(throwing down the thesaurus)

Blogging, it seems, is a fairly perfect diversion from homework.

I've been seeking to slip into my writing and speech new words, new vocabulary or grammatical structures. I think, however, I've been making more mistakes than I feel comfortable with. The result is often belated embarrassment and thoughts that dwell on and return to those careless mistakes. When I was younger, perhaps early in high school and writing papers for English classes, my father gave me some of the best writing advice. Advice that I feel changed the shape of my writing from then on... that helped clean it up and progress. He told me to use the words that I know and am comfortable with when I explain my thoughts. In doing this, my writing would be more closely related to my own ideas... without the pretense or the distraction of eloquent words. I used the thesaurus less and less, because I wanted my writing to be organic. I wanted to have thought the words up and to have searched for the right ones from within my mind's own vocabulary. I hope I still do this.

Sometimes I worry that there are words that would or could mean something much more precise than the word (or words) that I have used to carry out my meaning. I suppose that learning these "better" or more accurate words may come in the future, but... I guess I don't want to look foolish or limited in my ability to communicate. I want the assurance that I am, indeed, fluent in at least one language.