The Importance of Word Choice
When I saw "word choice" listed as one of the ten grading criteria on the evaluation form for my son's first graded high school MLA-formatted paper, it brought a smile to my face.
With writing, many people tend to neglect the importance of word choice and overly focus on spelling, grammar, editing, and paragraph and essay construction. Writing, however, consists of more than just the latter four components, and the emphasis placed on each component of writing needs to be equal.
Unfortunately, on a daily basis, I see students misuse words in their writing, which impairs, sometimes severely, the message they are trying to communicate.
This situation is preventable by simply referencing a reputable dictionary (e.g., Britannica Dictionary) when writing and regularly building one's vocabulary. It is also important when writing to look up words found in a thesaurus in a dictionary. Doing this allows one to be aware of the subtleties in those words' meanings and use the right synonyms in writing pieces.
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