Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 243, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1917 — Increasing the Vocabulary. [ARTICLE]

Increasing the Vocabulary.

When you read a book and come to a new word, do you pass it by or turn to the dictionary to learn its meaning? An extensive vocabulary is one of the best indications of education and culture, and careful reading is one of the most effective ways of adding new words. The use of the dictionary should not be regarded as a task, but as a pleasure to be resorted to upon every convenient occasion. Some people make a daily study of the words. The ordinary individual of fair education, we are told, controls from 6,000 to 8,000 words. A modem encyclopedia says that this estimate is too high, even in America. An English farm hand, it says, has a vocabulary limited to 800 words. A distinguished American educator believes that a well-educated citizen of this country can control from 30,000 to 35,000. The best English writers do not employ an extended vocabulary, preferring to appeal, as nearly as possible, to all classes of readers. —Columbus Dispatch.