Put in a Good Word for Me
Explanation of the Vocabulary Project
WHAT THIS ASSIGNMENT TEACHES: The Vocabulary Project is designed, as you might guess, to help you
increase your vocabulary. The reason? The more a student’s vocabulary approaches the “college level,” the
more his or her writing is likely to reflect that same level of education. Therefore, the goal of the vocabulary
project is, quite simply, to push you toward college-level words.
OVERALL INSTRUCTIONS: The Vocabulary Project is subdivided into “teacher words” and “student words.”
“TEACHER WORDS” INSTRUCTIONS: We will do the “teacher words” in class, and you will do the
“student words” on your own. I will discuss approximately a dozen and a half or so new words in
class. For each of the “teacher words,” you will write a sentence that illustrates its correct use. You
should strive to make this a long, rich sentence that would be likely to be understood by readers
unfamiliar with the word. (While I will cover eighteen, you are only required to cover fifteen “teacher
words” for your project.)
“STUDENT WORDS” INSTRUCTIONS: To complete this part of the project, you will find “new” words
in the reading that you do. I encourage you to utilize various periodicals. I suggest titles such as The
Dallas Morning News, Time, Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report. You can use online
sources, but try to keep them to a minimum (as the grade level of online material tends to be
significantly lower than that of print media). Similarly, you can use a novel you’re reading or even one
of your textbooks, but try to avoid gathering a collection of thematically related words (i.e., a bunch of
technical terms from a book about abnormal psychology or a slew of archaic words from a story set in
the 1800s or a mystical underworld). As you select sources, just bear in mind the broad goals of the
class: to expose you to current events and good writing.
For each “student word,” you’ll complete the following tasks:
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list the word you’re trying to master and identify its part of speech,
provide a definition expressed in your own words,
explain the context in which the word was used,
re-write the original sentence in which you found the word,
indicate the person with whom you discussed the word, and
compose a new sentence which uses the word correctly.
For the “student words” part of the Vocabulary Project, you’ll be “learning” thirty new words. In the
scheme of things, that’s not so many, but it’s a start toward an important goal.
The Vocabulary Project is part of the portfolio you will be working on all semester and won’t be turned in until
the end of the semester, so you will have a considerable amount of time to complete the project. The idea
behind giving you so much time (even for so few words) is to pace you. The over-time approach makes for
better retention of the words. (Research tells us that one-time or quickly-done vocabulary exercises are
ineffective because people forget the words they’ve “learned” within very short time periods. Slower, more
systematic approaches to vocabulary-building are better because people tend to remember the new words on
a more permanent basis.)
As with all major assignments, you should submit vocabulary segments typed (double spaced).
“student words,” follow the format presented in the model included later in these instructions.
For the
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HINTS AND EXAMPLES: What follows is some very sound and important-to-follow vocabulary-building
advice. There is also information regarding to-be-avoided mistakes.
1. PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONTEXT IN WHICH YOU ENCOUNTER A WORD.
Often the document a new word comes from or the conversation in which it was used can provide
you with an understanding not only of what the word means but also about how it is typically used.
It can be helpful for those helping you in this project to know as well. For example, if you tell me
that the word “liberal” was used in the context of a political discussion, I can tell you that the writer
probably was referring to a Democrat with socially progressive views and a general belief that
government should step in to solve the nation’s problems. On the other hand, if you told me the
article was about parenting styles, I might talk about the permissiveness of moms and dads who
do not have strict rules around the house. And, if the sentence you found read, “He swore liberally
and drank often,” I would tell you something entirely different--that “liberal” means “a lot” and that
to do something “liberally” would mean to do it freely or in a generous way.
Now, be aware that while the above advice is sound, it is not wise to rely on contextual clues alone
for learning the meaning of a word. Readers who do this are effectively guessing what a word
means and assuming that they understand the writer’s meaning. Often, they are wrong, and if
used exclusively as a means for uncovering a word’s meaning, the context-clue strategy tends to
fail as often as it works.
2. LOOK THE WORD UP IN THE DICTIONARY.
Looking up a word in the dictionary can reinforce a sense of the word’s spelling, give you its
pronunciation, identify its part of speech, and outline the “official” definition(s) for you. Again, one
cannot rely on the dictionary alone, though, for even though dictionaries are wonderful tools, their
entries frequently present incomplete pictures of words. Many people do not know how to use
dictionaries properly and aren’t aware of how their complicated layout provides specialized clues
to the meanings and usage of words. Another weakness stems from the definitions themselves.
