Using good word choice

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All strong writers have something in common: they understand the value of word choice in writing. Strong word choice uses vocabulary and language to maximum effect, creating clear moods and images and making your stories and poems more powerful and vivid.

The meaning of “word choice” may seem self-explanatory, but to truly transform your style and writing, we need to dissect the elements of choosing the right word. This article will explore what word choice is, and offer some examples of effective word choice, before giving you 5 word choice exercises to try for yourself.

Word Choice Definition: The Four Elements of Word Choice

The definition of word choice extends far beyond the simplicity of “choosing the right words.” Choosing the right word takes into consideration many different factors, and finding the word that packs the most punch requires both a great vocabulary and a great understanding of the nuances in English.

Choosing the right word involves the following four considerations, with word choice examples.

1. Meaning

Words can be chosen for one of two meanings: the denotative meaning or the connotative meaning. Denotation refers to the word’s basic, literal dictionary definition and usage. By contrast, connotation refers to how the word is being used in its given context: which of that word’s many uses, associations, and connections are being employed.

A word’s denotative meaning is its literal dictionary definition, while its connotative meaning is the web of uses and associations it carries in context.

We play with denotations and connotations all the time in colloquial English. As a simple example, when someone says “greaaaaaat” sarcastically, we know that what they’re referring to isn’t “great” at all. In context, the word “great” connotes its opposite: something so bad that calling it “great” is intentionally ridiculous. When we use words connotatively, we’re letting context drive the meaning of the sentence.

The rich web of connotations in language are crucial to all writing, and perhaps especially so to poetry, as in the following lines from Derek Walcott’s Nobel-prize-winning epic poem Omeros:

In hill-towns, from San Fernando to Mayagüez,
the same sunrise stirred the feathered lances of cane
down the archipelago’s highways. The first breeze

rattled the spears and their noise was like distant rain
marching down from the hills, like a shell at your ears.

Sugar cane isn’t, literally, made of “feathered lances,” which would literally denote “long metal spears adorned with bird feathers”; but feathered connotes “branching out,” the way sugar cane does, and lances connotes something tall, straight, and pointy, as sugar cane is. Together, those two words create a powerfully true visual image of sugar cane—in addition to establishing the martial language (“spears,” “marching”) used elsewhere in the passage.

Whether in poetry or prose, strong word choice can unlock images, emotions, and more in the reader, and the associations and connotations that words bring with them play a crucial role in this.

2. Specificity

Use words that are both correct in meaning and specific in description.

In the sprawling English language, one word can have dozens of synonyms. That’s why it’s important to use words that are both correct in meaning and specific in description. Words like “good,” “average,” and “awful” are far less descriptive and specific than words like “liberating” (not just good but good and freeing), “C student” (not just average but academically average), and “despicable” (not just awful but morally awful). These latter words pack more meaning than their blander counterparts.

Since more precise words give the reader added context, specificity also opens the door for more poetic opportunities. Take the short poem “[You Fit Into Me]” by Margaret Atwood.

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

A fish hook

An open eye

The first stanza feels almost romantic until we read the second stanza. By clarifying her language, Atwood creates a simple yet highly emotive duality.

This is also why writers like Stephen King advocate against the use of adverbs (adjectives that modify verbs or other adjectives, like “very”). If your language is precise, you don’t need adverbs to modify the verbs or adjectives, as those words are already doing enough work. Consider the following comparison:

Weak description with adverbs: He cooks quite badly; the food is almost always extremely overdone.

Strong description, no adverbs: He incinerates food.

Of course, non-specific words are sometimes the best word, too! These words are often colloquially used, so they’re great for writing description, writing through a first-person narrative, or for transitional passages of prose.

3. Audience

Good word choice takes the reader into consideration. You probably wouldn’t use words like “lugubrious” or “luculent” in a young adult novel, nor would you use words like “silly” or “wonky” in a legal document.

This is another way of saying that word choice conveys not only direct meaning, but also a web of associations and feelings that contribute to building the reader’s world. What world does the word “wonky” help build for your reader, and what world does the word “seditious” help build? Depending on the overall environment you’re working to create for the reader, either word could be perfect—or way out of place.

4. Style

Consider your word choice to be the fingerprint of your writing.

Consider your word choice to be the fingerprint of your writing. Every writer uses words differently, and as those words come to form poems, stories, and books, your unique grasp on the English language will be recognizable by all your readers.

Style isn’t something you can point to, but rather a way of describing how a writer writes. Ernest Hemingway, for example, is known for his terse, no-nonsense, to-the-point styles of description. Virginia Woolf, by contrast, is known for writing that’s poetic, intense, and melodramatic, and James Joyce for his lofty, superfluous writing style.

Here’s a paragraph from Joyce:

Had Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam’s hand in Argos or Julius Caesar not been knifed to death. They are not to be thought away. Time has branded them and fettered they are lodged in the room of the infinite possibilities they have ousted.

And here’s one from Hemingway:

Bill had gone into the bar. He was standing talking with Brett, who was sitting on a high stool, her legs crossed. She had no stockings on.

Style is best observed and developed through a portfolio of writing. As you write more and form an identity as a writer, the bits of style in your writing will form constellations.

