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- The right word is always the one that communicates your point most clearly. That means it: Is specific Resonates with your audience Fits the type of writing you’re doing Fits the style and tone of the piece
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Dec 2, 2022 · Choosing the right word involves the following four considerations, with word choice examples. 1. Meaning. Words can be chosen for one of two meanings: the denotative meaning or the connotative meaning. Denotation refers to the word’s basic, literal dictionary definition and usage.
- What This Handout Is About
- Introduction
- “Awkward,” “Vague,” and “Unclear” Word Choice
- Writing For An Academic Audience
- Selecting and Using Key Terms
- Strategies For Successful Word Choice
- Questions to Ask Yourself
- Works Consulted
This handout can help you revise your papers for word-level clarity, eliminate wordiness and avoid clichés, find the words that best express your ideas, and choose words that suit an academic audience.
Writing is a series of choices. As you work on a paper, you choose your topic, your approach, your sources, and your thesis; when it’s time to write, you have to choose the words you will use to express your ideas and decide how you will arrange those words into sentences and paragraphs. As you revise your draft, you make more choices. You might as...
So: you write a paper that makes perfect sense to you, but it comes back with “awkward” scribbled throughout the margins. Why, you wonder, are instructors so fond of terms like “awkward”? Most instructors use terms like this to draw your attention to sentences they had trouble understanding and to encourage you to rewrite those sentences more clear...
When you choose words to express your ideas, you have to think not only about what makes sense and sounds best to you, but what will make sense and sound best to your readers. Thinking about your audience and their expectations will help you make decisions about word choice. Some writers think that academic audiences expect them to “sound smart” by...
When writing academic papers, it is often helpful to find key terms and use them within your paper as well as in your thesis. This section comments on the crucial difference between repetition and redundancy of terms and works through an example of using key terms in a thesis statement.
Be careful when using words you are unfamiliar with.Look at how they are used in context and check their dictionary definitions.Be careful when using the thesaurus.Each word listed as a synonym for the word you’re looking up may have its own unique connotations or shades of meaning. Use a dictionary to be sure the synonym y...Don’t try to impress your reader or sound unduly authoritative. For example, which sentence is clearer to you: “a” or “b”?Before you revise for accurate and strong adjectives, make sure you are first using accurate and strong nouns and verbs.For example, if you were revising the sentence “This is a good book that tell...Am I sure what each word I use really means? Am I positive, or should I look it up?Have I found the best word or just settled for the most obvious, or the easiest, one?Am I trying too hard to impress my reader?What’s the easiest way to write this sentence? (Sometimes it helps to answer this question by trying it out loud. How would you say it to someone?)We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance ...
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Oct 3, 2023 · Find out why the right word choices result in better writing and pick up tips for choosing the best possible words. Word choice can make or break a sentence. Subscribe
- Identify Weak and Repetitive Phrases. The very first step in the process is pinpointing which phrases you want to change, although it’s sometimes difficult to narrow down the words that need a makeover.
- Brainstorm Alternatives. Brainstorming fresh ideas for stronger and less repetitive phrases doesn’t always have to come down to flipping through the thesaurus.
- Aim for an Emotional Response. Now that you have a list of ideas, it’s time to pick out the strongest alternative. Your focus here is to decide on the word or phrase that will elicit the desired emotional response from your readers.
- Get Specific. One simple way to polish your word choice is to get down to the specifics. For example, if you find yourself using the word “soda” too much, you can make a quick fix by letting your reader know what kind of soda.
What is word choice in writing? “Word choice” refers to the specific words a writer uses to create the most precise, persuasive, and engaging response possible. A skilled writer knows how to get the most out of their vocabulary and how to choose the best word for any readership.
Effective writing involves making conscious word choices. When you prepare to sit down to write your first draft, you likely have already completed some freewriting exercises, chosen your topic, developed your thesis statement, written an outline, and even selected your sources.
