Generic Methods for Improving Your Vocabulary Base

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A lot of you are no doubt sick and tired of hearing me (and possibly other teachers) say that in order to improve your writing you should improve your vocabulary.

There are some very simple ways to achieve this, but, like most of the things I will be suggesting through this site, you will need to actually do some work and find time.

The most obvious way to build your awareness of a more complex vocabulary is to widen your reading. This does not necessarily mean you should read more. If you already read a particular book, or series of books, regularly then reading them more frequently is not going to assist you in developing your vocabulary.

So saying that, if you do read a particular book, or series, frequently you can always consider whether you are getting the most out of it. I can almost guarantee that for those of you who have read, and possibly re-read, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, you should have needed to pick up the dictionary on several ocassions. The question though is did you bother?

When we tell you that reading expands your knowledge of vocabulary, we are assuming that you will look up new words that you come across. This allows you to develop new knowledge and down the track you will find that you can begin to implement that knowledge.

When you are looking for new books to read, for this explicit purpose, aim to find something that will challenge you while still sparking your interest. Once you start reading, take the time to use a dictionary - or alternatively use dictionary.com - and begin to broaden your linguistic horizons.

If you simply can't fit a novel into your timetable, aim to read well-written newspaper or magazine articles. Again, find out what new words mean.

If you strongly believe that you can't even fit this into your schedule, the other good option is to use cross-word puzzles to develop your vocab. You can either use the ones in the paper, buy a cross-word puzzle book, or use the multitude of electronic cross-word games that are out there. If you happen to own a PSP, I strongly recommend the "Telegraph" cross-word game that is available on the PlayStation Network - Mini Games. I have it and have been quite impressed - it has about 500 puzzles on it. I have tried New York Times Crosswords on the DS and wasn't impressed - too much of it required you to have really specific knowledge of US sporting culture, etc.

So, hopefully all of you will find some way that can help you to improve your vocabulary - just be aware that it is not going to miraculously muliply overnight :)