| ReviewIn this unconventional, easy-to-use thesaurus, Heehler, a degree student at the Harvard Extension School, invites the reader to speak like an academic without sounding like one. (Book News )
Winston Churchill, in the words of one of his contemporaries, “mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.” Like some of the outstanding orators and writers of our time, the prime minister knew the words he used and how he used them were at least as essential as the ideas he necessitated to get across.In 2006, the same idea occurred to an American truck driver.
–the Winnipeg Free Press
We may be intimate with a intimate thesaurus, most conspicuously Roget’s International Thesaurus. Tom Heehler has, however, produced and brought to life a thesaurus for spoken English. One word came to me after I had made my introductory visit to it is 392 pages: Wow!The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is a arousing and attention holding and provocative resource for lecturers or speakers of the English language of all sizes, ages, and social classes. I vow neither to lend nor trade the copy that came to me a few days ago. It is plainly too convenient, too daring, too lively, invaluable. One wonders, “Why didn’t somebody think of such a resource as this a long time ago?”
– Raymond Rundus, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke
About the AuthorTom Heehler is a degree student at the Harvard University Extension School and creator of Fluent in Five Languages, the free online language course where students learn to speak four languages simultaneously – French, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian. You may find this novel approach to language acquisition at FreeLanguageCourses.Blogspot.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
On Becoming Articulate
Why Should You Care?
Words are like little gods. The pronoun “him” rather of “her,” if applied often times enough, may dissuade a girl from science or math. The words you use determine the density of gray matter in your brain. They affect your political leanings, influence how you see reality, determine your level of selfconfidence and thus, define what it means to be you. That’s what words do.
As primary as your words are in shaping your behavior, they are even more crucial in the way they shape the conduct of others. Your manner of speaking is, if not one thing else, the central factor upon which people form assumptions in regards to you. Whatever is your uttermost goal in life, probabilities are good you’re going to have to commune your way to it. And if greatness is your goal, well-spoken words are essential. Think regarding it. From Homer to Hemingway, Lincoln, Churchill, King, Obama-their words are why you know them.
The well-spoken few are viewed by others in a dissimilar way. They are thought of as more knowledgeable, more informed, and consequently expected to do more things. This law of great expected values is a powerful motivator. We all have an inherent need to meet expectations, whether they be high or low, and when expected values rise, we’re inclined to rise with them. Our betterment then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: as others suppose us to be better, we become so, and as we become so, they suppose it further still.
How to Speak Like an Academic without Sounding Like One
The most accomplished speakers use words in ways that supplement their thoughts and ideas, not overshadow them. They are competent to adopt a scholarly air of authority, but without all those pretentious scholarly words. Take Barack Obama for instance, a man for whom the well-spoken word is a major source of power. President Obama understands, obeys, and exploits the most necessary commandment of communication: that it’s not so much the words we use, as it is the way we use them. You listen it all the time: “Barack Obama is so articulate, so eloquent, so intelligent.” But has he ever applied a word any child couldn’t comprehend?
It’s not easy getting articulate. For most of us, the routine is a never-ending exercise in trial and error. We fumble our way along with the occasional alien word here or big word there, all the while praying we’re pronouncing and using these words correctly. And when we do dare to use these words, we danger casting ourselves as pretentious, awkwardly formal, academic, or nerdy. Have you ever applied a lofty word and felt embarrassed at having done so? We’ve all been there. We listen others use these words with ease, but when we undertake them for size, they don’t always fit. That’s because we confuse formality with what we believe to be articulate speech. We deploy such language in an try to present ourselves as professional when, ironically, ordinarily the opposite effect is achieved.
The same may be said for those who undertake to impress with huge professorial words. While such language may seem “indubitably” clear and suitable to them, it strikes the rest of us as more than a bit eccentric. The trick here is to achieve the authorized and persuasive effects of formality and intellectualism without sounding too, well, formal or intellectual. What you are aiming for is an effect: you want to be regarded as the smartest authority in the room but without the least trace of awkwardness or pretension. And to that end, I present to you this book. Whether it be for writing or speaking, I think you will find it rather helpful.
A Few Words About Me
I started out writing what would become this book when I decided, in the spring of 2006, to go back to school and finish my education. It was there in Cambridge that I would come to realize just how inarticulate I in truth was. And because I could find no easy way to lift my speech and prose quickly, I resolved to formulate a way. It started out plainly enough; whenever I would occur upon an eloquent word or phrase, I would write it down and pair it with what I would have said otherwise. (All those mutual word entries you see in this thesaurus? That’s me talking.) I did this for years, gathering words like butterflies, until it became progressively apparent that my collection could be of use to others. So you could say that my authority on this subject stems not only from a determination to do something in regards to my own predicament, but to do something when it comes to yours. My only hope is that this remarkable collection of words does as much for you in that regard as it has for me.
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A Commendable Contribution to Language Usage
Sorta Good, sorta not
