editrix

I don’t want an important point to get lost in the banter. The original post wisely urged writers not to “use the ten-dollar word when the fifty-cent one will do. Using ostentatiously literary words usually leads to problems of tone.” In this case, the fifty-cent word “obviously” wouldn’t really get the job done, as it lacks the specific and useful warning against showing off; “ostentatiously” is the more effective choice.

In general, though, it’s best to use SAT words very sparingly. Or, to put it as ostentatiously as possible:

Many essays are replete with a plethora of abstruse verbiage, when it would behoove their benighted scriveners to eschew their propensity for bombastic rhetoric.