Word a Day for Expanding Vocabulary

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. Grant, we got an interesting email the other day from Dubai.

It’s from Erica Solomon, who is originally from Evanston, Illinois. But in Dubai, she works as a writer for a research institute. It’s a scientific research institute, and she has to make their research intelligible to a lay audience. And she wants writing advice. She says,

I really would like your advice on how to improve my vocabulary as a writer. I was not formally trained in journalism and never an avid reader. And everybody says that to improve vocabulary, you should read. Read, read, read, and read some more.

And while I agree that this would help a whole lot, I just don’t have time. I work full time. I have two kids. So I really can’t read more than 10 minutes a day. And I usually spend this 10 minutes reading science articles because that’s the type of writing that she does.

I feel it’s really difficult for me to really learn a word to the point that I can use it in my own writing. While I understand a lot of vocabulary when I read it, it just doesn’t come to me when I write. So the real challenge is being able to retain the vocabulary I read so that my brain can shoot it back at me while I’m writing.

So she wants to know how can she improve her writing vocabulary. That’s a really great question.

I know, I know. I have a lot of thoughts about that. I mean, for one thing, I would say, Erica, that it’s a noble goal. Good for you.

Yeah, right. The other thing I would say is that it’s not easy. I’ve always appreciated foreign language teachers who tell me that learning a foreign language is not easy. You need reminders of that, right?

And I think the same thing is true for when you’re learning new vocabulary in English. And so a couple of my suggestions would be just start small with small habits. Like anytime you see a word you don’t recognize, you’ve got to look it up.

If you’re only spending 10 minutes reading a day, you can spend part of that time looking it up. I mean, there’s really no excuse now that you have cell phones and stuff. You can always have a dictionary at your fingertips.

So always look up a word if you don’t understand it in reading. Check the etymology because sometimes that can help you remember what the word means.

And the other thing that I would suggest is like trying to lose weight or like trying to save money, build it into your routine. I mean, you can subscribe to a Word a Day email. Anu Garg’s Word a Day email at wordsmith.org has been around for 22 years.

And it’s really worth it. It’s totally worth it. And it’s real words. Sometimes they’re goofy stuff, but most of the time they’re useful.

And I would recommend a Word a Day calendar on your desk. I mean, why not? If you’ve only got 10 minutes a day. You’ve got to put it in all the little corners of the rest of your day.

Exactly. Exactly. All those little crevices.

I would add two things to that, Martha. And one of them is to listen to more radio, particularly public radio. You can get a ton of public radio streams online.

And look up the words. The other one is to, and also I would add podcasts into that. And I don’t mean casually. I mean every morning I’m going to listen to a podcast in the shower.

Or when I am doing dishes, I’m going to have my headphones on and listen to a podcast. You know, try to multitask. Radio will do that. And you can absorb vocabulary just as easily that way as you can by reading.

And then the second part of that is also listening. Books on tape are amazing. Books on tape, you can find quality literature that entertains you and gives you new vocabulary.

Can you go to sleep with it? Is it something you can do when you drive? Is it something you can get the kids involved with as well?

You would be surprised how much a book on tape can entrance the whole family and everyone is entertained and learning together. It’s really true.

And if you’ve got that phone in your hand while you’re listening, you can always look up the words. Stop it and look up the words.

Right. So there’s tons of strategies here. We know that a lot of other people have gone through this in their lives, said, I need to work on my vocabulary. What can I do?

If you have a strategy that we haven’t mentioned, let us know, 877-929-9673, or tell us an email to words@waywordradio.org.