Why Improving & Increasing Vocabulary is Important
Are you happy with your vocabulary? I mean really happy with it? Or does it leave you feeling like you’re missing something the rest of the word has a grasp on? Are you intimidated when you hear other people use big, fancy words that you aren’t familiar with?
Having an extensive, dictionary-like vocabulary isn’t necessary, but it is good to have an expanded vocabulary. This will not only improve your speech, but your writing as well.
Benefits of Good Vocabulary:
- Communicate more effectively.
- Improves self-confidence.
- Improves self-esteem.
- Adds sophistication to speech.
- Better/more job offers.
- Improves people’s perception of you.
Drawbacks of Bad or Limited Vocabulary:
- Poor communication.
- Misinterpretations.
- Low self-confidence.
- Low self-esteem.
- Appear uneducated.
- Lowers people’s perception of you.
Now let me clarify “appearing uneducated” in the drawbacks. Many educated people have limited vocabulary and it makes them appear uneducated. Many uneducated people have taken the time to improve their vocabulary and appear to be highly educated.
This is one thing that good or bad vocabulary has power over: You can be the smartest person on the planet, but if you’re lacking in the area of good vocabulary, people will never see you as an intelligent person. You can also be the dumbest person on earth, but if you have good vocabulary; people will think you’re smart. It boils down to perceptions, or misperceptions and a person’s command of language.
The majority of people aren’t out to impress you with their language skills, they just enjoy having a good grasp on speech and using better words to convey or clarify a message.
A lady goes into a sandwich shop and asks for minimal lettuce on her sandwich.
The clerk replies, “I’m sorry, we only have iceberg lettuce.”
Clearly, the lady was not trying to impress the clerk or make her look dumb, because minimal is a pretty common word. But the clerk, who hasn’t taken the time to expand her vocabulary and word knowledge, makes herself look dumb.
My recent posts: Confusing Words, Commonly Misused and More Common and Uncommon Words, Commonly Misused, are good study guides to help you expand your word knowledge. Using synonyms is another good way to expand your list of words. Always keep a dictionary handy to use when you hear a new word and are unsure of it’s meaning, or keep pen and paper handy to jot these words down so you can look them up later.
Written by Patti Stafford from Patti StaffordPosted on September 30th, 2009 and filed under Writing
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11 Responses to “Why Improving & Increasing Vocabulary is Important”
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Patti Stafford,
Thanks for this useful article.
I'm trying to improve my vocabulary for some time now, but without any considerable improvement.
Can you please suggest me few important tips I need to follow on daily basis to improve my vocabulary.
I'm not an English speaker so my English is not so good.
I've been learning English in New Zealand for 8 month and my vocabulary are improved.
You're right, vocabulary is the most important factor. It's not just writing or reading. You know the vocabulary, you can communicate easily.
I totally agree to this great vocabulary helps you to express yourself in a better way…It is importnat to keep l;earning new words…
I totally agree to this great vocabulary helps you to express yourself in a better way…It is important to keep l;earning new words…
Very timely and relevant article. It makes so much sense considering use of SMS lingo and the resulting poor vocab. the habit of writing is on a diminishing path and so is the knowledge of vocab. Hope, this article make people aware of importance of good word collection.
Undoubtedly an important lesson for all to build their vocabulary.
We'd love to help the initiated.
Build your vocabulary visually @ http://www.weboword.com and create your own sentences as well as sketches too.
Mastering vocabulary visually is fun and sticky. Check it out.
Happy Vocabulary Building!
I think the problem with increasing your vocab is finding some decent resources to use for vocabulary building if you are currently above average in your vocabulary. I find that I already know a good 60-90% of the words they give in your average vocabulary building workbook.
The lettuce tale reminds me of the time I made a joke to a group of people and was met with 100% blank faces. Apparently I was the only one in the room who knew what Empresario meant.
Getting addicted to on-line Scrabble several years back did wonders for building my vocabulary.
yeah, i totally agree. and it's getting even harder if english is not your national language…
i agree with what u have been writing .