If you do this consistently over a long period, chances are you’ll be reaching for the dictionary less and less frequently. Whenever you come across a word you’re unfamiliar with, make a habit of looking it up and learning the word’s definition. Whether you keep a dictionary on your desk or bedside table or add an app to your phone, this is a smart thing to do. You can check out books from your local library or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited or a similar service to get e-books.īecome close acquaintances with a thesaurus or dictionary. Luckily, this is a cheap (or free!) way to gain knowledge. The best way to learn new words is to immerse yourself in words.
Read biographies about successful individuals you admire. Pick up classics rather than hot new “easy reads.” Subscribe to scholarly publications. Make it your goal to read a certain number of books in a month or a week. The easiest way to improve your vocabulary? Read. There are better strategies to build up your knowledge base and expand your word options. While it’s a fun exercise, it’s not particularly helpful. Now, don’t run out and buy a “Word of the Day” calendar and think you’ll have a lovely new vocabulary by December 31. Having a large collection of words to choose from will not only improve your speech and writing, but writing will also become significantly easier. The most basic building blocks of writing are words the more words you know, the easier it will be to write. This article has a brief rundown of some of the UK setters who tend towards the less intense end of the cryptic spectrum.Episode #2 of the course “The basics of English writing” Īnywho, my recommendation would be for some gentler cryptics. Since we are not quite the cryptic solving machines that my parents are, we always make sure to do puzzles that are a few days old so that we can find the answers in the next day's paper when we're stuck! We try not to make it into too much of a race to see who gets the answers, and to work together to solve the trickier ones, but a little friendly competition is inevitably involved too. We do the Times Colonist puzzle together on lazy weekend mornings, and we do it online on a tablet (via a Byzantine process of snipping and pasting the grid and the clues into a paint file, and writing in the answers with a digital pen), and it's delightful and relaxing and takes actual teamwork. Dorinda and I have (at my insistence!) adopted and modified their habit. They take turns solving, with Dad going first, then assiduously erasing all his answers, and Mom doing it next (and often pestering Dad for help with the trickiest ones).
My parents did (and still do!) those puzzles zealously and religiously, to the point where they will physically clip out the cryptic puzzles on mornings where they're in a rush, and save them all for a marathon weekend of catch-up crosswording and lazy coffee drinking at the kitchen table together. My hometown paper growing up (the Victoria Times Colonist) prints UK-style cryptics (Not sure where they're originally sourced from, but in my experience they're several levels simpler than, say, The Gaurdian's cryptics, while still having enough brain teasers and chuckle-worthy clues to make them more rewarding than a standard puzzle, imho).
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