The phraseology dictionaries use tends to be difficult to understand. Then, too, there can be a
problem when words have multiple meanings. The dictionary isn’t good at sorting those meanings
out for you. Neither do dictionaries discuss a word’s usual context, nor do most give examples of
its use.
In the end, dictionaries should be used as a way to confirm a word’s mean, more than a way to
learn it. If you rely only on copied-down dictionary definitions, you are unlikely to add many words
to your dynamic, or working, vocabulary.
3. GET SOMEBODY WHO ALREADY KNOWS THE WORD TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.
A brief conversation can do wonders to help you fully understand a new word. (Don’t be afraid to
admit your unfamiliarity with a word; most people are likely to be impressed with the fact that
you’re trying to expand your vocabulary.) Once you’ve found someone, ask not only for a
definition but also to hear the word used in a sentence. Ask where you would be likely find the
word—in a newspaper article about the stock market, for example, in a lease you might sign, or in
a movie review. Ask if the word is restricted in any way. Some words, for example, are used to
describe animals, but not people. Others can describe either. Some only describe inanimate
objects. For example, “lucid” is a word that means “clear,” but it could not really be used to
describe a cloudless sky. More typically, the word is used to describe an idea or someone’s
speech or writing. Anyone who knows the word could tell you that. A friend might also be able to
tell you about a word’s connotative associations—like whether a word tends to be viewed as an
insult, if it’s slang, or if it’s an old-fashioned or archaic term.
Before you end your conversation, try to think of a sentence based upon your understanding of the
word and ask your person if you’ve used the word correctly. (Later you should formalize this
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practice sentence by putting it in writing. For this step, though, a verbal, off-the-cuff sentence will
do.) If you omit this part of the conversation, you may walk away thinking you understand a word
when you really don’t. If you make a mistake with your sentence, your person can perhaps correct
you or re-explain the definition for you so that you can write a better sentence later. Let’s say for
example, you ask me about the word “chastise,” and I, in so many words, tell you that it means “to
criticize.” You may think you understand and might write, “I hate to chastise, but my friend
Chandra has no sense of fashion and always wears the most outlandish outfits.” If I got a look at
your sentence, I might be able to help clarify the word for you by telling you that friends don’t
usually chastise each other and that chastising isn’t something you just think to yourself. In
another half-minute of conversation, maybe I could get you to see that chastising usually involves
a person scolding somebody for mistakes, like a boss might do an employee or a parent might do
for a child. Then, you might be able to adjust your sentence: “Mary’s mom chastised her for
wearing too much make-up and dressing in overly short skirts.”
Use a bit of common sense here: don’t turn to people with weak vocabularies for this type of help.
Also, consider asking a couple of folks just in case the first individual is mistaken in his or her
understanding of the word in question. It can also help the word to sink in more quickly and more
permanently to hear it being used several times.
4. MAKE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO USE THE NEW WORD.
It’s important to apply the lessons you learn. Vocabulary is no exception. Try using the words you
learn—both in conversation and in writing. Do this even if you feel a little funny about it because,
without this effort, you are far more likely to forget the words you worked to acquire, maybe even in
a matter of days.
The advice that’s been delineated above is good advice (and it’s actually fairly simple to follow), but doing so
takes a little time. Sometimes, students are tempted to ignore the advice so they can complete the vocabulary
project more quickly. Unfortunately, that instinct frequently causes students to make serious mistakes on this
assignment. These mistakes not only lower their grade but also rather quickly reduce or eliminate the purpose
behind the project. Hopefully, you can forestall problems by understanding the pitfalls outlined in the
paragraphs that follow.
The first problem I’ll discuss is the one that crops up when a student misunderstands a word's part of speech.
You may need to review a grammar book to refresh your understanding of the concept of parts of speech. A
dictionary will identify a word’s part of speech, but it is often more helpful to simply pay attention to the function
your word plays in the sentence in which you found it. This is because there are words which can serve as
different parts of speech. The word light, for instance, can be either a noun (e.g., "turn off the light") or a verb
(e.g., "please light a fire") or even an adjective (e.g., “he drinks light beer”). So, again, you ought to take note
of how a word is used. You can make adjustments if you need to—in terms of changing a word’s form (say
from present to past tense, or from singular to plural), but it is very important to get its part of speech correct in
the sentence you write. If you don’t, you could end up writing awkward and syntactically incorrect sentences
like "He stared at his ex-girlfriend with indifferently." (Here the problem is that the adverb indifferently is being
misused as a noun. The sentence should either read "He stared at his ex-girlfriend with indifference” or "He
stared at his ex-girlfriend indifferently.”)
