How to improve my vocabulary and sentence structure?

flibbage0

flibbage0

flibbage0

Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2010
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I know I haven't posted a new thread in here for some time but anyway my question is:

How do I improve my vocabulary and sentence structure?

I was thinking of reading more books, but is there anything on the internet that can help?

Thanks.
 
flibbage0 said:
I know I haven't posted a new thread in here for some time but anyway my question is:

How do I improve my vocabulary and sentence structure?

I was thinking of reading more books, but is there anything on the internet that can help?

Thanks.
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The missus is a proofreader and insists that her skills came from reading, reading and more reading.

I was too lazy for this and tried http://www.vocabulary.com/ with not much luck.

Oh, and next time ask us if it's okay to start a new thread in GD. :p
 
Use the words 'Literally' and 'Basically' as much as possible, it's a sure sign of intelligence and people will be genuinely interested in anything you have to say.
 
Before you go to bed, read for half an hour each night.

Either a decent classic, or something well written.

Terry Pratchett or anything in the Black Library (Google it), or Lord of the Rings, or Stephen King, would probably be a good bet for most of our forum members... (Yes I'm massively stereotyping)

kd
 
doofer said:
Use the words 'Literally' and 'Basically' as much as possible, it's a sure sign of intelligence and people will be genuinely interested in anything you have to say.
Click to expand...

You forgot 'totally'.

Or 'totes' as the more learned gentlemen will employ in highbrow conversation.

e: ^ Stephen King? The man who advises would-be authors to avoid adverbs and who can mangle a paragraph or even a simple sentence with the best of them? Not so sure about your advice there.
 
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Reading good books is probably the best way to improve your vocabulary and sentence structure*. If you struggle to read then just pick what interests you until you develop a wider interest and greater facility for reading what might be described as challenging books - it's possible that this won't happen regardless but it's almost certainly not going to happen if you cannot motivate yourself to read because you gain too little enjoyment from it. I'd take the view here that there are few books so bad that you can gain nothing of use from them - that said, after a point many books in a genre with a similar style won't really advance your knowledge much.

Reading lots of books doesn't always help, my sentence structure is frequently appalling but I think it would be far worse if I hadn't read the books that I have. My vocabulary is also sadly lacking at times but worthwhile improvements often take time to achieve.

*n.b. not all classic novels are good exemplars for this purpose but where it is idiosyncratic that is usually a deliberate choice rather than a failure to comprehend sentence structure.
 
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