Young Writers Society

Here's a tip:

When writing anything from an essay in school to your growing novel, try using going to websites or looking through your own dictionary for words you've never heard of or don't know the meaning of. (Most of the time, these are the words that'll make you sound "smarter")

I'm not saying to go study the biggest dictionary out there, but if you use "smarter" words, they'll probably make you sound more mature no matter how old you are.

Just don't use too many "big words" in one sentence if it doesnt fit, if you might scare away a lot of your reads. (for example- If I read a book with 20 words I don't know in every sentence, I lose interest and put the book back)

"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
- C. S. Lewis

Well, the thing with big words is that you know what they mean. I don't mean, necessarily, that you've looked them up in the dictionary and read the words following that entry, but that one has found them somewhere, discovered them, instead of searched for them, so that you know every possible meaning of the word in every way it could ever be meant. Then, you will no longer use big words for the sake of using big words because you think they'll make you sound smarter, but you'll come to use neither big words nor small words but the right word for what you're trying to say. And that's not something you can gain from reading a dictionary cover to cover, or even skimming one from time to time; most of these words will come from context, from everyday, authentic discovery.

Nice C.S. Lewis quote ^_^

Yay C. S. Lewis! that quote is taped to my desk lol.

Believe it or not, I turn on the close-captions on my TV to build my vocabulary.

That's a lovely idea, winters, but you have to be careful because the captions are often littered with mistakes.

What you have to understand, though, is that vocabulary in college essays, and stories, and whatnot sort of differ.

Of course in college essays and work you wouldn't want to be talking [writing] like me, like my language right now. It's much too casual for many people to take seriously, and these "gut" words that I'm using, very basic and simple but powerful words, are sometimes not enough to express what bigger words could say. Sometimes bigger words encompass more meaning and depth.

Bill Stotts, who wrote a book about writing, mentioned the huge words his students would scatter in their essays. "What does it mean?" he'd ask them, and they'd shrug. "It just sounded impressive," or "Something to make the paper smarter?"

If you have never heard of the word, then what's the point of using it? It's rather stupid and idiotic- the idea, if I may use those words to get my point across. It really is. You can't use it if you don't know what it means; it won't be of any help if you can't phrase it properly.

Amelia wrote:That's a lovely idea, winters, but you have to be careful because the captions are often littered with mistakes.

You bet they are. I end up noticing the mistakes more often, so I learn how not to spell words. Depending on the program being watched, captions can be pretty useful.