Word Choice in Writing: The Importance of Verbs

Before we offer some word choice exercises to expand your writing horizons, we first want to mention the importance of verbs. Verbs, as you may recall, are the “action” of the sentence—they describe what the subject of the sentence actually does. Unless you are intentionally breaking grammar rules, all sentences must have a verb, otherwise they don’t communicate much to the reader.

Because verbs are the most important part of the sentence, they are something you must focus on when expanding the reaches of your word choice. Verbs are the most widely variegated units of language; the more “things” you can do in the world, the more verbs there are to describe them, making them great vehicles for both figurative language and vivid description.

Consider the following three sentences:

1. The road runs through the hills.
2. The road curves through the hills.
3. The road meanders through the hills.

Which sentence is the most descriptive? Though each of them has the same subject, object, and number of words, the third sentence creates the clearest image. The reader can visualize a road curving left and right through a hilly terrain, whereas the first two sentences require more thought to see clearly.

Finally, this resource on verb usage does a great job at highlighting how to invent and expand your verb choice.

Word Choice in Writing: Economy and Concision

Strong word choice means that every word you write packs a punch. As we’ve seen with adverbs above, you may find that your writing becomes more concise and economical—delivering more impact per word. Above all, you may find that you omit needless words.

Omit needless words is, in fact, a general order issued by Strunk and White in their classic Elements of Style. As they explain it:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

It’s worth repeating that this doesn’t mean your writing becomes clipped or terse, but simply that “every word tell.” As our word choice improves—as we omit needless words and express ourselves more precisely—our writing becomes richer, whether we write in long or short sentences.

As an example, here’s the opening sentence of a random personal essay from a high school test preparation handbook:

The world is filled with a numerous amount of student athletes that could somewhere down the road have a bright future.

Most words in this sentence are needless. It could be edited down to:

Many student athletes could have a bright future.

Now let’s take some famous lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Can you remove a single word without sacrificing an enormous richness of meaning?

Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

In strong writing, every single word is chosen for maximum impact. This is the true meaning of concise or economical writing.

5 Word Choice Exercises to Sharpen Your Writing

With our word choice definition in mind, as well as our discussions of verb use and concision, let’s explore the following exercises to put theory into practice. As you play around with words in the following word choice exercises, be sure to consider meaning, specificity, style, and (if applicable) audience.

1. Build Moods With Word Choice

Writers fine-tune their words because the right vocabulary will build lush, emotive worlds. As you expand your word choice and consider the weight of each word, focus on targeting precise emotions in your descriptions and figurative language.

This kind of point is best illustrated through word choice examples. An example of magnificent language is the poem “In Defense of Small Towns” by Oliver de la Paz. The poem’s ambivalent feelings toward small hometowns presents itself through the mood of the writing.

The poem is filled with tense descriptions, like “animal deaths and toughened hay” and “breeches speared with oil and diesel,” which present the small town as stoic and masculine. This, reinforced by the terse stanzas and the rare “chances for forgiveness,” offers us a bleak view of the town; yet it’s still a town where everything is important, from “the outline of every leaf” to the weightless flight of cattail seeds.

The writing’s terse, heavy mood exists because of the poem’s juxtaposition of masculine and feminine words. The challenge of building a mood produces this poem’s gravity and sincerity.

Try to write a poem, or even a sentence, that evokes a particular mood through words that bring that word to mind. Here’s an example:

1. What mood do you want to evoke? flighty
2. What words feel like they evoke that mood? not sure, whatever, maybe, perhaps, tomorrow, sometimes, sigh
3. Try it in a sentence: “Maybe tomorrow we could see about looking at the lab results.” She sighed. “Perhaps.”

2. Invent New Words and Terms

A common question writers ask is, What is one way to revise for word choice? One trick to try is to make up new language in your revisions.

If you create language at a crucial moment, you might be able to highlight something that our current language can’t.

In the same way that unusual verbs highlight the action and style of your story, inventing words that don’t exist can also create powerful diction. Of course, your writing shouldn’t overflow with made-up words and pretentious portmanteaus, but if you create language at a crucial moment, you might be able to highlight something that our current language can’t.

A great example of an invented word is the phrase “wine-dark sea.” Understanding this invention requires a bit of history; in short, Homer describes the sea as “οἶνοψ πόντος”, or “wine-faced.” “Wine-dark,” then, is a poetic translation, a kind of kenning for the sea’s mystery.

Why “wine-dark” specifically? Perhaps because, like the sea, wine changes us; maybe the eyes of the sea are dark, as eyes often darken with wine; perhaps the sea is like a face, an inversion, a reflection of the self. In its endlessness, we see what we normally cannot.

Thus, “wine-dark” is a poetic combination of words that leads to intensive literary analysis. For a less historical example, I’m currently working on my poetry thesis, with pop culture monsters being the central theme of the poems. In one poem, I describe love as being “frankensteined.” By using this monstrous made-up verb in place of “stitched,” the poem’s attitude toward love is much clearer.

Try inventing a word or phrase whose meaning will be as clear to the reader as “wine-dark sea.” Here’s an example:

1. What do you want to describe? feeling sorry for yourself because you’ve been stressed out for a long time
2. What are some words that this feeling brings up? self-pity, sympathy, sadness, stress, compassion, busyness, love, anxiety, pity party, feeling sorry for yourself
3. What are some fun ways to combine these words? sadxiety, stresslove
4. Try it in a sentence: As all-nighter wore on, my anxiety softened into sadxiety: still edgy, but soft in the middle.

