How to Do the Best Words Selection in Your Writing

There is no need to explain the importance of words in writing.

If words were not used you would not have this article for reading. More than using words it is important to use ‘proper’ words in ‘accurate’ places.

Daily tens of thousands of online writing are published. Imagine if these writers do not use proper words in their writing who will read those?

Each word has a particular meaning and it is very important to use them accurately.

The renowned writers are strong in their word selection; some even use innovative words in their narrations.

All writers understand the value of choosing a word in writing. Say, if I don’t use correct words, you will not understand what I want to say. Right?

Some writers have a powerful vocabulary and their command of language is amazing. They can write with a well-chosen language and the writing will be in a flow.

The meaning of word choice is self-explanatory but if one wants to express the feelings or opinions correctly the word choice becomes the key factor.

While people are reading your views they should understand correctly and should not get confused about what you want to tell.

Here, the importance of sentence formation is highlighted.

You may choose the right words but they have to be converted into meaningful sentences. ‘Only’ right words also cannot express your thoughts.

It is not as simple as “choosing the right words” but much more than that. It involves a lot of effort and several factors to decide the right word.

The word that is different but is in vocabulary and fitting perfectly to indicate the desired meaning. There are four elements of word choice namely –

1. Meaning

A word can be used for two meanings, denotative or connotative. Denotation, usually, is derived equivalent to dictionary meaning whereas connotative indicates how the word is used in its given context.

Often in vocabulary language, some word is used for indicating its exactly opposite meaning.

The pronunciation of a word indicates what it is used for. For example, someone would say “ohh really?” to indicate he is not believing in what you said.

Here “really” is not used as its real meaning.

This can be duplicated in writing too as a language most near to vocabulary attracts readers more.

Some indicative words are also used in poems that are not used with their original meaning.

2. Specificity

In English, you will find several words with the same meaning. Using the words correct in meaning and specific in description is the key factor of writing.

A word, when read by the reader, must relate to its meaning so as to make more impact in writing.

Now look at the words good, average, or awful, they are not much descriptive as compared to liberating, C grade, or despicable which are more power-packed as describing the exact level writer desire.

It is not that all the non-specific words are not expressive some are the best words too.

As far as a beginner in writing is concerned, he will always try to find different kinds of words to make his writing attractive.

However, he may fail to impress as these words are cautiously used and they may disturb the flow.

3. Audience

Your choice of words must be in line with the target readers and of course, the subject you are writing on.

You cannot use the misfit worlds in legal writing as it may be against the requirement.

In the same way, you cannot write provocative words for an open category audience. It is imperative to choose words that reflect the same meaning but are not aggressive.

While writing, keeping your audience in mind is very important as finally, they are going to decide the fate of your writing.

If you see journalism, many writers use provocative words and they get the fine too.

But they don’t learn from that because their writing is developed in that way only and they feel such language work for them.

4. Style

Many readers are in awe of a particular writer and they follow him/her like anything.

They read whatever is published by that writer. This is because they like the writer’s style of writing.

Style of writing is not just choosing the right words and forming appropriate sentences.

It is about relating with the people, the readers. Sometimes people will like the writing of not just one but another 2-3 writers because of the style of writing.

The words you write in stories, poems, books, or articles are your recognition.

Writers use words differently and that establishes their identity. The writing style indicates the writer’s command of the English language.

Importance in Verbs

It is also interesting to see how the words impact verbs.

The sentence formation may be a simple task but making it appealing is difficult as you need to know a lot of words that can describe your feelings.

You should have a treasure of words at your service so that you can design the sentences beautifully because verbs are the most important factor of sentences.

Different verbs can be used to express one sentence. The verbs will explain the feeling more perfectly. Here we can see an example –

• The road goes through hills

• The road curves through the hills and

• The road meanders through the hills

These sentences express the same meaning but the description becomes more expressive while using the other verbs.

Writers will try to choose the word that best expresses their views.

You might have seen many writers use specific words and verbs in their writing.

Their presentation and language also are specific thus making their mark on people’s minds.

Some writers are well known for their crispy writing while some write on serious matters.

In that way, every writer has his own style and composition of words which makes them unique.

Why do people have favorite writers because they feel the writing is close to them or they enjoy the article.

Ways to improve your choice of words –

If you are a writer and you want to sharpen your writing skills then it is very important to read a lot.

You must be a good reader to become a successful writer. Another thing is you must be a good observer and listener.

