Are you looking to increase your word bank so you can write great essays? Many students who study English at school or college are looking for ways to write better essays. Great essays contain great ideas, but on top of that, a range of vocabulary words can actually change the tone and impact of your essays on your readers.
This guide will take you through some solid ways to improve your vocabulary and how to use words to enhance their meaning. In addition to this, it will help you overcome the fear of writing essays and why we generally do not enjoy writing essays in the first place.
Is good writing only a natural gift or can we change this? Let’s read to find out about some myths and insights.
Everyone can be a good writer. True or false?
True. Educationists and teachers are unanimous in their opinion on who can be a good writer. It is generally accepted that any student can achieve mastery in writing with proper guidance and training. In other words, there is no such thing as a perfect or gifted writer.
This theory has shown concrete results in countries where English is taught as a second language. Writing programs that teach students a strategy to write have gained popularity and support from educators around the world.
One such program that teaches strategies of writing, called SRSD is the brainchild of Dr. Karen R. Harris who has taught students and teachers for decades. Her program has received “strongest evidence rating for writing” by the U.S department of education.
Dr. Harris has projected that we don’t write to learn, rather we learn to write. This implies that anyone can learn to be a good writer. If you are ready to learn how to write, you are already on your way to becoming a great writer.
Solid strategies to help you start writing
This section contains some helpful tips to get you started with writing. The most important thing to consider here is that writing is a process that involves several parts and you can start building from the most basic blocks and keep building around that to create a complex or easy essay, as per your requirement.
Strategy #1 A good essay has a clear thesis, reasons, explanations, and endings
Several essay organizing techniques are used by teachers and students to clearly identify different parts of an essay. It is a good idea to make a mnemonic out of the technique, so you can remember the order of different parts.
TREE is the commonly used mnemonic for Thesis, Reasons (minimum three), Explanations (minimum three) and Ending. This works well for younger students and older students just tend to remember the parts.
Whichever mnemonic you use, the idea is to clearly lay out the basic parts of your essay first. Ideally, students should make a graphic organizer or notes in short form to write an outline of the essay. You may ask your teacher to provide you with the organizer, make one of your own, or download a template to work with.
A hastily put together essay with no clear parts is less likely to catch the attention of the readers.
Strategy #2 Always keep the reader in mind
Are you writing for a newspaper? Are you writing for your teachers? Are you writing for your friends at school? Are you writing to persuade a local authority or office? There always is a reason behind why you are writing and who will read your essay.
If you have a clear order as mentioned in strategy 1 and also have a sufficient range of words through vocabulary learning, but do not have an audience in mind, then it is very likely that the essay won’t be able to address a particular audience in terms of tone and style.
Strategy #3 The choice of vocabulary and how to use it to maximum effect
It is important to have a sufficient range of vocabulary to be able to convey your view in the essay. The problem is that sometimes we do not know whether we have enough vocabulary learning, how to increase vocabulary, how to use words in their proper context, and when to know that we are overdoing the difficulty of words.
Here is a list of helpful tips to understand how to increase your vocabulary.
Tip #1 Vocabulary exercises: Increase your vocabulary by reading books, newspapers, and magazines
Language is learned by children and adults in different ways. For young children, just exposing the children to the spoken word can increase their vocabulary of any foreign or native language. For adults, listening to real conversation helps immensely, while formal language classes also enhance language skills.
It is notable that cramming a dictionary does not increase vocabulary in an effective way. You will notice that memorizing words from a dictionary or a list does not increase your ability to use these words in an essay or other written forms.
A word list does not help because application of vocabulary is a different technique. If you had to prepare for a dictation test, you would have memorized and excelled on your test score. So, how can you learn vocabulary and apply it as well?
You can do so by reading books, newspapers, and magazines. How much can you read before your exam? Of course, not much at all. Therefore, increasing your English vocabulary is just like memorizing Chemistry equations, Math theorems, and Biology diagrams – how much of this can you memorize overnight? Not much.
Therefore, just like you plan other subjects from the beginning, you need to start investing time outside the English coursebooks and classroom.
Tip #2 Vocabulary exercises: Make a book planner, keep steady habits, and visit a library
Like any other new pursuit, you need to make sure you stay on track and have specific targets. You should keep a book planner and ideally read at the same time everyday. If you cannot read at night or during the hectic day, you should try reading before school or college hours.
You can also consider keeping a few PDFs or ebooks in your phone so you have access to ebooks.
Libraries are also an excellent resource and time-tested places to develop a steady habit of reading books. So, time to check out a quiet corner to get into reading.
Tip #3 Highlight words. Don’t skip difficult words. Try to use the words in a conversation
Simple as it sounds. While reading, don’t skip the words you don’t understand. Instead, highlight the words and find the meanings. If you cannot highlight because it is a borrowed book, you can simply look up the meanings. It will take a few seconds to search for the words online but it will be worth it in the long run.
All ebooks come with an option to mark and highlight. Some also come integrated with dictionaries, making it even easier to read without having to open a browser to search.
Next thing is to use the words you have learned in a conversation with a friend, teacher or anyone around. It isn’t necessary to use the word immediately after learning it because it won’t always be practical.
In short, learning a new word has to be a natural process. It cannot be an enforced memorization and application. Therefore, make sure to highlight, look up the meaning, see how it is being used in a sentence, and then use it when appropriate.
Tip #4 Make your own wordlists for essays
We know that most of the school and college essays are not surprising for students. They are usually based on general, well known themes. For instance, you may be familiar with topics on human rights or social issues. Similarly, topics of personal experiences or descriptive writing are common.
Here is what you need to do: Understand themes of these essays and write on a paper. You can understand the themes by looking at past papers as well.
Once you have marked all the themes, you need to learn words that are common to all the themes, so words such as:
Imperative, expository, myriad, foremost, exclamation, and so on.
You will also need to learn common linking words or phrases, such as:
My first reason, lastly, concludingly, on the contrary, contrastingly, notwithstanding, likewise and so on.
Now, the main thing: The words that are attention getters or million dollar words. Keep reading ahead to find out about more vocabulary building skills!
Tip #5 Million dollar words. What are they and how to use them?
Million dollar words is the term used by Dr. Karen Harris of SRSD, the highest rated program in the U.S to encourage K-12 writers to write meaningfully and with mastery.
These words are actually your second thoughts on words. So, you think of a word, damaged. This is your first thought. Your second thought about the word is: Is there a synonym of damaged? How about: devastated, dilapidated, defaced, sabotaged, mangled?
Try this again. Think of a word, say beautiful. (Pro tip: Don’t use beautiful in descriptive writing, always use a synonym). Second thought: Is there a synonym of beautiful? How about: pleasant-smelling, attractive, splendid, dazzling, appealing, delightful?
These million dollar words might just be inside your mind already. You just need to pull out these words. If you are writing an essay in class or at home, you have plenty of chances to find synonyms using online search engines or a Thesaurus from a library.
Another tip: Practicing homework essays is the best way to practice million dollar words. Don’t think of homework as a burden, rather it is the right opportunity to squeeze out as many synonyms as you can. Remember that practice and application will make your real vocabulary go up.
Let’s sum it all up…
Essays are made up of commonly used expressions, linking words, and million dollar words. Words fit into an essay structure. You can connect them all nicely and write great essays. Remember, anyone can learn to be a writer.
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