ARTICLES

Save the Words:

I love words.
I know what you are thinking: Words? Who love words?
I do.

Think about it. The English language is so complex, so rich, so varied, every day life can be beautifully enhanced with the words we choose to employ. Whenever I feel a swear word sliding its way off my tongue I stop and think of another word to use. Why should I settle for a mundane, boring, over-used and trite word when there are so many other glorious words to choose from?

A well-crafted, vocabulary-rich sentence is a marvelous thing to behold. It can be thought provoking, lovely in its cadence, and authoritative. Good word choice instantly adds credibility to the writer and speaker. It commands attention and engages a receptive audience.

I am constantly working on my vocabulary, adding, refining, thinking of better ways to convey my thoughts. This doesn’t mean I read the dictionary. Instead, I bring the dictionary to me. I get the Word of the Day every day from "http://www.dictionary.com/" and try and use it in a sentence at least five times in the hope it will be committed to memory. When I’m feeling really adventurous I go to “http://www.savethewords.org/", a fun site that lets users adopt old, unused words in the hope they will be kept alive. Check it out; I think you’ll find some fun, new words to use to amaze and confound those around you.

Last year I was at conference and the keynote speaker was Erin McKean, who grew wanting to be the editor for a dictionary. She is my kind of gal! It never even occurred to me that an actual human edits the dictionary, but once I realized that this is in fact the case, I immediately wanted this job for myself, if only to immerse myself in words all day---and get paid for it. Erin supports a really fascinating site called "http://www.wordnik.com/”, which is a place for all the words, and everything known about them. Cool! You can even follow Wordnik on Twitter and learn about new words in 140 characters or less.
I hope I have convinced you to ascribe the proper level importance of words to your every day life. Without a rich, varied vocabulary life can be mighty dull. And that, you see, if why I love words. They are a free, fun, and enlightening way to add some va-va-voom to daily life.

Jacquelyn
"http://musingsbyjacquelyn.blogspot.com/"

http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/2011/02/tales-of-things-you-love-day-2.html