How to improve vocabulary?

[jane1234]

As the title says.
I find I can pull ideas out and analyse texts reasonably well in essays... but I'm having trouble with the actual writing of them. I don't always use the most "sophisticated" words (especially in SAC/exam situations when it's hard to think off the top of your head) and I'm a bit worried that this will be the main factor in me failing to get a good study score for english.
So any ideas on how you can improve the actual writing of essays? Not just the words... but sophisticated sentence structure as well? I've tried making lists but I find half the words I learn I'll never use in an essay anyway...Please help!!

[Inside Out]

pick out 5 words that seem sophisticated in example essays and rememberise them each day... its better than learning the whole dictionary

[werdna]

Usually there's a good bunch of 'sophisticated' vocabulary that is specific to a text, so it'd be a good idea to learn these ones. For example, for my text there were terms like 'diaspora', 'emotional exile' and 'disintegration of relationships' that were specific to the text and so I kept using these over and over in all my practice essays.

But of course don't get too bogged down in all the vocabulary.. examiners and markers will favour complex ideas over complex vocabulary, so focus more on the building of strong ideas before you try and tackle sophisticated vocabulary. Usually simple language does the job anyway, big words only serve to embellish writing I guess. But for starters, I guess you should learn the language that's specific to your text!

[gossamer]

Agreed with werdna

My Eng/Lit teacher tells us to keep a vocab list of words relating to each text we study which I think is a really good idea -- and then if you had any more "complex" words (relating to the text of course) you can stick that in there too which will greatly help you later on with essays and stuff

[24lover]

heres my blog on this topic:

http://www.vcestudyguides.com/5-ways-to-improve-vocabulary

[jane1234]

Okay thanks heaps guys...

[lexitu]

Just a point on sophistication - it comes from the Greek word for 'wisdom'. A sophisticated word is one that articulates something better than another, for starters.

I like werdna's advice