3. Only Use Words of Certain Etymologies

One of the reasons that the English language is so large and inconsistent is that it borrows words from every language. When you dig back into the history of loanwords, the English language is incredibly interesting!

(For example, many of our legal terms, such as judge, jury, and plaintiff, come from French. When the Normans [old French-speakers from Northern France] conquered England, their language became the language of power and nobility, so we retained many of our legal terms from when the French ruled the British Isles.)

Nerdy linguistics aside, etymologies also make for a fun word choice exercise. Try forcing yourself to write a poem or a story only using words of certain etymologies and avoiding others. For example, if you’re only allowed to use nouns and verbs that we borrowed from the French, then you can’t use Anglo-Saxon nouns like “cow,” “swine,” or “chicken,” but you can use French loanwords like “beef,” “pork,” and “poultry.”

Experiment with word etymologies and see how they affect the mood of your writing. You might find this to be an impactful facet of your word choice. You can Google “__ etymology” for any word to see its origin, and “__ synonym” to see synonyms.

Try writing a sentence only with roots from a single origin. (You can ignore common words like “the,” “a,” “of,” and so on.)

1. What do you want to write? The apple rolled off the table.
2. Try a first etymology: German: The apple wobbled off the bench.
3. Try a second: Latin: The russet fruit rolled off the table.

4. Write in E-Prime

E-Prime Writing describes a writing style where you only write using the active voice. By eschewing all forms of the verb “to be”—using words such as “is,” “am,” “are,” “was,” and other “being” verbs—your writing should feel more clear, active, and precise!

E-Prime not only removes the passive voice (“The bottle was picked up by James”), but it gets at the reality that many sentences using to be are weakly constructed, even if they’re technically in the active voice.

Of course, E-Prime writing isn’t the best type of writing for every project. The above paragraph is written in E-Prime, but stretching it out across this entire article would be tricky. The intent of E-Prime writing is to make all of your subjects active and to make your verbs more impactful. While this is a fun word choice exercise and a great way to create memorable language, it probably isn’t sustainable for a long writing project.

Try writing a paragraph in E-Prime:

1. What do you want to write? Of course, E-Prime writing isn’t the best type of writing for every project. The above paragraph is written in E-Prime, but stretching it out across this entire article would be tricky. The intent of E-Prime writing is to make all of your subjects active and to make your verbs more impactful. While this is a fun word choice exercise and a great way to create memorable language, it probably isn’t sustainable for a long writing project.
2. Converted to E-Prime: Of course, E-Prime writing won’t best suit every project. The above paragraph uses E-Prime, but stretching it out across this entire article would carry challenges. E-Prime writing endeavors to make all of your subjects active, and your verbs more impactful. While this word choice exercise can bring enjoyment and create memorable language, you probably can’t sustain it over a long writing project.

5. Write Blackout Poetry

Blackout poetry, also known as Found Poetry, is a visual creative writing project. You take a page from a published source and create a poem by blacking out other words until your circled words create a new poem. The challenge is that you’re limited to the words on a page, so you need a charged use of both space and language to make a compelling blackout poem.

Blackout poetry bottoms out our list of great word choice exercises because it forces you to consider the elements of word choice. With blackout poems, certain words might be read connotatively rather than denotatively, or you might change the meaning and specificity of a word by using other words nearby. Language is at its most fluid and interpretive in blackout poems!

For a great word choice example using blackout poetry, read “The Author Writes the First Draft of His Wedding Vows” by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. Here it is visually:

Pick a favorite poem of your own and make something completely new out of it using blackout poetry.

How to Expand Your Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a last topic in word choice. The more words in your arsenal, the better. Great word choice doesn’t rely on a large vocabulary, but knowing more words will always help! So, how do you expand your vocabulary?

The simplest way to expand your vocabulary is by reading.

The simplest answer, and the one you’ll hear the most often, is by reading. The more literature you consume, the more examples you’ll see of great words using the four elements of word choice.

Of course, there are also some great programs for expanding your vocabulary as well. If you’re looking to use words like “lachrymose” in a sentence, take a look at the following vocab builders:

• Dictionary.com’s Word-of-the-Day
• Vocabulary.com Games
• Merriam Webster’s Vocab Quizzes

Improve Your Word Choice With Writers.com’s Online Writing Courses

Looking for more writing exercises? Need more help choosing the right words? The instructors at Writers.com are masters of the craft. Take a look at our upcoming course offerings and join our community!

The words a writer chooses are the building materials from which he or she constructs any given piece of writing—from a poem to a speech to a thesis on thermonuclear dynamics. Strong, carefully chosen words (also known as diction) ensure that the finished work is cohesive and imparts the meaning or information the author intended. Weak word choice creates confusion and dooms a writer’s work either to fall short of expectations or fail to make its point entirely.

