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Vocabulary

Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
edited August 2007 in - Reading

Comments

  • Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
    Following a thread on the speed of reading started me thinking about vocabulary. According to Readers Digest a good vocabulary for readers, writers and editors alike is around 35,000 words. Unortunately very few people have exactly the same 35,000 words. Where a writer chooses to use esoteric words this may slow up or even deter some readers. During the editing stage is it worth eliminating words that may not be on the common radar?
  • Stan2Stan2
    My view is that it's better to stick to the more familiar words. Surely readers want to enjoy a book without having to keep a dictionary handy.
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    It's probably worth it CH. Honestly, you'd be amazed. A few years back I wrote a weekly column in the local paper - just little anecdotes etc. One week I handed my copy to the sub-editor who said, "Can you change that word, please?" The word was 'appease'. I'd written something about, "I was hoping to appease my kids with something or other." When I asked her why, she said it would be over the top of the readers' heads.

    I'm no Rhodes Scholar by any stretch of anyone's imagination but I couldn't understand what the deal was. She said to ask one of the girls in the copy section if they knew what the word was. I did. She didn't know what it meant. I changed the word. (??)
  • dorothyddorothyd
    this is in some ways a hangover from writing educational books.  There we were told to make sure we didn't use words that would baffle the young readers for fear of putting them off.  It is a good idea to use familiar words for the flow of the book but sometimes we need to use different words if the character speaks that way.  It's a fine balancing act.
  • JennyJenny
    IG - Appease one of those little round green vegetables, isn't it? (Sorry - someone had to ask!!)
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Quite right, Jenny. I thoughta my kids were like appease ina da pod. Eh! (Said with a thick Italian accent)
  • JennyJenny
    Who you callin' thick?
    Best wishes,
    Al Capone
  • Crazy HorseCrazy Horse
    If appease is beyond the pale I am stumped, I had not considered such words as other than commn and everyday
  • Stan2Stan2
    'beyond the pale' - have you lost your colour then CH? A bit under the weather maybe?
  • dorothyddorothyd
    what happens when you go beyond the pale ... do you become deathly white?
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Or perhaps a whiter shade of pale?
  • AnyankaAnyanka
    The big question is, who are you writing for?  How common is your reader?  While not wishing to alienate anyone, I think of my invisible reader as an intelligent and curious person who will enjoy the occasional challenge; someone who is in possession of a good dictionary and not afraid to use it. Personally, I don't want readers who don't know the word 'appease'! They can go and read 'Spot the Dog' books.

    However, when the choice arises, I always always use a word of Anglo-Saxon/Germanic origin rather than a Latinate one - not because it is easier to understand, but because it packs more of a punch.
  • LixxyLixxy
    I am a firm believer that ANY form of book, be it cartoon or a literary opus can be used to impart knowledge and expand the world of the reader.  Why 'dumb-down' to the few who may not understand every single word?  And what about the made up words that litter childrens books, they can't even look in a dicitionary for those ones.  Its ridiculous.
  • Stan2Stan2
    'Spot the Dog' - lovely books.
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