Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles about Writers
As Black History Month comes to a close, we are proud to feature a fantastic new reference book: Bartlett's Familiar Black Quotations. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. states in the foreword, it is an "impressively researched and documented collection of the finest thought produced by writers throughout the African diaspora." Here we present an excerpt from the preface by the book's editor, Retha Powers.
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Blog Excerpts
NaNoWriMo Has Begun!
It's time once again for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As the website explains, it's "for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved." Visit the NaNoWriMo website to learn more.
Writing for The Boston Globe, NYU doctoral candidate Rachael Scarborough King reported on recent studies that cast doubt on the commonly held assumption that William Shakespeare invented many of the words we use today.
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
List of the Week: Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake"
Four new Vocabulary Lists!
Learn four new Vocabulary Lists from Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake: Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-6, Chapters 7-9, Chapters 10-12.
Continue reading...Under the HoodThe science of vocabulary building
And The Man Booker Prize (for Vocabulary) Goes To...
Considerable Literary Merit Aside.
In anticipation of the announcement of the winner of The Man Booker International Prize this Wednesday, we're awarding our own prizes to the nominees today. But don't look here for an analysis of literary merit. We're considering these writers only in terms of their usefulness to vocabulary learners.
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Blog Excerpts
Flash, Gleam, Glint, Sparkle: McPhee, Woolf, and Words
On the heroic search for the right word
In an essay on writing in last week's The New Yorker, John McPhee describes drawing boxes around "perfectly O.K." words in a search for the "mot juste." Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf tells us words are a messy tangle that will always elude our best efforts to tie them down.
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
Celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday With His Words
Comprehensive lists from six of his best known plays
Today is Shakespeare's birthday! In honor of the great bard, learn new, comprehensive lists of words from some of his best known plays.
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