Factors That Influence Good Word Choice

When selecting words to achieve the maximum desired effect, a writer must take a number of factors into consideration:

• Meaning: Words can be chosen for either their denotative meaning, which is the definition you’d find in a dictionary or the connotative meaning, which is the emotions, circumstances, or descriptive variations the word evokes.
• Specificity: Words that are concrete rather than abstract are more powerful in certain types of writing, specifically academic works and works of nonfiction. However, abstract words can be powerful tools when creating poetry, fiction, or persuasive rhetoric.
• Audience: Whether the writer seeks to engage, amuse, entertain, inform, or even incite anger, the audience is the person or persons for whom a piece of work is intended.
• Level of Diction: The level of diction an author chooses directly relates to the intended audience. Diction is classified into four levels of language:

1. Formal which denotes serious discourse
2. Informal which denotes relaxed but polite conversation
3. Colloquial which denotes language in everyday usage
4. Slang which denotes new, often highly informal words and phrases that evolve as a result sociolinguistic constructs such as age, class, wealth status, ethnicity, nationality, and regional dialects.

• Tone: Tone is an author’s attitude toward a topic. When employed effectively, tone—be it contempt, awe, agreement, or outrage—is a powerful tool that writers use to achieve a desired goal or purpose.
• Style: Word choice is an essential element in the style of any writer. While his or her audience may play a role in the stylistic choices a writer makes, style is the unique voice that sets one writer apart from another.

The Appropriate Words for a Given Audience

To be effective, a writer must choose words based on a number of factors that relate directly to the audience for whom a piece of work is intended. For example, the language chosen for a dissertation on advanced algebra would not only contain jargon specific to that field of study; the writer would also have the expectation that the intended reader possessed an advanced level of understanding in the given subject matter that at a minimum equaled, or potentially outpaced his or her own.

On the other hand, an author writing a children’s book would choose age-appropriate words that kids could understand and relate to. Likewise, while a contemporary playwright is likely to use slang and colloquialism to connect with the audience, an art historian would likely use more formal language to describe a piece of work about which he or she is writing, especially if the intended audience is a peer or academic group.

«Choosing words that are too difficult, too technical, or too easy for your receiver can be a communication barrier. If words are too difficult or too technical, the receiver may not understand them; if words are too simple, the reader could become bored or be insulted. In either case, ​the message falls short of meeting its goals . . . Word choice is also a consideration when communicating with receivers for whom English is not the primary language [who] may not be familiar with colloquial English.»

(From «Business Communication, 8th Edition,» by A.C. Krizan, Patricia Merrier, Joyce P. Logan, and Karen Williams. South-Western Cengage, 2011)

Word Selection for Composition

Word choice is an essential element for any student learning to write effectively. Appropriate word choice allows students to display their knowledge, not just about English, but with regard to any given field of study from science and mathematics to civics and history.

The challenge for teachers of composition is to help students understand the reasoning behind the specific word choices they’ve made and then letting the students know whether or not those choices work. Simply telling a student something doesn’t make sense or is awkwardly phrased won’t help that student become a better writer. If a student’s word choice is weak, inaccurate, or clichéd, a good teacher will not only explain how they went wrong but ask the student to rethink his or her choices based on the given feedback.

Word Choice for Literature

Arguably, choosing effective words when writing literature is more complicated than choosing words for composition writing. First, a writer must consider the constraints for the chosen discipline in which they are writing. Since literary pursuits as such as poetry and fiction can be broken down into an almost endless variety of niches, genres, and subgenres, this alone can be daunting. In addition, writers must also be able to distinguish themselves from other writers by selecting a vocabulary that creates and sustains a style that is authentic to their own voice.

When writing for a literary audience, individual taste is yet another huge determining factor with regard to which writer a reader considers a «good» and who they may find intolerable. That’s because «good» is subjective. For example, William Faulker and Ernest Hemmingway were both considered giants of 20th-century American literature, and yet their styles of writing could not be more different. Someone who adores Faulkner’s languorous stream-of-consciousness style may disdain Hemmingway’s spare, staccato, unembellished prose, and vice versa.

‘Word Choice” in writing is the usage of effective and precise language that conveys information not just in a functional way, but also to enlighten the reader. Effective word choice examples are the ones that use clichés sparingly, focuses on denotations and connotations, delivers straightforward meaning, avoids jargon, and is not characterized by a wide vocabulary.

Why is “Word Choice” Important in Writing?

As an author, choosing the right words while writing a manuscript is crucial for success. Academic writing, like most other forms of writing, is a series of choices. When it’s time to write, you have to carefully choose words that can clearly express the idea and then decide how you will rearrange those words into phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs. A strong word choice makes it easier for readers to understand the concept. It clarifies, explains, and expands ideas.

While evaluating word choice, it is important to address the concerns that restrict the author from disseminating correct information to the readers.

Some of the most common problems concerning word choice usage include the following:

Misused Words

Sometimes in a haste or out of ignorance, authors tend to use incorrect words. This arises mostly in cases of commonly confused English words.

Example 1: There were averse effects.

Revision 1: There were adverse effects.

Reason for change: “Averse” means to be disinclined towards something, whereas “adverse” means detrimental.

Example 2: The journal excepted your article for publication.

Revision 2: The journal accepted your article for publication.

Reason for change: “Except” means to exclude something, whereas “accept” is the consent to receive something.

Words with Unwanted Connotations or Meanings

Example 1: I sprayed the ants in their personal places.

Revision 1: I sprayed the ants in their hiding places.

