vignette vin-ˈyet , vēn- noun
1. a brief literary description
2. a small illustrative sketch, sometimes placed at the beginning of chapters in books
3. a photograph whose edges shade off gradually
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The word vignette has appeared in 131 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Sept. 30 in “Intensive Care: What Makes a ‘Good’ Parent?” by Perri Klass, M.D.:
Last year when Patrick Ishizuka published a parenting study, he set off another round of discussion about what we call good parenting, and who is able to do it.
The study looked at the results of a nationally representative survey in which parents were presented with fictional vignettes about elementary school-aged children; alternate responses suggested two different schools of parenting: “concerted cultivation” and “natural growth.” The parents taking the survey were asked to rate the choices of the parents in the vignettes from poor to excellent.
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