Help me to better express expressive expressions.
April 10, 2013 6:38 PM Subscribe
I read a lot, and my receptive vocabulary is excellent. However, no so much on the expressive side. I tend to repeat the same word over and over in my writing, and sometimes have difficulty picking appropriate word to succinctly capture a concept.
So, what's a good and specific exercise(s) for increasing one's expressive vocabulary?
In one of my high school AP classes, the teacher would have us write a summary of each reading we did with a specific word count - I think it was 100, maybe lower. It was often a challenge to get as much content into those words as possible, and I think of that exercise constantly when I'm trying to write something that is both concise and expressive.
One thing about using the thesaurus is that there usually aren't 7 (or 20 or 40) exactly equivalent words for a given concept. The lists offer a range of words with very similar definitions, but each has a different inflection. So you want to be careful that you are choosing replacements that deepen your original meaning rather than complicate it just for the sake of using a new word. The latter reads awkwardly, and you can tell when a writer is doing it.
posted by ella wren at 8:03 PM on April 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
One thing about using the thesaurus is that there usually aren't 7 (or 20 or 40) exactly equivalent words for a given concept. The lists offer a range of words with very similar definitions, but each has a different inflection. So you want to be careful that you are choosing replacements that deepen your original meaning rather than complicate it just for the sake of using a new word. The latter reads awkwardly, and you can tell when a writer is doing it.
posted by ella wren at 8:03 PM on April 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
When I try to make my writing shorter, it often becomes more expressive as a side effect. The words I overuse tend to be mushy and low on content.
posted by scose at 9:05 PM on April 10, 2013
posted by scose at 9:05 PM on April 10, 2013
I'm a big thesaurus user. I also find the more I use one the better I get at using synonyms for words I'm not looking up. Like unixrat mentions, I try to write without stopping and then go back and see if I can find better words than I've used in my first pass.
I'm not a crossword puzzler solver but I would think doing them would at least get one thinking about word choices.
posted by shoesietart at 9:20 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm not a crossword puzzler solver but I would think doing them would at least get one thinking about word choices.
posted by shoesietart at 9:20 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Right, right, I agree. Don't just grab any old synonym.
I guess a better way to put it would be this: don't fret, come back and fix it later; writing is an interative process. If that's a weakness for you then you'll fix it often and quickly get better at fixing it.
posted by unixrat at 10:15 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I guess a better way to put it would be this: don't fret, come back and fix it later; writing is an interative process. If that's a weakness for you then you'll fix it often and quickly get better at fixing it.
posted by unixrat at 10:15 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers everybody!
posted by pakoothefakoo at 8:56 AM on April 11, 2013
posted by pakoothefakoo at 8:56 AM on April 11, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you can't think of a better word than the one you just wrote, use it again. Finish your writing and when you're re-reading it/reviewing it, pull out your thesaurus and find a replacement for either duplicate word (or both!).
If you're on a writing roll, don't interrupt the flow to agonize over a word or look something up. Do it as part of your review process!
posted by unixrat at 7:29 PM on April 10, 2013 [2 favorites]