Reason for change: The first sentence has a double meaning. The second sentence conveys the intended meaning and is completely clear.

Example 2: I want to do something different in my presentation.

Revision 2: I want to do something unique in my presentation.

Reason for change: “Different” mean something other than the regular activities, whereas “unique” implies something completely unusual and unrelated to the regularly presentation practices.

Using Complex Words Instead of Simpler Words

Example 1: “Conventional wisdom” is a relatively new designation.

Revision 1: “Conventional wisdom” is a relatively new term.

Reason for change: The first sentence uses a complex word, whereas in the second sentence, it is substituted by a simple word with a clear meaning.

Example 2: It was difficult to comprehend.

Revision 2: It was difficult to understand.

Reason for change: The word “comprehend” is substituted by “understand” without changing the meaning of the statement.

Awkward Word Choices

Example 1: Child students’ consciousness for marine education still remains an open research problem for creating a suitable teaching plan.

Revision 1: Consciousness among young students for marine education still remains an open research problem for creating a suitable teaching plan.

Reason for change: The italicized phrase in the first sentence does not read well and lacks clarity to a certain extent, whereas the second is certainly clearer.

Last week I discussed a few of the MANY reasons Martin Luther King, Jr was one of the best communicators of our time (and someone every human in our field can learn from).

One of the things he was best at was the use of targeted, strategic, and powerful word choice.

This week I wanted to dive into this further because word choice is something that’s incredibly important but often overlooked by communicators.

Word Choice Matters (Even More Than You Think)

When most of us hear word choices is important, we automatically agree. Of course, word choice is important, duh!?

But the fact is, it’s probably even more important than you think. Otherwise, you’d spend more time focused on it. 

So let’s start there. Here are a few of the reasons effective (or ineffective) word choice doesn’t just make content sound good, it’s a game changer for the success of your message, content, conversion goals, and overall communications strategy.

Word Choice Resonates

I hate using the word resonates here, because it’s so overused (talk about poor word choice), but this is really the correct use of it. When you choose a word that hits an emotional chord with your target audience, you win.

I could say the exact same sentence and transmit the exact same message, but the use of one verb makes it more effective for one audience and another verb more effective for another one.

You need to know your target audience well enough to understand which words are their “heart sounds.”

(That sounds sooo crunchy granola I hate to even say it out loud, but this is how I think of it and it helps my word choice process.)

Word Choice Eliminates Redundancy

When you say the right words, you don’t need to say as many of them.

That’s a fact.

And when you say fewer words you keep people focused on the ones that matter.

Proper word choice allows you to write in a powerful and concise manner.

It allows you to tighten up your sentences and avoid unneeded repetition, but still feel like you are getting your point across in a clear and powerful way.

A good way to do this is to use Stephen King’s 10 percent rule. Write something and then go through and eliminate 10 percent of the words. If you feel like you can’t eliminate words and still get your point across, then that means you aren’t using the most effective word choice. 

And in this instance, do what I say and not what I do, because if you read my blogs regularly you know I’m a chronic overwriter. But I’m working on it. You all should see my first drafts.

In a world of ever decreasing attention spans reducing redundancy through proper word choice is extremely important.

Word Choice Connects Communities

There was a blog post I wrote a few years ago and I said something super smart about word choice and communities. But I can’t find it. If you know which post I’m referring to, please let me know.

I’m going to try to replicate my insight again here. But you are never as smart the second time. So take what I’m saying here, imagine it five times more insightful, and go with that.

Ok, here goes…

Word choice is an important way to signal to a community that you belong. That you are an insider and not an outsider.

Think about any community you are part of on social media. Maybe it’s parenting or one that revolves around your sport or hobby. When you speak to others in that community you use language people outside of it might not understand.

I love to use my sport, bodybuilding, as a great example of this. Because frankly, if I talked to people outside the bodybuilding community, in the same way, I do inside it, I’d probably be slapped.

Do you know how often I tell men and women alike how much I admire their glutes?

A lot.

I talk about peoples glutes often. This is normally not ok in most places. You can’t just go around commenting on people’s backsides. But in the bodybuilding community, you can.

Likewise here are some phrases or words used often, but that people outside the sport won’t fully understand:

• Taper
• X-frame
• Proportions
• Tie-in
• Width (normal people don’t like when you talk about how wide they are, bodybuilders LOVE it).
• Vascularity
• Natty

I could go on.

The point is EVERY community has words or phrases they use within themselves. It’s sort of like the linguistic secret handshake that lets people know you belong.

How to Improve Your Word Choice

Now the question is: how do you improve your word choice?

Awareness and practice are the two first steps.

This sounds simple, but really it’s what a lot of it comes down to.

You need to stop rushing through creating sentences that matter. Write fewer words and spend more time being strategic with the ones you use.

Obviously, you don’t need to do this with every single sentence you write.

(And goodness knows I write a lot of sentences that are absolutely worthless. I like to call it my “writing style,” but really it’s because I write like I talk and I talk a lot about nothing. But hey, it worked for Seinfeld, right? )

But when it comes to messaging, conversion copy, or just sentences you really want to pack a punch.

Follow this rule:

• Stop, drop, thesaurus.

Really think about the depth you want the word to convey. Try different things and feel them out.

