My problem is not the question itself, but the way I answered the question. My grader took points off for a word I used: "penury"

Question

Q: What THREE problems still existed for the Métis after the creation of the province Manitoba?
My answer: Land ownership disagreements, assimilation fears, and buffaloes decreasing (which caused starvation and PENURY. )

Is this a valid answer, with the word 'penury'? Penury means poverty, basically, and that is correct in this question. Is there something i'm missing that I got points off for?

Answer 1

Your use of penury is correct. You might point this out to the person who graded your paper!

From the Oxford dictionary:

pen·u·ry
/ˈpenyərē/
noun
extreme poverty; destitution.
"he died in a state of virtual penury"

https://www.onelook.com/?w=penury&ls=a

Answer 2

Or maybe they thought you plagiarized the word and didn't truly know what it meant.

Answer 3

They put a question mark under that word. This isn't the first time this situation has happened with my specific grader :(

Answer 4

-Also, how in the world can you plagiarize a single word that is completely okay for everyone to use freely?

Answer 5

I bet the grader thought you spelled poverty incorrectly :)

Answer 6

If s/he put a question mark under it, that could mean a couple of things:
1. The grader wasn't sure of its meaning, but didn't bother looking it up.
OR
2. The grader knew what it meant, but thought you hadn't used it correctly in the sentence.

Most likely it's the latter, so you might go through several of those dictionaries' listed in OneLook and take a look at their sample uses of the word. If you see that you used it correctly, then you should complain — loudly!

Answer 7

Thank you Writeacher and Damon. I know I used it correctly, so I will let my grader know.

Answer 8

I am happy to say that my grader apologized and revised my marks.

Answer 9

He apparently thought my answer was phrased awkwardly, as he said.