A lot of reading will make your vision about words larger and being a good listener and observer will improve your ability to express yourself in writing.

For example, if you have seen something interesting and you want to spread it to the audience, you have to be good at writing.

If you cannot connect what you saw and what you expressed effectively it is going to fall on closed eyes.

Here we can discuss some ways to improve your overall writing skills.

Befriend with word choice

You not only need to work hard on your word choice but need to befriend the habit. Picking up the right choice and placing it in your writing will create a great impact.

As you learn more about word choice and using powerful words you need to concentrate on expressing the expansive feelings with lucrative language.

While you are writing a poem you must know the range of words to fit as you need to maintain rhythm too.

Poems are hard to express than an article as the words in them are measured to know your mastery of the subject.

Keeping the mood intact throughout is essential to make readers stuck with your presentation.

The mood should be exactly expressed otherwise the writing will not get weightage.

In the article, you can present different moods and balance the writing but in poems, you need to stick with a particular mood that will describe what you wrote.

Find new terms and words

Sometimes innovation of terms or words must be practiced so as to avoid typecast writing.

Creating a new language sometimes may make the foundation of writing strong.

You might be able to express a thing which wasn’t possible with your regular presentation.

The invention of new words might describe something correctly as you desired. It may be a single word or a combination of words.

If you want to form a sentence to portray something and you have 8-10 words then you can mingle two words without changing the meaning, in fact, making it clearer.

For example, to explain a sad mood using ‘sad’ or ‘anxiety’ can be used but if you want to use both, then you have to combine them as ‘anxiety’.

It is not a regular word but expresses what the writer needs to. There are many such words and terms you can involve in your writing.

Use words with certain origins

English, as one of the largest languages, borrows words from almost every language.

Some words that originated from other languages have now even become regular English words.

For example, judge and jury are words that originated from French but remained in English literature.

To make yourself stand out, you can practice using exclusively etymology words in your poem or writing.

Thus you can mark your presence in the world of writers with your unique words and language. As we discussed earlier, there are many synonyms for a single word so just think if you learn the same word in other languages, you would have more word power. Your presentation will be attractive with the usage of such words.

Write in a single voice

This is also referred to as E-prime writing and you use only active voice in your writing. Using the verbs ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘was’, and ‘am’ you will make your writing more clear and accurate.

As a matter of fact, writing just in an active voice may be a difficult task because at aa certain point you also need to balance your writing and some expressions are better in passive voice than in active voice.

Therefore it depends on the skill of the writer how he is going to put everything in an active voice.

Here again, being powerful in word choice plays an important role in writers’ tasks.

Creative poetry

If you perform an exercise of Blackout Poetry, you will understand how you can choose your words in particular writing.

Blackout Poetry is nothing but making poetry from any published document.

You need to blackout unwanted words and circle the words you chose for your poetry.

This innovative exercise will enhance your talent to choose the correct words for your writing.

Blackout Poetry gives you free hand to select the words and place them properly to give meaningful poetry.

In this exercise, you are bound to read some words connotatively instead of denotatively, you may change the meaning of a word to fit in a poem or implement specificity to the nearest word.

Improvement in vocabulary

There is a very simple way to increase vocabulary and that is to expand your knowledge limits.

There is no other perfect option to do it is to read. Your reading must be expansive and it should have no boundaries.

A well-known writer is always laced with excessive knowledge that comes from unbounded reading.

The reading should be embraced in life as it all depends on it.

Nowadays along with the reading, you can practice listening to audio literature too.

There are no limits to stop you from reading.

Once you make your vocabulary strong, you will start writing in the fluent, flowing, and flawless language.

Reading aloud is also an effective way to enhance your vocabulary and writing as when you read, you need to concentrate on what you are reading.

This keeps your mind stable and prevents it to think of something else.

Final notes

As we conclude, we must remember to hone the skill of reading, choice of words, and being unique.

As a note of caution, it is advised to keep a tab on words that sound the same like to/two/ too.

Technically, spell check cannot detect these words as they are authentic words but the meaning will change if you mistakenly use them.

Some words like’ bare’ instead of ‘bear’ or vice versa, may make the sentence not only confusing but utterly wrong.

Up to a certain limit, writing expertise is a god gift but beyond that, you must work hard to get recognition in the field of writers.

You can follow some of the bestsellers to refer to their language to enhance your skill.