5 Easy Ways to Build a Better Vocabulary
April 7, 2017| Category: Writing Tips
Whether you’re already an experienced freelance writer, or simply want to become one by applying to online jobs, learning how to strengthen and expand your vocabulary can be an excellent and wise investment in your future career. Why should one improve their knowledge of the word usage? To express your thoughts clearly and concisely, better understand the ideas expressed by others, and finally, write and submit top quality papers crafted by a highly intelligent person. Besides, I guess everyone has experienced the frustration of not finding the right word immediately available between one’s ears. After all, language is power, and self-expression has to be every writer’s primary aim.
At least few new words learned a day or 15 minutes of concentrated study on a regular basis will bring you the desired result and a rapid improvement in vocabulary building. Of course, there aren’t any magic shortcuts to expanding your vocabulary by learning new words; nevertheless, I’ll try to give you some tips on how to strengthen and expand your vocabulary easily and effectively.
- Learn new words while reading. Being a freelance writer presupposes poring over and leafing through hundreds of relevant materials. Reading a lot does not always mean good vocabulary building since as a rule, there is an irresistible urge to skip over some unfamiliar words in order to get on with the story. How about checking the meaning of words that seem to be vaguely known to you or looking up a new word in a dictionary and trying to memorize it? This may slow down your reading a little bit, but a proper understanding of the text will help you to cover the topic much better. What is more, your enhanced vocabulary will make reading easier in the near future.
- Circle the words you look up. It is a good practice since later on your eyes will naturally move to the highlighted words and you will have a good opportunity to review them. Practice makes perfect.
- Read the entire entry. There are plenty of words that have more than one meaning. Thus, do not forget to check other meanings, and build a better vocabulary by working out new contexts of already familiar words.
- Review regularly. Once you have learned how to strengthen and expand your vocabulary, it is high time to draw up your schedule accordingly. Start by setting the exact number of words you are going to learn every day or some precise amount of time you will devote to vocabulary building. Also, note that 15 minutes a day will surely bring more positive results than an hour once a week. In most cases, vocabulary building is simply the process of reviewing the words systematically until they are fixed in your memory. Be sure to review each word at least once every couple of days. Finally, bear in mind that it is of vital importance to put the new words in writing and speaking. Otherwise, you may risk not retaining them in your memory.
- Motivation. No one would deny that the key factor for a successful freelance writer who wants to build a better vocabulary is motivation. Beyond any doubt, it is difficult to learn new words week after week having no particular feeling that it’s worth doing, or that it will enable you to lead a more fulfilling life or find a well-paid online job.
You can enlarge your vocabulary almost as fast as you want. You have started out in life knowing no words at all. You can learn many more!