Decide what the visitor needs explained
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
The draft exhibition notes mentioned an obscure designer whose work few classmates recognized. They also used esoteric printing terms familiar mainly to a small group of specialist readers. One paragraph offered a recondite account of a lettering convention, requiring knowledge the visitors had no reason to possess. Ari asked the writer to add a brief introduction and explain the relevant terms, so that a visitor's lack of prior familiarity would not prevent an understanding of why the covers belonged together.
Being obscure did not mean that the designer's work lacked value; it meant the intended visitors were unlikely to know it. The esoteric vocabulary addressed a narrow circle of knowledgeable readers, while the recondite paragraph was both little known and difficult to understand without that background. Ari kept a shorter explanation in the main display and placed the detailed account in an optional reading folder. Visitors could then grasp the central idea and choose whether to investigate the specialized discussion further.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.