Section 29
• I want you to get an
appreciation for what
words can actually do to
your brain
• Read the following to
yourself
• Avoid improprieties when writing or speaking
• Improprieties are standard words used incorrectly
• For example:
• They were mighty proud of their trophy.
• Mighty is an adj used as an adv—the word should be especially
• The blockers defensed well on that last play.
• Defensed is a noun used as a verb—the word should be defended
• The mayor met with some members of the city counsel.
• Counsel is the wrong word—it should be council
• Improprieties often occur when a word is confused with another word
similar to it
• Here are some words often
confused for each other:
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Advice, advise
Altar, alter
Alumnus, alumna
Alumni, alumnae
Capital, capitol
Cite, site
Compliment, complement
Dyeing, dying
Emigrate, immigrate
Hoard, horde
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Illusion, allusion
Imminent, eminent
Loose, lose
Principal, principle
Role, roll
• The denotation of a word is its strict dictionary definition
• The connotation of a word goes beyond its strict meaning to the
feelings and images the word suggests
• For example:
• Think of the word democracy, socialism, communism, Christian,
Pentecostal, etc.
• Properly using the connotations of a word can have a powerful
effect on your audience
• However, be careful that you don’t used words with undesirable
connotations
• Mr. Parks is a timid man.
• Mr. Parks is a pusillanimous man.
• Choose exact and vivid verbs and nouns to make your writing
interesting and forceful
• Choose verbs with action and color to create mental pictures in the
reader’s mind
• For example:
• The stream flowed.
• The verb flowed doesn’t show specific action. Observe how the mental images
change with different, more exact verbs
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The stream gushed.
The stream swirled.
The stream splashed.
The stream gurgled.
The stream meandered.
The stream trickled.
• Whenever possible, use exact and vivid verbs instead of verbadverb combinations
• For example:
• The dog lay carelessly on the floor. (v-adv combo)
• The dog sprawled on the floor. (exact and vivid verb)
• How about these:
• He ran quickly from the room.
• It’s a verb-adverb combination
• He dashed from the room.
• It now contains an exact and vivid verb
• Learn how to select specific nouns rather than general nouns
• Notice the progression from general to specific in the following:
• Food, meat, beef, sirloin
• Lumber, hardwood, tropical hardwood, mahogany
• School, private school, Lighthouse Christian Academy
• The thesaurus is your friend
• Learn to look up synonyms for nouns
• Make sure the synonym expresses your meaning exactly
• Don’t write haze if you mean smog, dream if you mean nightmare, etc.
• Use exact and vivid modifiers to enhance the nouns and verbs
you have chosen
• Carefully select the exact adjective needed to express your idea
• Synonyms generally have slightly differing meanings
• Make good use of participles…they make colorful adjectives
• Ex: the sound of the crackling fire and the smell of the bubbling stew
lifted the spirits of the cold and weary hunters.
• But, be sparing in the use of adjectives because too many makes for poor
sentences
• We listened with delight to the sweet, pleasant, agreeable tones of the
harp. (poor)
• We listened with delight to the dulcet tones of the harp. (better)
• Use the most vivid adverbs you can find
• Adverbs that end in –ly are usually the most vivid
• Foolishly, benignly, menacingly, agilely, fastidiously, jealously, etc.
• Carefully select the exfact adverb needed to express your idea
• For example: Slowly is a general word. Notice the following synonyms that
express the idea more exactly:
• Leisurely, deliberately, gradually, reluctantly, hesitantly, sluggishly
• The adverbs very and really are greatly overused
• As often as possible, substitute such with the following:
• Decidedly, extremely, exceedingly, incomparably, indeed, actually,
especially, actually, particularly, notably, strikingly…