The hugely successful boy band NYSNC opened their classic song, “Tearin’ Up My Heart” by urgently declaring, “Baby, I don’t understand just why we can’t be lovers.” Concerned that “things are getting’ out of hand,” the NYSNCers don’t want their feelings to be MISCONSTRUED. They try to eliminate any confusion by warning, “Don’t misunderstand what I’m tryin’ to tell you…It feels like we’re runnin’ out of time.”
SAT test writers have shown little or no interest in the emotional struggles of Boy Bands. But they are very interested in using MISCONSTRUED as a defining part of difficult vocabulary in context questions on patents and microhistories. Let me explain:
Yuen Yuen Ang is a political scientist who has carefully studied the massive increase in the number of Chinese patents. She warns that the quantity of their patents should not be MISCONSTRUED or misinterpreted as a leading indicator of the quality of Chinese technological innovations. Paul Seaver is a historian who argues that historians who analyze vast sets of data often MISCONSTRUE or misunderstand the distinctive insights of individuals. His book Wallington’s World illustrated this point by providing a detailed study of the views of a Puritan artisan living during the tumultuous events in 17th century London.
The works by Yuen Yuen Ang and Paul Seaver provide important academic illustrations of MISCONSTRUE. However, at the risk of being MISCONSTRUED as an opponent of scholarly research, I prefer the lyrics in NYSNC’s song.
MISCONSTRUED – wrongly interpreted; misunderstood