K.D. Sullivan - A Cure for the Common Word

A Cure for the Common Word By K.D. Sullivan Copyright 2018 by K.D. Sullivan Cover Copyright 2018 by Untreed Reads Publishing Cover Design by Ginny Glass The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (Untreed Reads) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent. Previous edition published by McGraw-Hill in 2007. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. www.untreedreads.com For my intelligent, talented, creative, kind, fun grandchildren, Taevin and Paxton. If they are representatives of their generation, they give me great hope for the future.

Thank you to Karen Mead for her invaluable proofreading and editing expertiseand ongoing support! And to Greg Tong for his wordsmithing helpand desserts while we worked together. Your Prescription: A Wealth of WordsIm reading aninterestingbook. Can you tell from the sentence above exactly what interesting means? Not really, because there are many ways that a book can be interesting. What if, instead, the sentence was, Im reading a helpful book or Im reading a comprehensive book? By changing just one word, you provide more information about the message you want to convey. That is the goal of this book: to help you convey your intended meaning more preciselywhen you write and when you speak. Many of us tend to use the same words over and over.

We often do this out of habit or convenienceand using these words is not wrongbut sometimes we use common words because we arent aware of a better option, or we have heard other words and arent sure of their meaning or their proper usage. Sometimes a vague or ambiguous word is just what you wantfor example, when you want to leave your words open to interpretation. But even in those cases, your choice of words is guided by your intent. By expanding your repertoire of words, you will be able to express yourself clearly, precisely, powerfully, and with purpose. A Cure for the Common Word is for middle-schoolers to adults, for those who write and speak in their professions, and for anyone eager to improve their vocabulary. Tip: Did you notice my use of eager in the sentence above? Many people might have used the word anxious instead of eager.

However, eager is the better choice, because it means having or showing keen interest or intense desire, whereas anxious means uneasy and apprehensive about an event. This book includes 100 of the most overused words in the English language. Because these common words can often obscure your intended message, we will show you how choosing specific alternatives can help you communicate more precisely. Fun Facts About Words English has welcomed influences from so many other languages that you can choose from a wealth of words. Here are a few statistics to encourage you: There are over 7,000 languages worldwide, including various dialects. There are over 250,000 words in the English languageand over 1 million words when technical and scientific terms are included.

Experts estimate that the average adult knows 20,00040,000 words. It might be surprising to know that at about 8 years old, an estimated 10,000 have already been learned. Worldwide, the average person uses only an estimated tenth of their vocabulary in everyday speech. In their writing, they use about twice that amount. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Second Edition has over 300,000 main entries and adds approximately 1,000 new entries each year, and Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary has over 400,000 entries and adds approximately 2,000 new entries each year! It is pretty remarkable that we have so many ways to express ourselves, and it can be enjoyable and rewarding to discover words that say precisely/exactly/perfectly/ideally what we want to say/express/convey. One of the best ways for you to improve your vocabulary and develop your writing and speaking skills is to read, read, read.

As you read, be aware of how effective writers present their ideas in ways that cause you to know and feel exactly what they are describing. How to Get the Most from This Book When you visit a doctor because you are not feeling as well as you would like, there is a process of diagnosis and treatment to improve your health. A Cure for the Common Word is structured in a similar waywith a Diagnosis and Remediesfor 100 of the most overused words in the English language. For each of the 100 words, this book provides you with: Common WordThe word, along with its part of speech and definition. The Common Word used is the problem you would like to improve. Be alert, because a few of the words are spelled the same but have different meanings.

Youre not seeing double! Example sentence using the Common WordThink of the sentence as our patient to be diagnosed. Diagnosis of the sentenceThe symptoms of the Common Word are covered herewhat the sentence says to us and what additional information we need to understand its intended meaning. Remedies for our DiagnosisHere we offer seven alternative words to substitute for the Common Word. The Remedies also show how these alternatives accomplish a variety of different meaningsperhaps to highlight a primary point you want to make or a meaning you want to imply. Tip: As you examine the Remedies, you will notice that some of the alternative words have a completely different definition, so they dramatically change the meaning of the sentence. Other alternatives subtly change the connotation or impression; therefore, they only slightly change the meaning of the sentence.

Even subtle changes can alter what you mean and the impact your words have on other peoples perceptions and understanding. Additional Cures for the Common WordA thesaurus-like list of more alternatives to achieve even more different meanings. CURED!Two fun, inspirational, or witty quotations by celebrities and famous writers, speakers, and thinkersexamples in which one of our Remedies was just the right cure for what the speaker wanted to say. I hope that the Remedies and Cures we have provided are a boost to your vocabulary, and that this book is a springboard for you to vary the words you use, not only for the common, overused words in this book, but in all of your writing and speaking. Have fun! Common Word #1absolutely (adverb) positively; certainly; having no restriction, exception, or qualification example: Katherine is absolutely the right person for the job. Remedies Substitute an alternative remedy for absolutely: Katherine is ________ the right person for the job.