Glossary of Essential Words

For my glossary of important terms, I chose the top three words or phrases that were commonly repeated throughout the article, “The Ohio State University, 1870 – 1970, History of the Division of Business and Finance” by George J. Schorr. I found this article from the Ohio State University libraries’ database. This article contains important information about the start and foundation of Ohio State University as well as those mentioned in the article have buildings named after them and their impact on the university, such as former President Thompson, hence Thompson Library. 

First, I used Voyant Tools to find words or phrases that are the most repetitive throughout the article. From this website a word cloud was created with words or phrases that were repeated the most. After glancing at the word cloud, I immediately noticed the word “University” in gigantic font. I quickly realized that this was because it was one of the most frequently used words in the article. Therefore, I looked up the word “University” and found 315 results. The word “University” means an institution of higher education and research. 

Furthermore, I was curious as to what the second most common word was in the scholarly paper and so I looked this up as well in Voyant Tools. I found that there were 274 results for the word, “Board”. This word has multiple meanings. However, in this context the word “Board” refers to a board of trustees. The board of trustees is a group of individuals who are elected or appointed that have overall responsibility for the management of an organization, especially a not-for-profit organization like a hospital, university, or museum.

The third most popular word within my article was “Business” with 126 results. This word mostly referred to a business manager as used in the article. A business manager is a person who manages the business affairs of an individual, institution, organization, or company. In this case, the word was important because the business manager held a lot of responsibility for managing the business affairs conducted by the university. The business manager was in numerous meetings described throughout the article that were essential to the foundation of Ohio State.