Vocabulary Building

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A good vocabulary is crucial to academic success. You will become a better student as you increase your word power. As you increase your vocabulary, you increase your reading ability that in turn should improve your critical thinking skills. A good vocabulary is the basis of understanding what you read and learn.

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Memorization of lists is one of the most accepted ways of learning vocabulary. This is a good exercise for short term studying, but you often do not retain the information that you have learned for a particular class or test. Memorization is good for standardized testing.

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You can often figure out the meaning of the word from reading in context. Read through the entire paragraph to see if you can get a meaning of the word. Figure out what the reading is exploring and try to learn the word.

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The best way to learn a definition and to remember a word is to look it up the dictionary. Find the word, sound it out and spell it. Notice the syllables in the word. Read all the definitions listed. Always keep a dictionary on hand during your college career.

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Another method of learning vocabulary is similar to concept mapping. Have a blank sheet of paper and put the word that you are trying to learn and remember in the center of the page. In another box, write down a descripttion of the word. Be sure to keep the descripttion short. Draw two columns. In one, list items that describe or would help you to remember the word. In the other column, write down examples that would be similar to the word. By using all these mapping tools, your chances of remembering a word are much higher.