A second problem is even more common. It involves the earlier-discussed over-reliance upon dictionary
definitions. Reviewing dictionary definitions is fine, but you actually learn words more readily when, instead of
parroting the dictionary, you articulate its meaning in your own words. So . . . even an awkward-sounding
definition indicating that spatial means "how things are physically arranged, especially where they are"
demonstrates more understanding than a copied dictionary definition succinctly stating that the word means "of
or relating to space." Cloudy definitions like the latter one employ circular reasoning and can be confusing to
people trying to learn new words. They can also lead people to simply latch onto the “simplest” word they
recognize in the dictionary definition. Hence for spatial, a student might write “I enjoyed reading about
astronomy and other spatial things.” This sentence doesn’t really make any sense, for it distorts the meaning
of spatial. Sometimes sentences like this are written in haste by students unwilling to take the time to heed the
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advice to talk to somebody about their vocabulary words. (A better sentence might read “The spatial symmetry
in the painting appealed to my sense of style.”)
Context errors are a third big problem, which, like the last problem, tends to affect the work of those who try to
rush through this project by zipping through a dictionary. I affectionately refer to this problem as the “close-butno-cigar” syndrome. Here a student simply tries to plug in the new word for an older, more familiar one. Take
the student who is reading about a young executive’s hectic lifestyle and encounters the word agenda. He
looks the word up in a dictionary and learns that an agenda is a type of schedule. Therefore, he figures that
the word agenda will fit anywhere the word schedule would fit. So, since the student knows “Because my work
schedule changed, I had to drop one of my classes” is an okay sentence, he might not see anything wrong
with this sentence: “Changes to my work agenda caused me to drop one of my classes.” But there is
something wrong with that sentence! It’s as though the student here doesn’t recognize that although an
agenda is a sort of schedule, the two words aren’t interchangeable. An agenda is a special type of schedule,
and his sentence must reflect that uniqueness. Hence, it should be fairly clear from the student’s sentence
that an agenda isn’t just any ol’ schedule but the type of schedule that represents a pre-planned timetable
outlining what will be done at a meeting or large gathering. With a little more effort, perhaps the student in this
example might have written, “After glancing at the agenda the chairman had passed out, I settled in for what I
knew would be a long, boring meeting.”
A related mistake is to write sentences with redundant wording, or, in other words, to unnecessarily re-define
the new word with synonyms. Take the word “euthanize.” It is a verb that means to accelerate the death of a
person or animal on purpose (usually with medicine and generally with the idea of putting a creature in pain out
of its misery). The concept is not really that difficult to understand, but this sentence sounds silly: The
veterinarian, who had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty, was found not guilty since he had only
euthanized the starving horses in a mercy killing. This is kind of like saying somebody “shouted loudly.”
“Loud” is the only way one can shout. The sentence about the veterinarian would sound better if it had read,
“The veterinarian, who had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty, was found not guilty since the
starving horses he euthanized were beyond saving.
Sometimes, context is colored by cultural and socioeconomic influences. This is why non-native speakers of
English and those outside the cultural mainstream have the most difficulties with context errors. (It’s also why I
advise such students to take extra care in seeking out people to talk to about their new words.) My favorite
example of a mistake in this area involves a shy foreign exchange student named Sing and the word lurk.
Using the dictionary only, Sing correctly concluded that lurking means "hiding or hanging about in a sneaky
way." However, she wrote, "My friends who planned my surprise party lurked behind the couch, waiting for me
to come through the door." I asked Sing to write a new sentence. At first, she didn’t understand why she had
to re-do it, but then we had a conference, and I was able to explain that party-goers do not "lurk" so much as
they simply "hide." The dictionary had not made it clear to Sing that the “sneaky” part of lurk’s definition
suggests ill will, not simple surprise. Muggers, stalkers, and other bad guys "lurk;" people involved in
something so innocent and wholesome as a surprise party are not lurking.
Another big mistake students make with this project—and actually the most common one--is to write short,
unsophisticated sentences that leave their understanding of their vocabulary words open to question. Writing
“Harry is frivolous,” for example, doesn’t really illustrate that you know that frivolous means “trivial” or
“irresponsible.” “Harry’s purchase of a $125 leather bomber’s jacket was a frivolous waste of money,
especially when you consider how he always is so strapped for cash” is a much better sentence. (Now,
understand the point here: the goal isn’t to just to write exceptionally long sentences but to construct sentences
that provide evidence that you understand your new word.)
