#HOW TO FIND THESAURUS IN WORD HOW TO#

Looking back, when I used words I didnвЂ™t really understand or know the meaning of, my writing suffered.ДЄlthough there are absolutely times when you need a thesaurus-to find a more descriptive way to say something, to see if you made the best possible word choice-you still want to make sure you always exercise caution, and say, вЂњDo I really need this?вЂќ before you pull that reference book off your shelf. This will help you develop your voice and sound unique. Whatever words you know right now, you use. ThereвЂ™s no need to learn more words or different words. In the book, King says that wherever your vocabulary is at today is fine.

Embrace your vocabulary as-is-One of my all-time favorite writing books is вЂњOn Writing,вЂќ by Stephen King.

And readers can always tell if a writer is being genuine or not.

Stop peppering your writing with вЂњbig wordsвЂќ-By using the thesaurus to change words I thought were вЂњcommon,вЂќ I ended up sounding fake.

Some words, when replaced by a synonym, no longer mean the same thing.

Not all synonyms are created equal-The editor explained to me that just because the thesaurus says a word is a synonym for another word, doesnвЂ™t mean itвЂ™s the wordвЂ™s exact counterpart.

Here are the life-changing lessons the editor imparted on me, and why you need to be very cautious when using the thesaurus: Turns out my obsession with using the thesaurus to make my writing вЂњbetterвЂќ was a pretty bad idea. The first thing he said to me was, вЂњYouвЂ™re a writer who likes the thesaurus, arenвЂ™t you?вЂќ But when I sat down with the editor, his words werenвЂ™t exactly the ones I was expecting to hear. Thinking he was going to tell me how impressed he was that a freshman could write so well and knew so many big words, I walked my ego down to the newspaper office. He asked if I would come down to the office to talk to him. A little while after, I received a call from the newspaperвЂ™s editor-in-chief. I dropped the article off at the newspaper office and went on my merry way to have some lunch in the cafeteria. Then I went back to my dorm room, sat down and went through my usual writing process-Write without stopping, go back and edit for errors, then use my best friend (aka: the thesaurus) to change some of the words.

When I wrote that article on the college getting new computers, I spent a couple hours interviewing the people in the computer help center, as well as getting opinions from students. The day I turned in my first assignment to my collegeвЂ™s newspaper, however, is a day IвЂ™ll never forget.

#HOW TO FIND THESAURUS IN WORD HOW TO#

Once I was finished with all that, I would grab my thesaurus and go through the piece I had just written, changing common words to words I thought were better and made me sound вЂњsmarter.вЂќ (See everyone! I know how to use big words!) Then IвЂ™d go back and edit my piece for typos, misspellings, etc. Typically when I sat down for a writing session, I would write without stopping until I was done. When I wrote my first novel at age 13, I used my trusty thesaurus to change many of the вЂњcommonвЂќ words I found myself using over and over again, such as вЂњsmallвЂќ or вЂњfun.вЂќ In high school journalism class, my thesaurus helped me find more articulate ways to say what I was thinking in an op-ed piece.Д«ut when I got to college, I learned that my obsession with this popular writerвЂ™s tool was, in fact, a problem. In fact, the thesaurus is one of the main reasons I know so many words today. IвЂ™ve used it throughout my writing career-All the way from day one back when I was 12-years-old. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.ДЇor as long as I can remember, IвЂ™ve been a huge fan of the thesaurus. This is a guest post by Jennifer Blanchard. Hint to Writers: Use the Thesaurus with Caution By Guest Author

How to find thesaurus in word