At Steta, one of our proofreaders is a retired gentleman. We’ve noticed a subtle difference between his and our own proofreading skills. People of that generation carry a dictionary and thesaurus with them at all times, inside their heads. The rest of us sometimes tend to resort to double-checking things with online resources. This makes life easy, but it’s also making us terribly dependent on readymade solutions. For instance, someone asks me synonyms of ‘nice’. I can rattle off some, but after a while I’m tempted click my way to an online Merriam Webster or Roget’s. The online medium is a great support system, but we have to be careful not to become dependent on it.
It was actually a book that got me thinking about all this. It’s called Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis. Each chapter is a series of explanations and exercises, and he makes learning vocabulary a joy. You’ll actually look forward to reading a chapter a day (that’s what he advises), and you only need give it half an hour, at the most. His writing style is conversational, honest and encouraging. The exercises are designed with just the right number of new words that stick in your head, and leave you with a sense of accomplishment and joy at learning something new. He brings to light root words and their meanings, so that we’re not stumped when we come across a rarely used word.
Whether you’re a writer or not, having command over vocabulary, grammar and spelling is always an advantage. This brilliant book is one of the best investments you’ll ever make. Norman Lewis was an author, grammarian, lexicographer, and etymologist (I learned the exact meaning of that last word in his book). He’s as brilliant a teacher as he is a writer, and this book is a great way to build that dictionary/thesaurus in your head.
It was actually a book that got me thinking about all this. It’s called Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis. Each chapter is a series of explanations and exercises, and he makes learning vocabulary a joy. You’ll actually look forward to reading a chapter a day (that’s what he advises), and you only need give it half an hour, at the most. His writing style is conversational, honest and encouraging. The exercises are designed with just the right number of new words that stick in your head, and leave you with a sense of accomplishment and joy at learning something new. He brings to light root words and their meanings, so that we’re not stumped when we come across a rarely used word.
Whether you’re a writer or not, having command over vocabulary, grammar and spelling is always an advantage. This brilliant book is one of the best investments you’ll ever make. Norman Lewis was an author, grammarian, lexicographer, and etymologist (I learned the exact meaning of that last word in his book). He’s as brilliant a teacher as he is a writer, and this book is a great way to build that dictionary/thesaurus in your head.
By Armeen Kapadia
