Any writer out there who’s spent ten minutes browsing thesaurus.com for the perfect synonym knows how much the right word can benefit one’s point. Obviously, writing doesn’t come with a handbook, though over time we learn the cheats and tricks to sway our audiences. Among them, tone, figurative language, well-timed jokes, or a witty innuendo. Every presenter faces the moment to either play to their audience and ditch the script or to keep on with their original content. Rubrics stare cruelly down at the face of any creative genius, they chip away at the authenticity of truth. But sometimes, complying to rubrics, audiences, give you a leg up. There comes a time when cutting a paragraph makes sense in order to give your audience a clearer view of your point. It’s not convenient, but it is efficient.
Through intentional words, you increase the clarity of your point, enabling the readers to quickly and accurately grasp your intended meaning. It’s important to keep in mind that word choice will affect the reader’s attitudes toward the subject, so it is crucial to be mindful and aware of the vocabulary that you use. Specificity in our writing compositions can help increase the effect you create on your audience through means such as appealing to one or more of the reader’s senses. Through the use of sensory details, you create a compelling message that is illustrated as a vivid picture in the reader’s mind that allows the reader to personalize the abstract experience that you are trying to describe, giving your writing a sort of universal feel.
Every children’s book is filled to the brim with mental images and sounds, the apple pie on the second page elicits the taste of apple in a child’s mouth. From our very first board books, we’ve been stimulated and surrounded by this autonomic response to our imaginations. In the early years, reading is synonymous with imagining. We are dropped into vibrant worlds (If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, anyone?) and given simple plots illuminated with luscious detail. Every step the main character takes seems to contain one passionate lifetime after another. We are taught to carry out simple actions through examples that attract the colorful and adventurous sects of our brains. Without realizing it, we put ourselves in the place of the main character and try out their life for a change. The greatest presenter is the one that can lift us out of our own bodies and plop us down in something new and amazing and let us stay for as long as we like.
The challenge of word choice can be stressful, but also can allow us to reach the audience on a deeper level. We can access their brains on a subconscious level to paint out a clearer idea. What is outlined and prioritized for us in schools isn’t accessibility or approachability, it is more mechanical, more institutional. So stepping out of the box can give one a leg up, show others that they can and do reach and convince their audiences, on paper or in reality.