Pay attention to how different word choice changes the following in a sentence:

• Sound
• Tempo
• Sensory effect
• Emotion
• Tone
• Nuance

How do different words just slightly change the meaning or intent of the message?

I promise once you start taking the time to do this you’ll become absolutely obsessed with the power of language and the different ways one word can redirect a message.

Word Choice Training Guide: Language Workout

Your brain is a muscle and you need to train it consistently with a variety of stimuli to get it at its peak. There are two types of  workouts I suggest for word choice:

• Language focused
• Literature focused.

Let’s start with language.

• Use the thesaurus ALL.THE.TIME. If you aren’t logging on to thesearus.com at least once a week you are being lazy with word choice. Get in the habit of using a thesaurus liberally.
• Subscribe to a word of the day email. In order to have a better selection of words to choose from.
• Learn a new language. Or if you don’t want to fully commit to a new language, study how other languages describe certain emotions and the different words they use. Love is a good one to look into. Most languages have many different ways to express the concept of love linguistically. Study the different ways they do this and how it changes the meaning or intent. 

Word Choice Training Guide: Literature Workout

And here is your workout to pump up your word choice muscle through literature training.

• Read books and poetry from great authors. John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri are some of my favorites here. And really take time to read them and think about the symbolism of the phrases vs. blunt storyline. I also recommend you take notes as you go along. I was almost a comparative literature major and the process of deconstructing words, ideas, and intent in this way has helped me so much in my career as a communicator.
• Write poetry. Good poetry is powerful because it forces the author to focus excruciatingly on word choice in order to maximize meaning in a shorter content format. Read it, write it. Make poetry part of your life. Also make sure you try out poetry in stricter formats: haiku, iambic pentameter. This is a good test for your brain and forces you to chose words that fit your meaning, but also the medium. As a side note, I write poetry weekly. No one sees it but me, and I find it incredibly therapeutic. In a world that is often very outward facing, there is something very comforting about writing something beautiful and vast, but having it be yours alone. So try it, it might help your career and your life.  

Your Word Choice Tips

And now the floor is yours. What tips should be added here to help communicators improve their word choice?

Tips on improving word choice for your essay

• Whenever possible, use the shorter, simpler word.

You can use a thesaurus for jogging your memory when you’re trying to come up with better word choice, but never use a word with which you aren’t already familiar. Words often have connotations and nuances of meaning that you can appreciate only after seeing them in context, so you’re taking a great risk if you use a word that you don’t know well. It can play a bad game with you, especially when we talk about college admission essay.

Even if you do feel comfortable with more advanced vocabulary, you should use the simpler synonym if that captures your meaning just as well. For example, instead of “ameliorated the situation,” you could just as easily say “improved the situation.” On the other hand, word choice like “exasperated” is more intense than a synonym like “frustrated,” and so you should use it if that’s the sense you’re trying to convey.

• Use precise language.

Choose words that capture your experience fully and accurately. For example:

VAGUE: When we first started the business, I performed a range of duties to get the company going.

PRECISE: When we first started the business, I took the initiative to contact potential partners, evaluate the service of our competitors, and tailor our plan to local markets.

To be aware of word choices that can make your essay better, look through personal statement examples for college. You can make notes and create a list of the words worth mentioning in your essay to diversify the content. 

• Use nouns and verbs rather than adverbs and adjectives.

Inexperienced writers think that using fancy adverbs and adjectives will make their writing look more eloquent, but in fact, they just bog down your rhythm and usually sound like fluff. They also tend to make your writing sound abstract because they are not actual physical substances. Good writers stick to concrete nouns that the reader can grasp, and even more importantly, vivid verbs that are the lifeblood of active, engaging language. Better word choice can easily increase the quality of any piece of writing. 

BEFORE: I ran quickly to the board where the results would be posted, with many curious people standing around waiting anxiously to see their scores.

AFTER: I rushed to the board to find people crowded around, muttering prayers to themselves as they awaited the dean’s arrival with their score results.

The phrase “ran quickly” has become the more succinct and punchy “rushed.” Instead of “many curious people standing around,” we have substituted “people crowded around muttering prayers to themselves.” Thus we gain a more vivid verb word choice in “crowded” and a concrete image of people muttering prayers instead of the abstract adjective “curious” and the clunky adverb “anxiously.” In focusing on nouns and verbs, we have succeeded in showing instead of telling.

• Avoid repetition.

Don’t use words twice in close proximity, and don’t use the same words regularly throughout an essay. The problem usually comes in overusing the same noun that’s central to your topic. Although we emphasized the importance of precision when you’re describing the details of experiences, you can get away with synonyms when writing more broadly about themes and topics. Moreover, synonyms are the key to improving word choice for the essay, such words make the content vivid and variegate.
For example, if your essay is about your skills in interpersonal interaction, you could use similar phrases as “communication strengths” and “building trusting relationships.”

Why is it crucial to choose better word choice for your admission essay? 

When applying for a place in the college, students are to write several essays. There are cases when future students are that much perplexed and motivated at the same time that they try to do some unnecessary actions only to make the essay better. Using inappropriate words is one of those actions that can spoil everything. Suppose the admissions officer reads essay introduction and finds there a great deal of the words that are not common to be used in the teen’s life. Such word choices spoil the impression of the whole essay right from the introduction.

