Word choice when writing

Word Choice

When you speak, your expression, a hand gesture, or the inflection of your voice can say nearly as much as your words. In written documents, however, words alone must convey every nuance of meaning. Only by selecting your words thoughtfully and purposefully can you be sure that your readers will truly understand what you intend to say.

Factors to consider in your word choice for your context 

The list below offers eight factors worth considering whenever you are trying to choose the right word for a particular context.

Conciseness

Some writers make the mistake of believing that the more words they use, the more authority their writing will have. In fact, no readers appreciate having to wade through wordy prose. They tend to give much more weight to economical writing, in which the presence of every word can be justified. (See Wordy Phrases for more information.)

Connotation

Be alert to not only a word’s denotation (dictionary definition) but also its connotation—the set of ideas that is associated with it. For instance, psychiatric hospital andmadhouse are synonyms, but the former conjures up an image of an organized institution while the latter suggests a den of chaos and squalor.

Familiarity

A word may communicate your meaning exactly, but if your readers have never heard it before, it is obviously not a good choice. Although you cannot know the exact range of your readers’ vocabulary, you can usually make some assumptions about their familiarity with many words. A common foreign phrase, for instance, will likely be understood by a doctoral candidate but leave a junior high school student baffled. The same student may have no trouble with a slang expression that would be meaningless to someone from another country. If you suspect that your audience could be unfamiliar with a word, use a more universally known synonym instead.

Formality

You would naturally use a different vocabulary in a note to your best friend than in a memo to your company’s president. The reason has to do with levels of formality. Your friend would expect you to use informal language and slang. The same words, however, might make the company president question whether you take your job seriously enough. Determining the proper level of formality is sometimes difficult. If in doubt, err on the side of formality: Standard words and proper grammar and punctuation are unlikely to offend any reader. (See Informal Words and Phrases and Slang for a discussion of when informal language is appropriate.)

Freshness

Your readers’ attention is likely to stray if you litter your work with too many overused words or phrases. Keep your writing fresh by trying to find new ways of saying things instead of relying on trite expressions. (See Clichés for examples of phrases to be avoided.)

Precision

Avoid using vague words. Writing, for example, that a lecture was “interesting” is to say little.Entertaining, informative, orcontroversial are all better choices because these adjectives provide more precise information. When choosing between synonyms, think carefully about the small ways in which their definitions differ, and select the word that most closely fits your meaning.

Simplicity

Almost always, the simplest word or phrase you can use to make a point is the best. Simple language is likely to be understood by the broadest possible audience. It also has the advantage of never seeming mannered or pretentious.

Sound

Even when reading silently, you are sensitive to the sound of words. You hear in your head the way combinations of vowels and consonants flow together. A group of short words will make you read quickly, but you will instinctively slow down when you encounter a series of multisyllabic ones. Be conscious of the rhythm of your prose: Sometimes it will dictate which word from a group of synonyms will have the greatest impact in your work.

Good work shows powerful use of good and contextual word choice. Remember this always.