As you read and listen to other people speak, you cultivate a rich vocabulary of precise and colorful words that let you say exactly what you want-not come close, but nail it right on the head.  This is the essence of good word choice.  Every new word increases your power.

"But there are so many words to learn; Where do I begin?"  you might ask,  In his book,  On Writing Well,  William Zinsser says, "Verbs are the most important of all your tools.  They push the sentence forward and give it momentum...fail, dazzle, squash, beguile, pamper, swagger, wheedle, vex.  Probably no other language has such a vast supply of verbs so bright with color."   Learn to develop a critical eye toward the verbs in your work.  Are they active, powerful, full of energy and pizzazz?

Keep the vocabulary natural.  Never write to impress or you'll end up with sentences like this: "He cultivated his way into the kitchen," or "Our friendship was highly lucrative."  See what happened?  In an attempt to use words that were bigger, these writers forgot to make sure they made sense.  A thesaurus can be a good friend to a writer, but only if used sparingly and with thought.

Your writing works best with specific words, carefully chosen to create a vivid picture in the reader's min.  Play around with the words until they sound good.  Don't say, "The dog was big and mean." Say, "A hundred pounds of snarling yellow fur launched itself from the porch, straining at a rope thin as spaghetti."  Now that's something we can see happening!

Scoring Criteria

Word Choice

5. Words convey the intended message in a vivid, powerful and interesting way.  Precise.

4. Exhibits appropriate language, with varied words and phrases.

3.Language and vocabulary is functional but general.  Attempts at colorful language.

2. Vocabulary is developing.  Attempts to use language correctly with some errors.

1. Limited use of vocabulary, language may be used incorrectly, redundancy problems.