{"id":947,"date":"2011-11-11T10:51:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T18:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/group\/sdgc\/cgi-bin\/ycisl\/?p=947"},"modified":"2015-06-02T12:17:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T20:17:10","slug":"exercise-your-personal-vocabulary-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/?p=947","title":{"rendered":"Exercise: Your Personal Vocabulary List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is a straightforward exercise to initiate a short and accessible list of words that one can use in writing. In writing proposals, essays, college essays, etc., one needs to show depth in wording to produce a positive impression (so this most important when making a first impression). The basic idea is that some words more accurately define an action or emotion, and that the reader needs this clarity to empathize with the meaning.<\/p>\n<p>At one end, when &#8220;bland&#8221; words are chosen, the reader may become disinterested&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Instead of &#8220;said&#8221;, one could use (where appropriate) &#8220;argued&#8221;, &#8220;pleaded&#8221; , &#8220;denied&#8221; or &#8220;explained.&#8221; Attaching an adjective would also greatly expand the impact of carefully chosen words. For example, &#8220;pleaded vehemently&#8221; which creates a scene\/action readily imagined.<\/p>\n<p>The words that we hope to include are those that engage\/stimulate interest and emotion (eg, hope, sympathy, happiness, beneficial), even empathy. They can also affect the feeling of time and place. We would aim to influence, persuade and take control.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, at the other extreme is the frequent use of words not in the average person&#8217;s vocabulary (this harms momentum and perhaps interest).<\/p>\n<p>Now for the exercise &#8211; some \u00a0starting prompts:<\/p>\n<p>1. Imagine your favorite pastime &#8211; how would you describe it?<br \/>\n2. What word best describes your hero?<br \/>\n3. What word best describes the most exciting\/engaging part of your favorite movie?<br \/>\n4. How does your favorite television commercial make you feel?<br \/>\n5. What kind of books do you like to read?<br \/>\n6. Imagine that you are dancing. How would you describe it?<br \/>\n7. What word would you use to describe a pile of work in front you?<br \/>\n8. What word would you use to describe something very important?<\/p>\n<p>Some of my favorite words:<\/p>\n<p>Positivity<br \/>\n1. efficacious &#8211; can be used to describe people, ideas, work and many other things.<br \/>\n2. dichotomy &#8211; can be used to describe relationship of ideas; especially useful when debating two sides of an issue.<br \/>\n3. convergence &#8211; denotes movement of both tangible (technologies) and intangible (ideas) objects.<br \/>\n4. motivate &#8211; can be used to demonstrate an effort to change or a change agent which lends to revealing something new (always exciting to discover something new!)<br \/>\n5. inspiration &#8211; can be used to introduce a high-level factor and build a connection to\/association with something already highly regarded or promising.<br \/>\nOther candidates: versatile, commendable, amicable, compelling<\/p>\n<p>Negativity<br \/>\n1. ferocious &#8211; \u00a0example of word that conjures thankful\u00a0feeling of not being in the same situation; describes a personal state (eg, fever) or a stressor (hurricane).<br \/>\n2. \u00a0fallacy &#8211; expresses a strong opinion and position; sets expectation of forthcoming proof\/evidence\/support.<br \/>\n3. unrelenting &#8211; denotes length of time of a stressor in which a subject can go through one or more significant phases\/changes such as in mood.<br \/>\n4. tension &#8211; if used properly, the reader will start to feel tense in a physical reaction\/manner; builds empathy.<br \/>\n5. perfunctory &#8211; can be used to influence the reader that something is not worth thinking of in detail; comes across as robotic\/programmed or void of emotion.<br \/>\nOther candidates: inconsequential, dimunitive, impediment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a straightforward exercise to initiate a short and accessible list of words that one can use in writing. In writing proposals, essays, college essays, etc., one needs to show depth in wording to produce a positive impression (so this most important when making a first impression). The basic idea is that some words [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activity","category-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ycisl.su.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}