Writer's Write Right

Vocabulary...an essential tool to writing right.

Vocabulary is the use of words in language. Not everyone masters language and vocabulary and often writers try to hard to make their writing sound better. A note of caution: Use words you know and understand before trying to pull off a philosophical sounding piece that you know nothing about it.

If you’re going to use words like affinity, assiduous, conferred, deferential, definitive, dissident, finesse, infinitesimal, insidious, insufferable, sedentary, vociferous, make sure you know what each and every one of these words mean.

I often read beginners work that sounds over-worded like a shadow covering. The grayness of the cloak hides what is really secretly within the writer. I have a book titled 1000 Most Important Words by Norman Schur. I flip through it daily and study some of the words. I try (notice I said TRY?) and retain the meaning of the word and sometimes knowing these words helps me in my writing.

There are times that words allude me. That is why I used the metaphor shadow because words can sometimes linger in the shadows or be right on the tip of your tongue and you try to spit it out (or type it) and the little speck of a word hides like a child playing a game. Did you ever have the word decide to pop in your head right before turning into bed?

Ha! A notepad beside the bed will help you there. Write the word down and in the morning look it up in the dictionary and see if it is the word that you were looking for. Don’t use words you have no idea what the meaning is.

The man was inoculated as he got behind the wheel to drive. (I think you meant INTOXICATED)

His behavior was vociferous and annoying. (Vociferous meaning: crying out noisily; clamorous)

Oh dear are you going to need to look up clamorous too?

Whatever the case may be, do your homework! What? We’re grown-ups? Who needs homework? All that I can say to that is, we ALL need to do our homework. Learning is a never-ending part of life. Once we stop learning, we stop growing. And when we stop growing, we might as well roll over and order the casket now!

We, in the 21st century, have too many tools within our grasp to NOT learn on a daily basis. So what are you going to do? Learn a NEW word or two a day and watch yourself bloom into the writer you always dreamed of becoming.

Proliferate:
1. to grow or produce by multiplication of parts or cell division, or by procreation.
2. to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.

I’ve started you off with your first word…Now grow my friends!