"Her life was not a bed of roses, it was rather shaky and her struggles were too real. She somehow managed to balance all the crises in her life and grow. She completed her graduation and today is her convocation where she will receive the Dean's Award."
"Her life had been anything but easy, fraught with challenges and adversity. However, she managed to navigate through the hardships and achieve her goal of completing her graduation. Today, she will receive the prestigious Dean's Award at her graduation, a well-deserved recognition of her tenacity and resilience."
The difference between the two paragraphs is clear as daylight. The first one, although serves the purpose and gets the reader a clear picture of the girl's life, the second paragraph gives the reader a better experience. The right use of vocabulary can make your writing change as drastically as it changed in the above two paragraphs or even more.
The contrast between the two paragraphs above paints the picture of how enhancing vocabulary is not a first priority for writing. Vocabulary has become a topic that only people who will sit for aptitude tests will cram and forget once the exam is over. But vocabulary is much more than that. Using a better word for a commonly used word while speaking or writing advances the quality of communication by miles. Better vocabulary means better communication. Since the whole world runs on communication now, the better one is at communicating, the more will their chances be to succeed.
Realising the sheer importance of learning vocabulary, when one jumps into learning vocabulary, they are faced with a number of problems. Memorisation being boring, not being able to recall the words, not being able to use them in sentences, inability to connect the synonyms and antonyms with a word, and the book being too heavy are a few of them. So, how does one learn vocabulary? It is widely accepted that no one enjoys cramming a thousand words. Here are five ways you can master vocabulary:
Make flashcards: Making flashcards is an internationally accepted method of learning vocabulary in a systematic way. As flashcards are very rarely available and not very cost-friendly, making them on your own is the way to go. But it is very time-consuming, so there is always the chance of giving up in the process.
Jumbling up words: If anyone chooses to memorise vocabulary from a book, it is more effective if they learn one word starting with A, then with Z, and so on and so forth.
See the usage: Reading books, watching movies and TV or Web series is also another way to learn vocabulary. Although very enjoyable, the scope to learn new words from here is minimal.
Practice, practice, practice: Practicing enough with words and using them consciously helps to master them faster. Trying them in normal chatting, storytelling, and juggling really helps improve vocabulary.
Using Vocavive: Vocavive is an app made in Bangladesh by Edvive for students with all digital additions having flashcards, games, and practice tests. This app includes all the traditional techniques and integrates them digitally. It's a paid app and can be found in the Google Play Store.
Memorising almost a thousand words is definitely not an easy task to do, but using these words in daily writing will make a write-up look different from everyone else's. At the same time, if anyone is taking aptitude tests, there is no option for them to skip mastering the words. Using one or a mixture of the above-mentioned five methods can take away the monotone out of memorisation. Pick the option that works best, jump into the journey of using better words every day, and do not stop at any cost!
Mohidul Alam is a student at New York University Abu Dhabi, and the founder of Edvive, and Zarin Tasnim Safa, an IBA (Dhaka Univesity) graduate working as a business generalist at Edvive. [email protected]
