How big is your diction?
This Week In Writing, written by Justin Cox, shares writing tips, links, and updates about The Writing Cooperative by Write Together, Inc. We hope you enjoy this week's newsletter!
This Week In Writing, we break out the thesaurus to compare diction size and explore the power of unique words.
I had a friend in high school who loved telling people about the size of his diction. It was his favorite joke and probably tells you all about who I was in high school. Diction, in case you are wondering why any of this is funny, is the choice of words — or an old way of saying vocabulary.
If you use Grammarly, you likely get the weekly status report emails. Each week I’m floored by the number of unique words I use — last week, it was 7,216! I guess you can say I’m a fan of words.
My favorite word (thanks to my 10th grade English teacher) is tintinnabulation, the ringing or sounding of bells. While bells are nice, the word itself is magical. All those onomatopoeic syllables that mimic bells ringing. It’s a great word.
This Week's Discussion
Today is National Thesaurus Day, so there’s no better time to celebrate the power of unique words. What is your favorite word, and where did you first learn it?
This Week's Featured Links
4 Things I Did to Improve My Vocabulary | by Devin Gleeson — writingcooperative.com
On one level, I acknowledge this. I know and use lots of words. I tend to notice when other people are using words incorrectly. (I rarely correct them.)
Sharpen Your Grammar and Vocabulary Today with This Innovative Strategy | by Stephanie Thurrott — writingcooperative.com When you help people learn English you improve your grammar and build your vocabulary
How To Add Words Into Your Active Vocabulary and Use Them in Your Writing | by Sude Hammal — writingcooperative.com There are two types of vocabulary; active and passive vocabulary. Writers' goal is to transfer as many words as possible to their active vocabulary.
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