The problem of unfitting words is a common issue, and it has a resolution. You don’t have to create the wrong impression when using words that are not intrinsic to you in real life. The goal of the essay is to prove yourself and illustrate your personality without pretending to be someone else.
You can look through samples of the successful essays and understand some specific traits of the person within only the words they use. Thus, try to be yourself in writing and work on improving word choice for your essay to create an outstanding impression.

However, to be absolutely secure that your essay is clear and in the right shape, it is important to have someone to peruse it. Essay editor is that person who can check everything and provide you with appropriate replacements for the omissions. 

How appropriate word choice can improve the whole essay? 

The text that is an engaging and easy-to-read one is an inherent way to make the reader interested in the narrative on the whole. Moreover, the utterance with its better word choice attracts the reader more and provokes them to continue reading until the last sentence. 

Suppose you are writing your essay right now and feel some uncertainty about the appropriateness of the word usage. In that case, you can refer to college essay editing for professional advice that will help you craft the essay worth attention and admiration. 

If you are not sure about your essay’s better word choice, check out our blog for more interesting and useful tips that will help you create your best essay ever!

Academic writing is a formal style, but students perceive it literally and add too many extra elements. This short guide on word choice must help you realize the critical mistakes. If you aren’t as confident as you would like to be to submit an application, contact us. Use this chance to see how a professional MBA essay editing service reviews students’ papers to achieve perfection.

Have you ever read a sentence and wondered what it was trying to say? Ever gotten hung up on a word that felt out of place because the meaning of the word didn’t fit the context? When was the last time you spotted a word that was unnecessarily repeated throughout a page, chapter, or book?

There are two sides to any piece of writing. The first is the message, idea, or story. The other side is the craft of stringing words together into sentences and using sentences to build paragraphs. Adept writing flows smoothy and makes sense. Readers shouldn’t have to stop and dissect sentences or get hung up on words that are repetitive or confusing.

Which is why word choice is such an important skill for any writer to possess.

Common Word-Choice Mistakes

Repetition: When the same words and phrases are repeated in a short space, they act like clichés, becoming tiresome and meaningless. Some words have to be repeated, especially articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. If we’re writing a story set on a submarine, the word submarine (or sub) will get repeated frequently. That’s to be expected. However, repetitive descriptive words get monotonous. Every girl is pretty, every stride is long, everybody taps their keyboards. The fix: look for words that can be replaced with synonyms or alternative wording and avoid using the same descriptive words over and over again.

Connotation: With all the synonyms available, choosing the right word can be a challenge. Each word has a meaning, but most words also have connotations, which skew the meaning in a particular direction. Connotations are implied or emotional undertones that flavor a word’s meaning. If your character is going home, there is a much different implication than if the character is going to her house. The fix: when choosing synonyms, consider the connotation and emotional flavor of each option.

Precision: The best word choices are specific. One word will be vague and nondescript while another will be vivid and descriptive. Consider the following sentences:

He wrote a poem on a piece of paper.
He wrote a poem on a sheet of vellum.

The second sentence is more visual because the word choice (vellum) is more precise. The fix: whenever possible, choose the most precise word available.

Simplicity: Readers don’t want to have to run to the dictionary to get through a page of your writing, and most don’t appreciate the haughtiness that erudite writing evokes. If you’re writing to a highbrow audience, then by all means, feel free to pontificate, but to reach a wider audience, make your language accessible. The fix: check your text for rare and long words, and if you can replace them with more common or shorter words, do it.

Musicality: Sometimes, word choice comes down to musicality. How does one word sound in your sentence as opposed to another? If you’re trying to choose between words like bin and container, you might make your decision based on which word sounds better in the sentence. The fix: read sentences and paragraphs aloud to see how different words sound.

Thoughtful Word Choices for Better Writing

Whether you agonize over word choice while you’re drafting or during revisions, there are some incredibly useful tools for making word choice a breeze. In addition to using the tools that are at your disposal, consistently working to expand your vocabulary will do wonders for improving your language and word-choice skills:

1. The thesaurus and the dictionary are your friends. Use them (especially the thesaurus).
2. Read voraciously. Nothing will improve your writing and your vocabulary as well as the simple act of reading.
3. Read and write poetry. Poems are full of vivacious words. You’ll develop a knack for word choice and grow a bountiful vocabulary if you study a little poetry.
4. Play word games like Scrabble, Scattergories, and Words with Friends, which force you to actively use your vocabulary.
5. Sign up for Word of the Day and commit to learning 365 words over the next year.

Have you ever gotten frustrated by reading a book that was peppered with poor word choices? Do you make a conscious effort to use the right words in your writing? How far will you go to find the perfect word for a sentence? Share your thoughts on how thoughtful word choices result in better writing by leaving a comment, and keep writing!

Do you wish your words commanded more attention? Are you concerned that your words aren’t understood the way you intend? Do you feel self-conscious about your “just okay” writing chops?

I’ve found that people can solve these problems almost overnight, simply by improving their word choice. Here’s how I recommend doing that.

Step 1: Commit to clarity.

In his short but remarkable essay called “How I Write,” Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell wrote, “I do not find that I can improve a sentence when I am satisfied with what it means.”