I feel compelled to point out that a single visit to an English professor or reading teacher could help you avoid
all four problems outlined above--plus some! I, for one, volunteer my services, for I am always glad to discuss
your vocabulary words with you. (Clearly, I don’t know every word and expression in the English language, but
I should be able to help you with most of the words you’ll encounter.) The college’s Writing Centers are
another good source to turn to before you turn in your work. The tutors there can help you polish up your
sentences and avoid both grammar errors and context problems. If nothing else, they can tell you whether
your sentences make sense.
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EXAMPLE OF THE “STUDENT WORDS” FORMATTING
WORD / PART OF SPEECH: liaison / noun
IN-MY-OWN-WORDS DEFINITION: a connection between two people; it’s often a person who helps one group
connect to another group (like a diplomat), but it can also be sexual relationship
CONTEXT: a letter to the editor commenting on an article about Thomas Jefferson’s love affair with one of
his slaves (U.S. News and World Report November 23, 1998 p. 6)
ORIGINAL SENTENCE: “The Jefferson-Hemming intimate liaison of two centuries ago is worthy of a U.S.
News cover story, in part, because we still struggle with our individual and collective sense of American
identity.”
WHOM I CONSULTED: my history professor
MY SENTENCE: A married man who pursues a liaison with a single woman risks not only his marriage but also
his relationship with his children.
WORD / PART OF SPEECH: beleaguered / adjective
IN-MY-OWN-WORDS DEFINITION: to have been picked on or being tired of being picked on
CONTEXT: an article about how anti-gun forces have taken to suing gun dealers and gun manufacturers (U.S.
News and World Report November 23, 1998 p. 28)
ORIGINAL SENTENCE: “For America’s beleaguered firearms industry, the struggle against litigation is
turning into a draining, multi-front war.”
WHOM I CONSULTED: my well-read mother
MY SENTENCE: The beleaguered coach resigned before the press could write one more scathing article
about his team’s 28-game losing streak.
WORD / PART OF SPEECH: pipsqueak / noun
IN-MY-OWN-WORDS DEFINITION: a slang term for someone who’s little, weak, or annoying
CONTEXT: an article about how Microsoft’s competitors are trying to compete (The Dallas Morning News
November 25, 1998 Section C, Page 2)
ORIGINAL SENTENCE: “Linux is still a pipsqueak in Microsoft’s world, but it’s steadily gaining strength.”
WHOM I CONSULTED: Writing Center tutor
MY SENTENCE: Before I began my weight-lifting program, the girls I knew viewed me as a pipsqueak they’d
never want to date.
WORD / PART OF SPEECH: reconfiguration / noun
IN-MY-OWN-WORDS DEFINITION: a reorganization, usually of a business, or maybe a plan
CONTEXT: an article about how Microsoft’s competitors are trying to compete (The Dallas Morning News
November 25, 1998 Section C, Page 3)
ORIGINAL SENTENCE: “Analysts predict that the recent reconfiguration in Linux’s Board of Directors will
strengthen stockholder confidence.”
WHOM I CONSULTED: Writing Center tutor
MY SENTENCE: I had to reconfigure my budget three times before I could see a way to afford the car I
wanted to buy.
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WORD / PART OF SPEECH: vacillate / verb
IN-MY-OWN-WORDS DEFINITION: to go back and forth when making a decision
CONTEXT: an article about planning vacations http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/2008131/od_nm/cruise_mania_1)
ORIGINAL SENTENCE: “Many people vacillate about buying trip insurance, but it’s a good idea for those
whose health or business often interferes with their travel plans.”
WHOM I CONSULTED: a co-worker
MY SENTENCE: The prospective bride vacillated between an ornate arrangement of tropical flowers and a
simple bouquet of daisies.
EXAMPLE OF A POORLY DONE “STUDENT WORD” (actually turned in/problems explained in red)
The student failed to label the work as instructed (i.e, no “WORD/PART OF SPEECH,” “CONTEXT,”
et cetera).
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tentatively/adj “Tentatively” is an adverb, not an adjective.
not fully worked out, concluded, or agreed on; provisional; hesitant, uncertain: This definition appears
to be copied straight from dictionary.
Dallas Morning News Here the student provided an incomplete context, not giving a specific issue
date and not even mentioning what the news story was about.
“An Alvin woman, whose name has not been released, has tentatively identified the body as that of her
son.” (There is no error here, but I encourage you to take care to copy the original sentence verbatim;
leaving words out or misquoting can cause you/me confusion)
The student completely omitted the “WHOM I CONSULTED” part
During High School I would turn in tentatively attempted homework. The student has presented a
poorly written, short sentence that not only has mechanical errors but also seems to miss the mark of
the meaning of “tentatively.” A better sentence might be, “I made a tentative start on my research
project, but I really wish the professor would explain more about the procedure he expects us to
follow.”
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