Polishing Your Vocabulary

Your word choices in writing a formal paper should be different from those you make when writing an informal paper. Some students know this too well and succumb to the pretentiousness that we discussed in an earlier section. Their papers end up reading as if the writer consulted a thesaurus for every word.

Eliminate empty intensifiers.

Empty intensifiers are words like “really” and “very” and phrases like “a lot” that intensify your verbs and nouns. Instead of using those words, be more precise in your meaning. Use a synonym for the word being intensified.

Empty: A cruise ship is a very large boat. (“Very large” is boring, vague, and insignificant. What if we replaced “very large” with a synonym?)

Revised: A cruise ship is an enormous boat. (“Enormous” is a more specific word.)

Empty: Clear-cutting hurts the rain forest a lot. (“A lot” intensifies “hurts.”)

Revision: Clear-cutting devastates the rain forest.

To edit, circle all of the instances of “really,” “very,” and “a lot” and replace the words they are intensifying with concrete, specific synonyms.

Beware of misused words.

Commonly Misused Words

Accept/Except: Accept is a verb meaning “to receive.” Except is a preposition meaning
“to exclude.”

I accepted the package.
I like all berries except blackberries.

Affect/Effect: Affect is a verb meaning “to change.” Effect is a noun meaning “result.”

The drug didn’t affect me, even though the label listed numerous side effects.

Allusion/Illusion: An allusion is an “indirect reference.” An illusion is a “misconception or false impression.”

Dante makes an allusion to the myth of Icarus when he descends into the eighth circle of hell in the Inferno.
Light wall colors give a room the illusion of greater size.

Assure/Ensure/Insure: Assure means “promise,” ensure means “to guarantee an event or condition,” and insure usually means “to limit financial liability.”

George assured the client that his company would insure the boat for the full value.
Maria ensured there would be enough food by ordering for 25 people instead of 20.

Elicit/Illicit: Elicit means “to draw out.” Illicit means “unlawful.”

The reporter was unable to elicit a quote from the police about the possibility of an illicit drug operation.

Emigrate/Immigrate: You emigrate from a place and immigrate to a place.

Leo emigrated from Botswana.
Leo immigrated to the U.S.

Imply/Infer: Imply means “to suggest,” and infer means “to draw a conclusion.”

Susan: Are you implying that I’m lazy?
Jorge: No, you are inferring that from what I said.

Fill in the blank for each sentence below by choosing the correct word (a or b).

Strategies for word choice

The following are some strategies for making word choices:

When using unfamiliar words, review their context and check their meaning in a dictionary.
When using a thesaurus, review the context for your word, and check the meaning of each synonym in a dictionary. Each synonym will have its own connotation and shade of meaning.
Before revising adjectives and adverbs, be sure you have chosen the best nouns and verbs.
Avoid repetition when it becomes redundant. This happens when you repeat the same words or phrases in instances where other words will do. The exception is when repetition is being used to reinforce your ideas by repeating key terms.
Don’t use unnecessarily big words or long sentences to try to impress your reader. Remember the paragraph by Mark Twain that we read earlier. Use direct language with concrete and specific words.