#65 Building Your Vocabulary Through Reading: Dos and Don'ts

Tip: If you are serious about building your vocabulary, we highly recommend you try the popular Ultimate Vocabulary software. Click Ultimate Vocabulary for more information.*

Reading is a good way of building your vocabulary. Here are some quick "dos" and "don'ts" when reading to build your vocabulary:

Don't:
  • Skip unfamiliar words
  • Settle for an incomplete understanding of the material
  • Rely merely on working out the meaning of the word through context
  • Try to work out just the point of the sentence
Do:
  • Work out the meaning of the actual word
  • Look up the word in a dictionary immediately
  • If you have no dictionary handy, write the word down and look it up later
  • Keep a list of words you have looked up
  • Revise your list every few days, then every few weeks, then every few months
  • Read widely: for example, if you're a lawyer, read cook books; if you're a dentist, read business journals
  • Read works from master writers, such as Shakespeare
  • Use Ultimate Vocabulary: create a custom word list called "MyReading"; add your new words to this list and use the software's techniques for building vocabulary through elaboration and repetition

References

A fuller version of this article on building vocabulary through reading comes as part of 5 free lessons available from Ultimate Vocabulary. Go to Ultimate Vocabulary to receive your 5 free vocabulary mini-courses.

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