Finding concise words that capture ideas a writer wants to convey to readers is challenging. Use one word to replace a phrase many popular expressions can be expressed as a single word, or are better omitted altogether. The writing center choosing the correct word form guides. Word choice concise writing contains clear and focused sentences that convey precise meaning without excess words. Indeed, theyre so powerful that their absence is even more remarkable. Strong writers use specific, strong, and precise words to communicate. Heres a word choice classroom resource that focuses on better verbs. When writing an essay, your goal is to clearly, cohesively, and concisely communicate your ideas to your audience. Essay resources, essay writing, tone and mood, word choice, tone and mood exercises, tone and mood videos, tone and mood information, word choice exercises, word choice videos, word choice information college of arts and sciences. The following words and expressions are frequently misused.
Holiday topic writingbrainstorm a list of words for that holiday. Scholarly voice word choice diction scholarly voice. In this workshop, the writing center esl specialist will share the links to helpful online resources and show how they can be used to improve word choice and grammar in academic writing. Word choice worksheets like these can be a great part of your superhero teaching toolkit. We teachers are always reminding our students to use interesting word choice when writing. While writing in english, maintaining the correct word choice is quite difficult for both esl researchers and for native english speakers who are not experienced writers.
Word choice the writing center university of west georgia. The writing center online resources for improving word. Ive already written a post on word choice, but here i look at it from a different point of view no writer can overlook word choice and vocabulary words have immense power. General insights into word choice in business communication. Moving on, word choice in academic writing also involves using words that are shorter and more concise than their lengthier counterparts, even though they mean the. There are word choice activities as well as worksheets, so your kids will be expanding their writing skillset while they are engaged in a fun activity. Writing concisely may be contrary to common practice in some countries where, i have been told, authors are paid by the number of words published. Return to all guides the results uncovered some importance differences among the groups. Nouns are words for things such as people, animals, places, ideas, etc. The sentence above contains a grammatical problem in regards to word form. As teachers of writing, we can help students learn to love words by creating situations in which they engage in what annie dillard calls learning worlds. Grammarword work lists lists references to improve writing skills and word choice. It is part of the revising stage of the writing process. There are many factors which determine or compel a person for a word choice.
This activity will help you think of interesting adjectives when you write. Unfortunately, its impossible to cover the infinite number of ways this concept can show up. The writing center sentence variation using word choice. As he tore down the sideline, the crowd erupted in frenzied anticipation of the winning touchdown. Part of becoming a more skilled writer is mastering not only the fundamentals of proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, but also the nuances of word choice. Careful word choice can transform a mediocre writer into a better one or make a dull subject seem engaging. As they revise and edit their drafts, they make sure that their ideas and organizational strategies are sound, their voice and word choice are appropriate, and their sentences add structure, rhythm.
As you work on a paper, you choose your topic, your approach, your sources, and your thesis. Adverbs, adverbs, adverbs the powerful tailback exploded violently through the line of scrimmage. Word choice diction print page report a broken link. This video explains the importance of word choice and analyzes the word choice of authors like jane austen and robert frost and statesmen like abraham lincoln. Word choice and impact careful word choice is central to topnotch writing. He then bounced outside and sprinted to the far endzone. Some of you may be aware of subtleties related to cultural issues.
Online resources for improving grammar and word choice in. An author needs to paint a picture in the mind of the reader. Do your students struggle using strong word choice in their writing. The following books provide great teacher resources for bringing the power of word choice into your classroom. Clarity in writing requires knowledge of word choice when adding details to writing. Good writers are careful to use precise language and avoid wordiness, cliches. Word choice exercises wilmu student writing resources.
Writers repeatedly use the same words or do not choose the most creative or effective words in their first drafts to convey their message to an audience. Dictionary software can be installed on the computer or read from a cd. Actively varying verb, adjective, and adverb choice can dramatically spice up a paper. Synonyms for word choice include phrasing, diction, language, phraseology, wording, verbiage, idiom, locution, manner and mode. Appropriate word choice allows students to display their knowledge, not just about english, but with regard to any given field of study from science and mathematics to civics and history. Utah valley university uvu does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation.
The completed craftivities can be hung in the classroom for stud. Word choice is choosing words that can make your writing a masterpiece. In the writing stage, they focus more on content, organization, and voice. This post is geared towards the upper elementary or middle school curriculum and uses the term million dollar words when referring to word choice. When writing for faculty and your peers at walden, you will be addressing a formal audience and you will want to use scholarly language.
Shift word choice in the favor of emotion intellectual words accelerate accolade additionally aid allow anecdote anticipate assault argumentative research paper student persuasive writing emotional vs intellectual words. In persuasive writing, it moves you to a new vision of things. Word choice is an important part of teaching writing. Writing az lists support student writing skills and word choice by giving students references or ideas to use at various steps of the writing process. In particular, the writer uses the noun importance when the adjective important should have been used. It is also part of a series of writing mini lessons designed for scaffolding in writing workshop. Word choice is an essential element for any student learning to write effectively. I chose verbs that both show and tell my reader information.
As an academic researcher, a part of the writing process that often causes confusion and leads to common mistakes is the word choice. Everything you need to teach and assess student writing with this powerful model. Online resources for improving word choice and grammar. An important way to improve your writing is to consider your choice of words. Use the article a before an initial h pronounced even slightly a historian, a hypothesis, a horse. This oneday craftivity lesson is intended to be a memorable activity that will drive the point home for our students. If youre writing in english, you get a bonus that cant be found in most other languages. Writing concisely may be contrary to common practice in some countries where, i. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of words and no formulaic rules for why one word should be chosen over the other. Have students substitute a word on each sentence in the paragraph using a thesaurus.
This document should only be used as a reference and should not replace assignment guidelines. Word choice and vocabulary for creative writing peter. A word choice is an important part of any communication. A dictionary is a word reference that gives word meanings, acceptable spellings, hyphenation, capitalization, pronunciations, and synonyms. They try to pick the most precise words to create the proper tone for their message. Concise writing contains clear and focused sentences that convey precise meaning without excess words. As an author, choosing the right words while writing a manuscript is crucial for success. Academic writing, like most other forms of writing, is a series of choices. Improving word choice there are many components crucial in the writing process. Many students express the desire to sound intelligent. Excellent writing 1 stephen wilbers correct word choice from the university of minnesota style manual use words carefully and precisely.
References to improve writing skills and word choice. Rank these five skills against each other, from 5 highest to 1 lowest. When the pdf file turns from gray to red click on it and see your classs results. Balance your dialogue verbs between said and its synonyms. This activity will help you think of interesting adjectives when you. Word choice is a persons choice or selection of words. While communicating or delivering any ideas or thoughts, one must use a proper word. Problematic esl content word choice in writing semantic scholar. One of the most commonly tested concepts is word choice, choosing the most appropriate word in context. A paper will be more readable if words are used economically. When editing an essay, the writer should look for empty or inflated phrases, redundancy, wordiness, and imprecise language, then revise or rewrite problem sentences. In narrative writing, it creates images in your mind that are so real, you feel like you are part of the story itself. One way of achieving that variation is through word choice.
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