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Say What You Mean: Synonyms for Strong Writing
Learn Alternatives to Overused, Misused, and Imprecise Words
Expand your vocabulary and communicate more effectively with curated synonym lists designed to teach the subtle nuances of language.
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Is Dreyer's English "utterly correct"? Of course not, as the author would be the first to acknowledge. But it's compulsively readable, thoroughly helpful, and delightfully funny. For anyone who cares about writing well, it's an utterly essential addition to your shelf of most-reached-for reference books.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a Writer
The Literary Merits of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"
Dr. King's words evoke connections and resonate with readers decades after they were first written. We explore his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" through the lens of its literary merits.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Harry Potter and the Discombobulated Description
Studying The Cursed Child characters through the lens of one word
The spells are quite witty, but they aren't the only examples of wordplay in the Harry Potter universe. In the Potter novels J. K. Rowling uses vocabulary that has made her characters living creatures to generations of readers. This tradition continues in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
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When I recently heard a news reporter say that "China doesn't want a failed nuclear state on their doorstep," I was taken by surprise. Did China seriously want North Korea to succeed in their nuclear ambitions?
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As keynote speaker at the 2015 American Copy Editors Society meeting, lexicographer Ben Zimmer showed off the resources in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary as part of a talk on "Nitpickery, Debunkage, and the Joys of Getting It Right." Not surprisingly, ACES attendees live-tweeting the address were more likely to take note of Zimmer's singing, rapping, and discussion of language anachronisms in "Mad Men" and "Downton Abbey."
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Language allows us to communicate the ideas in our heads with other people. It is a main way we connect with the world around us. Because of that, language becomes very personal to each user. We form affinities for individual words because of what they mean to us.
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