Building Your Vocabulary

This is from an email I received from Writing.com so I thought I’d share it with y'all.

Building Your Vocabulary

Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing house last Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Witnesses were aghast, amazed, astonished, astounded, bemused, benumbed, bewildered, confounded, confused, dazed, dazzled, disconcerted, disoriented, dumbstruck, electrified, flabbergasted, horrified, immobilized, incredulous, nonplussed, overwhelmed, paralyzed, perplexed, scared, shocked, startled, stunned, stupefied, surprised, taken aback, traumatized, upset. . . . [Internet Joke]

As most of you know (or should know) a thesaurus is similar to a dictionary in which you can look up words, but instead of definitions, you get alternate words that mean something similar or identical to the word you looked up.

There is a quote from a talented author that I believe many people misunderstand.

"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule." - Stephen King

In my opinion, the motive behind his statement is not to say a thesaurus is useless or shouldn't be used. You have to read this exactly as it's written. "Any word you have to HUNT for in a thesaurus is the wrong word." So if you're having to hunt for this word in a thesaurus, it's a pretty safe bet it's not one that is in your normal vocabulary. It might be a word you don't even know until you find it listed in a thesaurus under a heading of a word you do use.

What's the problem with using a lot of uncommon words you ask? Well, many of your readers may not understand what you're trying to say. Using what people call "five dollar words" when "fifty cent words" will do can alienate your readers making them feel ignorant. If you consistently use uncommon words to describe common things, your writing is going to be more confusing than impressive. With that said, building your vocabulary is one of the most important things you can do to excel as an author. You have to love the language and enjoy using it, so learning words and the correct way to use them is critical.

How do you do that you ask? The dictionary should be one of the most used books in your arsenal. In this day and age, most of you probably use the Internet or electronic books more than anything though, so I thought I'd share some useful sites for dictionaries and word exploration to help you learn.

This is one of the most well-known encyclopedia/dictionary creator's of all time:

         [Merriam-Webster Dictionary] 

This is my personal dictionary of choice. Not just a dictionary but a thesaurus and home to the new "Word Dynamo", this is simple to use and a link that has been in my toolbar for years.         [Dictionary.com] 

The visual thesaurus is a fascinating thinking tool much like our own Ideanary. This is a ball to play with.         [The Visual Thesaurus] 

Are you interested in not only looking up the definition of a word but learning how to say it in another language? Well, there is a site for that too.         [LookWayUP.com]  

This site is self-titled as The Premiere Educational Dictionary - Thesaurus and it's definitely worth a peek:         [WordSmyth.net] 

Looking for a fun way to improve your vocabulary? Don't just look it up - actually LEARN the word.

This site will even help you make correct choices between confusing words with similar spellings as well. This may even be my new favorite!          [Vocabulary.com] 

[----------------------------------------------------]

Don't like dictionaries? Learning the roots of words can help you discover multiple word meanings without looking up every single word. Let's look at a trio of word roots and their definitions to give you an idea what you mean.

          bio = life [biology, biosphere, biography]

          phys = body, nature [physical, physician, physics]

          vac = empty [vacant, vacuum, evacuate]

Now you need a listing of root words, right? Well here you go = LearnThat.Org   has a word root quick reference as well as a dictionary.

[----------------------------------------------------]

Still want more? You just can't get enough, can you? How about when someone starts talking about some of the latest net terminology such as Google Hangouts   or Facetime   and you don't want to seem clueless, right? Easy fix, you can click up [Webopedia.com] and look it up - just like in your dictionary.

That's it for this edition - now go learn something! Write and Review on! ~ Brooke