“Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you’ll never use ‘emolument’ when you mean ‘tip’ and you’ll never say ‘John stopped long enough to perform an act of excretion’ when you mean ‘John stopped long enough to move his bowels,’” says Stephen King in On Writing.
The fact is, if you’re using multi-syllable words just because you can, your writing is going to suffer. But if you’re doing it for a reason… no one will accuse you of committing vocabulary abuse.
“Good writing,” says Michael Masterson, “should be exact. And powerful. And suggestive. And sometimes the simple one- or two-syllable words can’t do that. Sometimes the right word is ‘taciturn’ or ‘desultory’ or ‘recalcitrant.’”
The bottom line? Expand your vocabulary so you have a wide range of words to choose from. Learn how to choose your words carefully, so you use the ones that most accurately and clearly express what you want to say. And don’t be afraid of using big words when they do a better job than the little ones.
[Ed. Note: Statistics prove that people with bigger vocabularies earn more money. Not to mention that a broad vocabulary can help you read and speak better. With ETR's Words to the Wise vocabulary-building program, you can improve your mind as well as the way others perceive you. Pick up a copy of this powerful program, and you'll be sounding - and feeling - more intelligent in no time!]
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