Vocabulary - The Article Tools

Words are the gold, the right words are diamonds! Building your vocabulary is the one thing you must do if you want to be an effective writer. Words are the tools you need to be able to communicate well, and you always need to know which tools to use to complete the job thoroughly.

Sometime after schooling most tend to stop learning new words. People figure they are not going to be writers and those vocabulary test were a drag anyway. Everyone has to exchange information and ideas. It's a part of life we all must learn to effectively relay our information, thoughts, and feelings. Words bridge the chasm between interaction.

Building your vocabulary is not some arduous task only meant for writers, teachers, and English professors. Constructing and adding words to your lexicon is actually easier than most think. There are so many words to learn, and ways to enhance your vocabulary. You will have no problem establishing an ever expanding intellectual base. Below is a list of ways to build your vocabulary:

One Note - Every time you chose a word to learn you have to use it. It's no good if you don't learn to use a word properly. So, take the word and use it at least three times that same day in a different sentence each time. It's twice as good if you are actually communicating with someone and are able to use the word as part of your conversation.

Vocabulary Building Resources -

• Reading - You can certainly learn new words by reading. When you come across a word you don't recognize ALWAYS look it up in a dictionary and learn the definition. Furthermore, move onto a thesaurus and see which words relate. This is key to really learning more words.

• Word A Day Dictionary - Go to a dictionary and pick out a word every day you don't know and learn it. It's important you write these words down somewhere so you're really interacting with them in every possible way.

• Wordsmith/A.Word.A.Day - You can get a word a day emailed to you with everything you can think of about the word including "origin" Wordsmith.org.

• Websites - There are an endless array of websites out there to teach words. Google "Vocabulary Building" and you will find no less than 2 million sites about everything you will ever want to know about building a strong vocabulary. After you have decided which source you should use to study words by, you will need to follow a simple method to get the most complete advantage to building a large solid vocabulary.

Vocabulary Building Method -

• Spell The Word - This is a must. Learn to spell the word first. Since your going to be writing it's so important to understand how to spell the words correctly.
  

• Pronounce The Word - In order to use the word accurately you must know how to pronounce it properly. Dictionaries have word keys so you can learn how to articulate a word. If you need to hear a word, most computers have speech recognition built in. Go to Control Panel, Speech/Text recognition and just type your new word in and Preview it. If your computer doesn't have this, there are plenty of websites which do!

Text-To-Speech

• Read And Understand The Definition - Learning the definition of the new word is predominate to learning how and when to use the word. Believe it or not this leads to learning an endless supply of new words.
  

• Use A Thesaurus - Once you've studied the definition go find the word in a thesaurus and look at the other words which have similar meanings. This is the secret to building a fabulous vocabulary!

• Use The Word Three Times A Day - As in the note listed about you have to use words to make them a valid part of your lexicon. Use the word in three sentences that same day you chose the word. This is a huge part of making that word stick in your repertoire.

Learning new words and building your vocabulary can be very pleasing because you can find it much easier to communicate what you really want to say, but more importantly you can readily discover what you really should say....oh yeah, and WRITE!


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