How to Improve Your Vocabulary

Having a good vocabulary is paramount for a writer, and there are many simple ways that you can increase your range of vocabulary. Here is my guide:

  1.Try doing the crossword in you daily paper, don’t do the cryptic one, just the normal one. This will help because you will learn synonyms for various words which you can use in your writing. If you find it annoying that you have to wait for a day to find out the answers try buying a crossword book from a local store, which won’t cost very much, and some can be picked up for around $2. 

  2. Buy a thesaurus. Don’t worry, you don’t need to read it, although I’m sure that would be useful too. It can help with your crosswords, and when you write essays or articles try taking simple words, such as ’said’ and try picking a new word. The more you do this the more your vocabulary will grow, although make sure you do not over-write it.

  3. Play games with your children. You could put a word on one card, and synonym of it on another card. Do this with about 10 words, and ask your children to match them. When they get good try turning them over and having to match them. Make it fun by offering rewards. Keep making new cards to make the game dynamic. Not only will this help you, because you are learning new words making the cards, it will help your children to get ahead in school and hopefully increase their reading age.

  4. Read. There is nothing better than you can do. Make sure your stretch yourself. Go to the library and try to read a whole shelf in a certain time frame, that way you will get a large variety of books about different topics and different styles of writing. It will also help you to appreciate good books because not all of the books you will read will be good. A book I would recommend to all is Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ because not only does it have a wonderful storyline it also is written to perfection. If you feel like a slightly lighter book, but equally well read, I would advise you read the ‘Artemis Fowl’ series by Eoin Colfer. Although this is a children’s book it is one of the best I have read.

If anybody else has any ideas of great books, leave them on the comments below.

I hope this article has helped you, and good luck with your vocabulary increase, let me know how it goes.