If you enjoy and respect the writing process and plan to keep writing outside of course requirements, you should consider investing in some quality resources to improve your craft.
The three types of books I recommend here are basics that I use every day. I can’t imagine working with words (or being an avid reader) without dictionaries, thesauri, and usage dictionaries.
Diction enhances or diminishes our audience’s reading experience. Yes, words convey meaning, but with varying degrees of success. Let’s take the ever-popular but vague words good, interesting, or bad. They don’t tell us much. Compare “That show was a good event” to “That show was an exhilarating event.” Both communicate a positive experience, but the specificity of the second example teaches us more.
The reader depends on our word choice and arrangement to build better images and comprehension. This doesn’t mean more words are better. Finding the words that work and arranging them as clearly as possible can reduce wordy clutter that may obscure meaning and deter readers. As writers, we must be clear about what we are attempting to share, and then find the best words to help express that. I find the process of choosing words not only educational but also enjoyable and inspiring.
A Comprehensive Dictionary
For now, the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (second edition, 2004) is “the standard working dictionary for Canadian editors” (Editors’ Association of Canada, 46). Yes, it’s a heavy, hard-covered book with a loose dust jacket, but it is comprehensive with 300,000 words, phrases, and definitions. Plus, it is Canadian-made, not merely an American or British dictionary with a few added Canadian quirks. This tome spends most of its working days lying open on my desk. I also have access to Oxford’s online dictionary and references and refuse to let go of my red Gage Canadian Dictionary in paperback.
(Thankfully, Editors Canada, Nelson Education, and a team of volunteers and students are working together to produce a new Canadian English Dictionary. The project will take a few more years before we have full online or book access, but you can check out their progress at canadianenglishdictionary.ca.)
I turn to my dictionary for more than spelling or meaning. It can give me answers on
- capitalization (chinook for the wind, Chinook for the people)
- variant spellings (enrol, enroll)
- inflection (how a word changes for tense, mood, number, etc.)
- word breaks (looking at you, analogy!)
- etymology (a word’s origin)
- part of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, etc.)
- pronunciation
- and some usage details (if the word is formal, informal, or archaic; in what regions or subject areas the word is used)
In the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, when several numbered definitions are listed, the first meaning is considered the most current (at the time of publication) and important.
All of these details guide me toward proper use of the word. As a result of checking, maybe I’m confident with my first choice, or maybe I change the word to something more appropriate. Or maybe I turn to another book for more clues and options. But in taking in all those details, I learn to connect this word to other words, ideas, and images. I’m building my vocabulary for future tasks and appreciating the complexities of our language along the way.
A Thesaurus
With a thesaurus (or dictionary of synonyms and antonyms), we can explore and acquire word options that are related. Warning: related does not mean interchangeable. Do not use a thesaurus without also using a dictionary to make sure the word you’ve chosen is actually appropriate. Good writers consider context, audience, denotation (literal meaning), connotation (implied meaning), and even sound and syllabication in their diction decisions.
Let’s take hat as an example. While hat is a concrete noun, it’s vague; we don’t get a satisfying picture from it. My Compact Oxford Thesaurus offered me cap, beret, bonnet, and titfer (Oxford, 381). Those results were a bit underwhelming. But it also suggested some related word links such as hatter and milliner. Thesaurus.com offered various options too, and quickly, but it did so with judgement—categorizing the results in groups of “strongest,” “strong,” and “weak.” I prefer deciding on my own, thanks.
I checked my almost ancient Roget’s Pocket Thesaurus (the 1966 printing!) and found jewels such as panama, fez, derby, crown, and more (Mawson and Whiting, 64). All of these hat options are not interchangeable. But they challenge us to bring precision to our thinking and words. Plus, they inspire and spark curiosity.
In my paperback Roget’s, the hat options are presented within a section on clothing, which precedes a section on divestment. For creatives, browsing yields inspiration. Maybe we’re moved to write a story about a wig-wearing hatter who wants to exact revenge on a milliner but finds himself in love with the milliner’s beautiful daughter whose bonnet is always undone…. Or maybe we just want to sharpen an image or put our own twist on a cliché: Hold on to your tam-o’-shanter, danger is afoot! New and unusual words can enliven our writing practice and our text.
Finally, a thesaurus also helps us understand how big a topic is and how to narrow to more focused avenues of inquiry. Related words and ideas are different access points and options when brainstorming, entering search terms, and using back-of-book indexes.
A Usage Dictionary or Guide
Rather than attempting to include as many words as possible, usage dictionaries or guides tend to focus on words or phrases that we’re likely to confuse or misuse. I see them as one more way of growing and strengthening our vocabulary muscles.
Let’s say we’re trying to pick between the words junction and juncture. According to Garner’s Modern English Usage, the phrase at this juncture refers to “a crisis or a critically important time” (Garner, 634). This means cliched phrases such as “critical juncture” and “pivotal juncture” are redundant because juncture already implies importance.
So, when do we use junction? I found some more guidance in Harry Shaw’s Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions. While both junction and juncture are associated with joining, junction has more to do with location, as in “the junction of tributary and river” (Shaw, 214).
Two other commonly confused words are founder and flounder. Both relate to failure, but they are not interchangeable. According to Garner, flounder is to “struggle and plunge as if in mud” (Garner, 464). Founder, on the other hand, is a word used when an animal goes lame, a building falls or gives way, a rider falls off a horse, or a ship sinks. There is more finality to founder; we’re looking more at the result. With flounder, in contrast, we’re focusing on the struggle.
A usage dictionary anticipates some of our own floundering with words and clarifies rather than merely defines.
(The Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style also contain sections on usage. If you already have those books on your shelf, it makes sense to start with them.)
Dictionaries, thesauri (or thesauruses—both are acceptable), and usage dictionaries, are informative, inspiring, and helpful reference books to have. Though browsing them may not be as direct or quick as an online search. Asking generative AI to make word decisions and write the piece would also be quick. However, if we take the time to look and think ourselves, we can find delight in diction. If we trust ourselves to the adventure, to be curious and to make the many choices involved in a piece of writing, we find learning, inspiration, and skill, while also earning the satisfaction and confidence that comes from authentic learning and sharing.
