Easy Ways To Work On Your Vocabulary Skills
Are you student looking for tips to improve your vocabulary? Whether you are trying to strengthen and broaden your vocabulary for school or personal growth, they key is to commit yourself to learning new words on a regular basis. But why is it important to expand your knowledge of, and use of words? You will be able to communicate (whether via text or speech) more clearly and concisely, people will understand you more easily and you will increase the reality and perception that you are an intelligent person. What’s more, learning new words is a fun activity that you can do with other people around you.
This article looks at 10 ways to learn new words and improve your vocabulary.
1. Read voraciously
Reading gives you the chance to see words used in the right context. Finding out the meaning of words in such a way is one of the most natural ways of learning language. The key is to mark reading as pleasurable activities so do not be afraid of coming across unknown words, but ensure the text is appropriate for your reading level.
2. Take a writing course
There are many online courses as well as in-person classes you can attend to boost your writing vocabulary and learn how to use new words correctly. Try finding a self-paced course that uses quizzes ad assignments aimed at creative or essay writing. Find classes that will help improve your writing style and find new activities from which you can get your writing inspiration.
3. Edit your own writing
Be your own editor and go through every school essay you write with a fine-toothed comb to identify overused and nondescript words and replace them with something more colorful or precise. Essay editing is an important process for spotting errors but also great for improving the style, tone and clarity of your writing.
4. Play with words
Play games like boggle, scrabble, and make a habit of doing crossword puzzles. These and other word games are available for the computer so you need not have a partner to play them. You could also try the Franklin Electronic Dictionary that features inbuilt word games.
5. Take vocabulary tests
Play games that will test your knowledge and help you learn new words while letting you know how much progress you are making. Some offline sources of vocabulary include SAT prep books and the reader’s digest Word Power section.
6. Make use of vocabulary lists
For serious vocabulary students, there are many books that focus on words that are most commonly found in standardizes tests, such as GRE and SAT. There are many interesting word sites on the internet that you can subscribe to and receive a new word everyday by email.
7. Use memory tricks (mnemonics)
Create funny little word pictures to help you remember the meanings or specific words – this is a great advice of the famous essay writers. These pictures are fun to make up. For instance the word EGREGIOUS (extremely bad) – imagine you’ve made a big mistake and someone’s throwing eggs at you EGG Reaches US.
8. Use a journal
It is a good idea to keep a running list of new words you come across and keep referring back to this list to slowly build up your vocabulary. Keeping a journal of new words you learn also provides a positive reinforcement for learning even more words.
9. Engage in conversations
Simply conversing with other people can help you learn and discover new words. Similar to reading, remember o jot any new word you hear so you can study it later.
10. Learn roots of words
Learn the roots of words. Most words in the English language are built from a common root, suffix and prefix. Once you learn a root, you will begin to understand more words that use the same root.
This article was prepared by Edusson Community.
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