Improving Vocabulary through Reading - My Quest to Be a Better Writer

My husband is now a student. That means he needs to write papers and do a lot of reading - his program is intensive with both of these things. Because I am a writer and an editor, I figured I’d help him out. But first, I needed to read the article.

And that’s where the problems began. The writng was extremely high level and in a subject that I know next to nothing about. It didn’t help that there were some words I didn’t know. I skimmed the piece because I didn’t have time to do any more than that.  I can usually figure out the main point of an article after skimming but this piece was difficult.

I kept thinking that if only I knew more of the vocabulary words, I could figure out what the passage meant a lot easier. So that settled it. I needed to expand my vocabulary, but I needed to do it in a fun way. So, I decided to come up with an essential list of classics that I’ve either never read or have read and didn’t appreciate (or it has just been so long ago, I pretty much forget the story). Feel free to chime in and share anything I’ve missed!

• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Wuthering Heights - Elizabeth Bronte
• War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
• The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
• Don Quixote - Cervantes
• Hamlet - William Shakespear
• Madam Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
• Mannsfield Park - Jane Austen
• Bleak House - Charles Dickens

Why did I choose these? I don’t know- no rhyme or reason. It just seemed like a good place to start my relearning. Not only do I need to expand my vocabulary, but I also need to read more. Both are essential in becoming a great writer.

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