Thursday, January 1, 2015
Why Improving & Increasing Vocabulary is Important
Having an extensive, dictionary-like vocabulary isn’t necessary, but it is good to have an expanded vocabulary. This will not only improve your speech, but your writing as well.
Benefits of Good Vocabulary: Communicate more effectively. Improves self-confidence. Improves self-esteem. Adds sophistication to speech. Better/more job offers. Improves people’s perception of you.
Drawbacks of Bad or Limited Vocabulary: Poor communication. Misinterpretations. Low self-confidence. Low self-esteem. Appear uneducated. Lowers people’s perception of you.
Now let me clarify “appearing uneducated” in the drawbacks. Many educated people have limited vocabulary and it makes them appear uneducated. Many uneducated people have taken the time to improve their vocabulary and appear to be highly educated.
This is one thing that good or bad vocabulary has power over: You can be the smartest person on the planet, but if you’re lacking in the area of good vocabulary, people will never see you as an intelligent person. You can also be the dumbest person on earth, but if you have good vocabulary; people will think you’re smart. It boils down to perceptions, or misperceptions and a person’s command of language.
The majority of people aren’t out to impress you with their language skills, they just enjoy having a good grasp on speech and using better words to convey or clarify a message.
A lady goes into a sandwich shop and asks for minimal lettuce on her sandwich.
The clerk replies, “I’m sorry, we only have iceberg lettuce.”
Clearly, the lady was not trying to impress the clerk or make her look dumb, because minimal is a pretty common word. But the clerk, who hasn’t taken the time to expand her vocabulary and word knowledge, makes herself look dumb.
My recent posts: Confusing Words, Commonly Misusedand More Common and Uncommon Words, Commonly Misused, are good study guides to help you expand your word knowledge. Using synonyms is another good way to expand your list of words. Always keep a dictionary handy to use when you hear a new word and are unsure of it’s meaning, or keep pen and paper handy to jot these words down so you can look them up later.
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