious
Fictional means relating to or involving imagination (a fictional story).
Fictitious means counterfeit or false (a fictitious name)

Immigrate; emigrate
To immigrate is to enter a country to live permanently, leaving your past home.
To emigrate is to leave one’s country to live in another.
Someone who moves from Bolivia to the United States is an immigrant here and an emigrant there.

Verbal; oral
If something is put into words, it is verbal. Technically, verbal covers both written and spoken utterance (in fact, all contracts are verbal).
If you wish to specify that something is conveyed through speech, use oral (Jason gave an oral account of the events leading up to his car accident).

As always, when in doubt, check it out! Contact the Editorial Help Desk for help (Donna_M_MarksPleasant@mcpsmd.org).