The Writing-Practice Journal

Words .I.

         I put a number on this entry, because being a word person, I’m sure another entry will come up on this subject.

         Not a day passes by that I don’t look up a word, not only those words I don’t know but also those I do know. Often, I find more meanings to a word than I know from before. This is because English is such a rich language. Chances are, any nation or culture we can think of has given words to it.

         It is one thing to know the meanings of words and another to use them. Learning as many words as we can does help our writing since we mostly think through words, and the bigger our vocabulary, the faster ideas come to us. Also, we can convey the nuances in meaning in more expressive terms.

         For our meaning to be successfully understood by readers, our words have to build mental pictures, even when we talk about abstract things, and those pictures are best built with the simplest words and the shortest way to say things. Now, isn’t this a paradox when I said to learn as many words as possible and then I turned around and said to choose the simplest ones and the shortest ways? It may seem so, but all these things are valuable because, as far as diction goes, we sometimes need to choose a longer word of Latin origin to carry the meaning exactly.

         “He is prejudiced,” is shorter and more to the point than saying, “He takes sides where race, religion, and class are concerned and acts upon it.”

         On the other hand, should we flaunt our knowledge? Definitely not. There is no need to say: “Administer this dosage of two tablets once a day,” when “Give two pills a day” will do, or there’s no need to muddle the meaning with, “I departed to go shopping in Walmart,” when “I left to go shopping in Walmart” is better understood.

         Good writing deserves rhythm, variety, and surprise, and we can achieve this with a large vocabulary if we learn to use the exact words in their proper places.

Today’s tip:
credulity: being too trusting, being gullible
credibility: being believable, dependability, trustworthiness

Joy

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Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. --Mark Twain
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. --Jack London

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