Words and vocabulary

When you're a graduate people expect you to use a vocabulary which is wider than a school-leaver's. To expand your vocabulary:

Choose a large dictionary rather than one which is ‘compact' or ‘concise'. You want one which is big enough to define words clearly and helpfully (around 1,500 pages is a good size).

Avoid dictionaries which send you round in circles by just giving

synonyms. A pocket dictionary might suggest: ‘impetuous = rash'.

A more comprehensive dictionary will tell you that impetuous means ‘rushing with force and violence', while another gives ‘liable to act without consideration', and add to your understanding by giving the derivation ‘14th century, from late Latin impetuous = violent'.

It will tell you that rash means ‘acting without due consideration or thought', and is derived from Old High German rasc = hurried.

So underlying these two similar words is the difference between violence and hurrying.

There are over 600,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary; most of them have different meanings, (only a small proportion are synonyms).

Avoid dictionaries which send you round in circles by using very complicated language to define the term you're looking up, leaving you struggling to understand half a dozen new words.

Keep your dictionary at hand when you're studying. Look up unfamiliar words and work to understand what they mean.

Improve your vocabulary by reading widely.

If you haven't got your dictionary with you, note down words which you don't understand and look them up later.

Spotting authors' navigation aids

Learn to recognise sequence signals, for example:

"Three advantages of..." or "A number of methods are available..." leads you to expect several points to follow.

The first sentence of a paragraph will often indicate a sequence:"One important cause of..." followed by "Another important factor..." and so on, until "The final cause of..."

General points are often illustrated by particular examples, for example:

General: Birds' beaks are appropriately shaped for feeding.

Particular: Sparrows and other seed-eating birds have short, stubby beaks; wrens and other insect eaters have thin pointed beaks; herons and other fish hunters have long, sharp beaks for spearing their prey.

Whatever you are reading, be aware of the author's background. It is important to recognise the bias given to writing by a writer's political, religious, social background. Learn which newspapers and journals represent a particular standpoint.