That sentence conveys the number-one purpose of writing and, by extension, word choice: getting your point across! This means that great word choice is not about using fancy words, using a bunch of different words, or using weird words just for the heck of it. Great word choice is about making yourself clear.

My emphasis on committing to clarity stems from my personal experience as a writing coach. For most people, poor vocabulary is not the biggest hurdle. More often, people get themselves into the habit of using such complicated language that they themselves lose sight of what they’re trying to write down.

Trust me, hiding behind long words doesn’t make you seem smart. The best way to seem smart is to focus (really focus!) on being clear.

Paul Graham, a brainiac who co-founded Y Combinator, puts it neatly:

“Something comes over most people when they start writing. They write in a different language than they’d use if they were talking to a friend. The sentence structure and even the words are different. No one uses “pen” as a verb in spoken English. You’d feel like an idiot using “pen” instead of “write” in a conversation with a friend.”

I couldn’t have said it better! The first and most important step to choosing the right words is not getting distracted by the act of writing, and instead keeping your main idea in your sights, whether you’re writing product descriptions, creative fiction, or anything in between.

Step 2: Choose your rules of thumb.

One cool thing about writing in the twenty-first century is that you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. In fact, many celebrated writers have openly disclosed their personal “rules of thumb” for writing. Thanks to them, almost anyone can become a better writer within a few days by applying what they’ve already figured out.

George Orwell’s rule of thumb: Use short words.

George Orwell’s rule of thumb for word choice was, “Never use a long word when a short one will do.”

I find that even if everyone knows a long word, it still has a shorter sibling that’s clearer. It’s better to “use” than to “utilize”; a “plan” or “proposal” is better than a “proposition”; and “but” is (usually) better than “however.”

Stephen King’s rule of thumb: Beware of adverbs.

Stephen King wrote, “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” (Adverbs describe actions, and they usually end in -ly). King even provided examples, showing what happens when you add adverbs to dialogue that doesn’t need them.

Without adverbs:

’Put it down!’ she shouted.

’Give it back,’ he pleaded, ‘it’s mine.’  

’Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said.

With adverbs:

’Put it down! she shouted menacingly.

’Give it back,’ he pleaded abjectly, ‘it’s mine.’

’Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said contemptuously.

If you find yourself using a lot of adverbs, consider removing 80% of them. You might be surprised by how much more streamlined and less bulky your writing will seem.

A rule of thumb for sounding more interesting: Use sensory words.

Okay, you might be thinking, what if I’m comfortable with my overall clarity, but I feel like my writing sounds boring?

There’s a handy rule of thumb for that, too: look for words that are tied to the five senses. Research suggests that language associated with sound, taste, and touch engages different parts of the brain. I recommend finding a list of sensory words to play with while you’re writing.

Step 3: Use the best word choice tools (no, it’s not cheating).

If I asked you to multiply 183 by 46, would you use a calculator?

Most people would, and they wouldn’t consider it cheating. Yet, some people feel like using online word choice tools is cheating. I’m not sure why.

As you’re looking for the perfect word, there are some super-sophisticated tools out there, above and beyond a typical thesaurus. Use them. They can help enormously at a moment’s notice.

Here are my favorites:

• Power Thesaurus — an insanely useful tool that’s much better than an ordinary thesaurus.
• ThinkMap Visual Thesaurus — an intuitive resource for visual-spatial thinkers.
• Word lists — Marketers and bloggers have done a lot of legwork to curate highly expressive words. Here’s one list of about 600 “power words” to get you started.

Tip: Don’t edit while writing.

It’s better to revise for word choice than get stuck on a word and, as a result, lose your train of thought. The truth is, even the most experienced writers rarely pick the perfect words the first time around. So, don’t worry if you feel like you’re not hitting the bullseye in your first draft. Focus instead on getting your point across. Don’t stop to second-guess yourself. Later, you can revise each sentence to make sure you’re satisfied with what your words mean.

One way to revise for word choice is to do it based on parts of speech. I like to look for adjectives (descriptive words) and see if I can swap in better ones. For example, when describing a person, I might replace the generic adjective “nice” with “thoughtful” or “generous.” When describing an experience, I might replace “excellent” with a more specific word like “memorable” or “profound.” Also, if I find myself running into too many adjectives, I’ll nix some of them.

Another way to revise for word choice is to read your writing aloud. This might seem silly, but it works. Like, really well. I’ve found that many people “think out loud,” and speech is a great tool for calling to mind the right words to fit your ideas.

Step 4: Cultivate your personal lexicon.

Okay, this isn’t a quick tip … but it’s a great way to become a better, more engaging writer: adopt the great words you encounter in the wild.

Like a wristwatch or a distinctive haircut, your favorite words can be part of your style. You can spot potential options all over the place. When you’re watching Netflix, for instance, you’re often listening to dialogue that was written by a professional. There might be some awesome words in there—and you can use them for free! You can also discover great words through conversations, books, and articles.

In short, when someone else uses a word that appeals to you—whether aloud or in writing—welcome it into your own vocabulary. You and your writing will both benefit.

Ellen F. has eight years of experience writing and editing B2B and B2C content for a range of industries, including medicine, education, digital marketing, law, sports/outdoors, and management consulting. She has a particular knack for captivating SMB business owners with B2B content and marketing copy.

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