Words That Stick . 13
Get Wise! Mastering Writing Skills
www.petersons.com
unless the reader has seen the sink for himself, there's a
strong possibility that he'll fill in the wrong details. How-
ever, if we replace the nonspecific words with specific ones,
we won't have to worry about the reader not getting the
right picture:
Plates and glasses encrusted with spaghetti
sauce and milk were piled in the sink.
The reader knows what kind of dishes were in the sink (plates
and glasses), what kind of food was on them (spaghetti sauce
and milk), the approximate age of the food (encrusted means
it's been sitting out in the open for a while), and the amount of
dishes in the sink (piled evokes an image of a stack of dishes).
Now there aren't any doubts in the reader's mind because we
got specific with our words.
Of course, too much of a good thing can backfire. Pick-
ing the fanciest, biggest, most impressive-sounding word won't
win any points with your teacher--especially if the word is so
obscure and unusual that now she has to go to the dictionary
or thesaurus to figure out what it means! So make sure your
words sound like something you'd actually say, as well as
something your reader will be familiar with.
Here's a sentence riddled with specific words that aren't
likely to be part of your everyday vocabulary:
I execrate my irksome fraternal sibling be-
cause lately I have espied that he enjoys
beleaguering and abasing me in front of
my intimates.
