A couple days ago, I critiqued a short piece on vocabulary. It made me think about how important it is for writers to have a rich vocabulary.
I must confess that mine is not where I'd like it to be. We should increase our vocabulary on a progressive basis but it's one of those things that we intend to do, but....
Years ago, the Reader's Digest included a vocabulary list in every issue. Those who made the effort to read and learn those words were smart cookies. Way ahead of me. I usually bypassed that page to get on to the 'good stuff.' Looking back, I wish I'd spent a few minutes perusing that page and committing some of those words to memory.
You can read a pdf version of a word book that Reader's Digest has online here. It takes a little while to load so be patient. Spend some time working with the word exercises offered.
Some people set a goal for themselves to learn one new word each day. A worthy self-challenge. There are plenty of websites where you can find words and their meanings to help you with reaching your goal. Try this one. If it does not meet your needs, google to find others. There are lots of of sites to help us all learn new words.
We shouldn't only look at a word and its meaning or try to commit it to memory. We also need to use the word. Write a few sentences or a paragraph that includes whatever your new word of the day might be.
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