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Departments / 25 Ways to Improve Your Writing Vocabulary

« on: March 02, 2020, 04:55:12 PM »

1. Use New Words

Use a word immediately after you learn it. Try to make a game out of using a new word as soon as you learn it. Every day, try to slip in a new word into the conversation, a journal entry, an assignment or an email to a friend. Do this as often as possible, and repeat the word to yourself.

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Departments / Begum Rokeya: A trailblazer in women's rights from The Daily sTar

« on: February 16, 2020, 03:33:54 PM »

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the legendary Bengali writer-activist whose leadership had transformed the lives of thousands of people in this region and beyond, was born on this day in 1880. Incidentally, she died on the same day, 52 years later. For those who may not know, Begum Rokeya was an advocate of women's rights in the Indian subcontinent during the British rule. Through her charismatic and resilient leadership, she defied all obstacles put up by a society that barred women from pursuing their dreams. With a sound knowledge of the history of the region and the challenges facing the time and society in which she lived, she was a woman far more advanced and progressive than her contemporaries.

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English / 8 best thriller novels

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:10:22 AM »

8 thriller novels:
1.   The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson
2.   Gone girl by Gillian Flynn
3.   You are dead by Peter James
4.   A rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
5.   Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
6.   Postmortem by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
7.   Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
8.   Into the darkest corner by Elizabeth Haynes

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English / 21 best novels

« on: November 15, 2016, 02:02:05 AM »

21 Best Novels:
1.   “Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee
2.   “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins
3.   “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
4.   “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
5.   “Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian” by E. L. James
6.   “The Martian” by Andy Weir
7.   “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8.   “Paper Towns” by John Green
9.   “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
10.   “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah
11.   “1984” by George Orwell
12.   “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton
13.   “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
14.   “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo
15.   “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin
16.   “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
17.   “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
18.   “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park
19.   “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak
20.   “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
21.   “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline

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English / Quotes that inspire us

« on: November 13, 2016, 09:15:48 AM »

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.
–Florence Nightingale

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English / Quotes that inspire us

« on: November 13, 2016, 09:13:55 AM »

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
–Albert Einstein

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English / Quotes that inspire us

« on: November 09, 2016, 02:36:12 PM »

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
–Napoleon Hill

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English / Quotes that inspire us

« on: November 09, 2016, 02:32:56 PM »

Life isn’t about getting and having, it’s about giving and being.
–Kevin Kruse

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English / How to increase vocabulary

« on: November 07, 2016, 02:43:11 PM »

Keep a dictionary and thesaurus handy. Use whatever versions you prefer -- in print, software, or online. When you uncover a new word, look it up in the dictionary to get both its pronunciation and its meaning(s). Next, go to the thesaurus and find similar words and phrases -- and their opposites (synonyms and antonyms, respectively) -- and learn the nuances among the words.

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English / How to increase vocabulary

« on: November 06, 2016, 01:42:44 PM »

Read, read, and read. The more you read -- especially novels and literary works, but also magazines and newspapers -- the more words you'll be exposed to. As you read and uncover new words, use a combination of attempting to derive meaning from the context of the sentence as well as from looking up the definition in a dictionary.

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English / Effective ways to improve vocabulary

« on: June 04, 2013, 10:26:29 AM »

                       Effective Ways to Improve Vocabulary: Tip #5.

Diversity of topics is important. Read some natural science stuff. Then read some applied science stuff. Read some contemporary literature. Then read some Shakespeare. Comb through a pop psychology book and then consume a humorous work (and no fair saying those last two are the same!).� Varied reading will sharpen both general and subject-specific vocabularies. The diversity of reading material at liberal arts colleges is one reason that graduates of such schools generally possess better vocabularies. History. Philosophy. Biology. Travel. Anthropology. Linguistics. Art. Gender Studies. Politics. You don't have to be an expert in all disciplines to build a meaty vocabulary, but you do need to be a well-informed reader who's confident and comfortable reading on topics outside your areas of immediate expertise.

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English / Effective ways to improve vocabulary

« on: February 04, 2013, 11:59:51 AM »

Effective Ways to Improve Vocabulary: Tip #4.

 Don't (exclusively) read fluff. It's okay to indulge in less intellectual reading and writing. We all do it, and it can be fun. But don't read fluff so steadfastly that you ignore heavier stuff. USA Today is an example of a fluff newspaper notorious for watering down concepts and avoiding sophisticated language in order to appeal to the masses. Although it's arguable that they're doing some good by making news more accessible to a wider group of readers, they're also guilty of neglecting critical shades of grey when it comes to politics, economics, sociology, and the other disciplines they typically cover. Unless your vocabulary is indubitably weak, you're not going to improve it by reading something like USA Today.

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English / Effective ways to improve vocabulary

« on: November 17, 2012, 12:06:58 PM »

Effective Ways to Improve Vocabulary: Tip #3

     Read good writing. I admit that "good writing" is a contentious term, but in general, I consider writing to be�"good" if it communicates complex ideas in ways that are clear and concise yet thorough and detailed. In other words, there�should be�a tension between sometimes keeping it simple and sometimes using so-called "big words" words because they communicate something that common words just can't. To put it another way, look for writing that has an intellectual, exploratory bent.
So, what should you read regularly? I'm not qualified to prescribe exact sources for all, but I'll reveal my biases and recommend some periodicals and blogs I like:
The New York Times (especially�on Sundays)
The New Yorker
The Utne Reader
Salon (www.salon.com)
Malcolm Gladwell's Blog (www.gladwell.typepad.com)
There's a more liberal orientation to the above, but if you prefer socially conservative reading, try the National Review or anything by Ann Coulter. Also, the above are all periodicals or blogs. Regular books are equally effective, and it would be imprudent to ignore them. Fiction (the sort good enough to be classified as literature) and nonfiction are both bound to build your vocabulary.

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English / Effective ways to improve vocabulary

« on: November 17, 2012, 12:06:03 PM »

Effective Ways to Improve Vocabulary: Tip #2

  Read a lot. The experience of encountering unfamiliar words in print is remarkably instructive. First, because you're already engaged in reading something, you are arguably more motivated to learn a new word so that you better understand what you're voluntarily reading. Second, you have come across the word organically rather than artificially (i.e. in a vocabulary list). You'll pick up new words - and clarify meanings of words already in your toolkit - by exposing yourself to them in their, shall we say, natural habitat. The context will enrich your attempt to build a better vocabulary.

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English / Effective ways to improve vocabulary

« on: November 17, 2012, 12:03:06 PM »

Effective Ways to Improve Vocabulary: Tip #1

      Studying lists of words is not the way. Spending time at the neighborhood Starbucks, I see plenty of university students preparing for the verbal section of the GRE with storebought word lists, fastidiously prepared flash cards, and other trappings of standardized test mania best served alongside a venti mocha. While not entirely futile, this list-based approach to vocabulary building is misguided at best. Words exist in contexts, and studying words divorced from their contexts makes those words harder to learn - and worse yet, harder to use later. (Think of it this way: if you want to improve your racquetball serve, you'll probably want to position yourself in an actual racquetball court, right?).