BJ Hoff's GRACE NOTES: Reading and Writing and ABCs

Since I’ve been writing about words lately, this seemed like a good time to answer a question I recently received from a young, as-yet-unpublished writer:

Q. How important is it for a writer to have a large vocabulary? How does someone go about building one?

A. The bigger, the better. But knowing the correct spelling and definitions of a lot of words isn’t enough alone. It’s vital to know how and when to use those words. Having the patience to choose just the right word to express what you want to say will build clarity and sharpness in your writing, and knowing the right time and place to use some of your less common words is just as important.

Of all the ways to build a good vocabulary, reading is by far the best. Read in a variety of genres, in fiction, in nonfiction, in the classics, and in modern literature. If you’re still in school, ask for help from your English instructor in compiling a good reading list, and set out to follow it though. I can’t emphasize this enough: reading belongs at the head of your list for building your vocabulary. Keep a dictionary handy in each place where you read, and take the time to look up any word with which you’re not familiar–or any word you want to know more about.

You can also find reading lists on the internet, but you really need to be highly selective with these, as not all of them have been developed by qualified experts but instead are based on personal opinion.

If you’re entirely on your own in your vocabulary endeavor, here are a few books you’re likely to find helpful–and interesting:

The Princeton Review Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary by Adam Robinson.

*Note that there are two books by this same title and author–Books One and Two. These are often used by students in preparation for the SAT and other standardized tests.

Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose. This book not only teaches you to read like a writer but goes far in encouraging you to think like a writer. From a starred review by Publishers Weekly: "Prose masterfully meditates on how quality reading informs great writing, which will warm the cold, jaded hearts of even the most frustrated, underappreciated, and unpublished writers ... Prose’s guide to reading and writing belongs on every writer’s bookshelf alongside E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel."

The Random House Word Menu, by Stephen Glazier. The cover copy claims this to be a "merging of dictionary, thesaurus, treasury of glossaries, reverse dictionary, and almanac." And it is. Words are organized by subject matter. For example, there’s an entire list of words under the heading "Windows, Walls, and Facades"–words such as bondstone, bull’s-eye window, fanlight, Palladian window, and many more. There’s a surprisingly thorough section on structure and usage, another on foreign expressions, a section on mythology and folklore–well, you really have to see it and use it for yourself to appreciate what this book is all about.

A fun book to keep on hand that helps to spark your own original similes is As One Mad With Wine and Other Similes, by Elyse Sommer and Mike Sommer. It boasts 8,000 similes.

The Dictionary of Concise Writing: 10,000 Alternatives to Wordy Phrases, by Robert Hartwell Fiske.

A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner.

The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage, by Theodore M. Bernstein.

(The above two books, while not "vocabulary books," are still helpful in building and using a good vocabulary--and they're my personal favorites on usage.)

There are many more, of course, but the above listed are among those that I and other writers frequently recommend.

Enjoy!