Friday's Writing Essentials: Words for Breakfast

Words are like harpoons. Once they go in, they are very hard to pull out.
-Fred Hoyle

Words are alive; cut them and they bleed.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's a good thing to be a student of words. You can learn something new about words every time you read a book, a story, a poem, or the morning paper. That's because you get to see, from a new and varying perspective, how different kinds of writers put words together to convey different thoughts and images. Words are like food. You can develop a palate for good words; you can also satiate yourself on a non-nutritious diet of fatty and sugary words.

If we desire to have a greater command of words its helpful to think about how they're used in sentences and how those sentences impact the conveyance of ideas and impressions. There's a component to reading that requires a more analytical study of the rules of grammar, the subtle meanings of words and the contribution of syntax. I think one can acquire an almost unconscious skill in noticing these parameters without having to increase your level of concentration or adsorption. What I am suggesting is to have an ear attuned to how words are used. You can do this in your reading, as well as in everyday listening. Be sensitive to how idioms are being used in conversation, at the office, on TV. How do unfamiliar words "sit" in a sentence or train of thought and how do familiar words inform meaning and context to the unrecognized ones. If you're not completely sure about a word's meaning, write it down and look it up later. When going back over a writing sample or draft , be sensitive to overuse and redundancy. How can a particular word be improved with a synonym, giving a more accurate portrayal of what you're trying to convey? And perhaps most importantly, what words can be chopped out of the text entirely, or ‘saved' by tightening up the text as a whole?

Having a large vocabulary is great. But it's not enough. You have to know how and when to use the right words. Not surprisingly, there's no manual or guide that can address the wide spectrum of permutations. Depending on the genre and writing style, similar words can take on far disparate meanings, especially when qualified by the pet adjectives and adverbs of a given writer. Still, it is clear that command of the language, a familiarity with how words are received and interpreted by the reader, and sensitivity for small nuances of meaning all can contribute to the overall quality of the product.

Eat Some Words for Breakfast 

Start with a piece of whole wheat toast
Then modify it with butter
And chew it like a crunchy noun
With powdered sugar and nutmeg

Try to work it like a gerund
Wiping clean the running egg
As it moves with dripping chagrin
Down upon your shiny chin

You can take your morning crispy
And slowly verb it down your sluice
Break it, bite it, bolt it onward
Prepositioned with some juice

You should swill some dark roast coffee
If what's adverbially correct
Smells swimmingly of bamboo huts
And chocolate coconuts

Better save the sugar waffle
In a brief conditional clause
Have it later with a comma
But don't forget to pause

Now all you tricky word-eaters
Lick the plates like common nerds
With facile rapacious brio
Provided you define the words.

Edward Nudelman, 2007

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Written by Edward Nudelman, who is also a Books Correspondent for Gather:  POETRY CENTRAL

Keep up with Ed’s other posting and Gather activity by joining his Gather network-just click here and select the orange “Connect” button on the left-hand side of the page.  If you are interested in my background or qualifications, I invite you to read my profile which has information concerning my published writings.